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17.Sep.2017
■ UHD 4K display resolution has ruined my toolbar!
I am not sure why the world needs monitors with 3840 x 2160 pixels (!) resolution, but many of you do like them. Once upon a time you needed
compatibility tweaks to make xplorer² window appear decent in ultra high resolution screens. Ever since
version 3.4 (and especially with v3.5 currently in
beta) xplorer² looks much better in 4K displays, especially if
freshly installed. Text size scales of 200% and above are handled satisfactorily, and most display elements including the ribbon toolbar and other fonts should be bearable.
But what if your toolbar looks sadly compressed like the above pic — where most button labels are cropped? This is expected if you run an ancient version, or if you first installed xplorer² long time ago and it uses old settings that are not high-DPI aware. Here's how you can improve the toolbars significantly:
- Use large icons. Right click on the toolbar and make sure Small icons menu command is not ticked. This also works for the addressbar, which doesn't have many icons but it will make the text fields taller.
If small icons command is disabled, reinstall xplorer² and leave Modern skin option ticked
- Install 48x48 skin. If icons still look small try downloading the 48x48 skin. Unpack the X2SKIN_XL.PNG file and drag drop it in the xplorer² installation folder, then restart xplorer².
- Change label font. Toolbar label text can be tweaked by making the font smaller, and allowing each button to get wider. Use Tools > Advanced options menu to change these two settings. You may need to experiment with different numbers till you get it right, but try 80% font factor (reduction) and a max width of 100 pixels.
If you have the ribbon combined with toolbars you can access advanced options from the leftmost FILE tab
- Lose the labels. If you can't be bothered to tweak, use the toolbar's right click context menu and untick Text labels command. You can tell the buttons from their picture and the tooltip text that pops up when you leave the mouse hovering over a button.
Other display elements like folder panes, folder tree, status bar and the dialogs should automatically adjust for your large text settings. If you need even bigger letters for xplorer² use Tools > Options menu (normal options, not advanced) and click on the Main font button in Window property page.
If you
import settings from a different computer and your fonts end up looking too large or small, download this small REG script to reset all fonts to sizes appropriate for your screen size. Make sure xplorer² is
not running when you double click on the REG file.
Click to
download font reset script
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