[Feature request] Change UI scale

agoldenvein
Is there any chance of an option to change the ui scale? Even the compact setting is quite zoomed in. Z6 was quite a bit more spacious, allowed you to see a lot more of what was going on.
  • agoldenvein
    found it.

    open config editor

    search for layout.css.devPixelsPerPx

    change it to 0.9
  • innovation1
    Once again, @jeapordy thanks for sharing these helpful intuitions!
  • dstillman
    edited October 29, 2024
    I would not recommend changing that hidden setting, which would also shrink buttons and other controls and make them harder to hit.

    If you want to view more information, you can just decrease the font size in the View menu.
    Even the compact setting is quite zoomed in. Z6 was quite a bit more spacious, allowed you to see a lot more of what was going on.
    This isn't true. We increased the default font size and added a Comfortable density setting, but if you decrease the font size and switch to Compact, the rows will be the exact same height — we specifically designed it that way.
  • agoldenvein
    edited October 30, 2024
    I've been using zotero with that setting for a solid 12 hours and have not had any issues. In fact one of the very reasons I want to do this is specifically because I want to shrink things like buttons and other controls. I'm not really worried about something being "harder to hit" in your subjective opinion, and to be honest I find that a little bit patronizing. My mouse is very precise and the buttons and controls are working just fine, thanks.

    Thanks for the tip about the font size, though, that is very helpful.

    It's possible the reason I thought it was spacious was a dark theme I had installed on Z6 may have had custom sizing modifications. I double checked when I compared my Z6 and Z7 with screenshots and there was a big difference in how compact it was. but like I said, I think it's because it was CSS modded.

    That being said, I went ahead and modified some of the theme and found some selectors and changed a bunch of UI styling that eliminates wasted space and have been loving it so far.

    For anyone interested in saving on wasted screen space, put this userChrome.css into your Zotero profile (i.e. AppData/Roaming/Zotero/Zotero/Profiles/xxxxxx.default/chrome)

    I did not comment what these things do because I don't have much time, you may have to experiment to find what suits you best. But hopefully it's useful to someone.


    [CSS removed — D.S.]
  • Peng_XoYa
    @jeapordy
    Thank you! I put this CSS code in this folder (C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\Zotero\Zotero\Profiles\xxxxx.zotero 7 beta\storage\permanent\chrome) and found that it didn't work, please help me see if it's correct? Also, do you know how to adjust the number of authors displayed in the info channel in this CSS code?
  • dstillman
    @jeapordy: No, please don’t tell people to make random, undocumented changes to the UI that can break things in unexpected ways, that they won't remember they made, and that we won't be able to debug. You're welcome to make whatever changes you want via that Firefox mechanism, but it's not something the vast majority of people should be using. Zotero supports plugins — which can be maintained and updated — for this reason.

    @Peng_XoYa: If you have a feature request, please start a new thread. What you're asking for has nothing to do with CSS.
  • Peng_XoYa
    @dstillman
    Thanks, I opened a thread about info pannel earlier! https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/119204/sort-button-for-options-in-the-information-panel#latest
  • agoldenvein
    @dtstillman, you are treating your users like they're idiots. Please stop patronizing people and trying to control what we do with you software. It's open source so modifications should be invited.
  • dstillman
    edited November 4, 2024
    As I said, you can do whatever you want with your Zotero installation, including using this mechanism. Others who understand the technical details here can also do so. But we're the ones providing the support here, and we're not going to have you sharing random, undocumented, unmaintainable CSS to remove "wasted space" in our forums. That even you were confused about what was and wasn't part of the official Zotero design because of your use of this mechanism, and that the first person responding to you trying to use your code was from someone who doesn't know how to use it and doesn't even know what changes are in the domain of CSS, pretty well validates this position.
This discussion has been closed.