FONT SCALING

Question

FONT SCALING

Giorgio Sfiligoi 391

I have developed a pretty large application for desktop using VS Community on a 14" laptop with Windows 10.

Now I migrated to a desktop PC with a 22" monitor and Windows 11.

When I run my application with the default display scaling 100% it's all OK.

If I change the scaling to 125%, all the windows scale properly, but there are problems with the font rendering i.e.: only the captions of the MainFrame and modal dialogs look with a crisp scaled font. All the other texts in my application, such as labels, messages, etc. are indeed scaled, but their look is thick and blurry.

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Jiachen Li-MSFT 34,221 Microsoft External Staff

Hi @Giorgio Sfiligoi ,

Have you explicitly declare DPI awareness in your application's manifest file? This will make your application handle DPI scaling more effectively.

Ensure that text rendering mode is set to ClearType or SystemDefault to optimize font clarity.

Older fonts may not handle scaling as effectively. Check whether you're using DPI-aware fonts like "Segoe UI" or other modern fonts that scale well.

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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Giorgio Sfiligoi 391 Reputation points

2024-10-03T08:36:48.58+00:00

Thank you Jiachen Li, but I am puzzled.

The project is based on .NET Framework 4.7.2 and I do not see any manifest file; in Properties > Application > Manifest the option 'Embed manifest with default settings' is selected - the alternative is: 'Create application without manifest'.

In the Properties I cannot find any settings concerning DPI awareness, Rendering mode.

In Windows 11 the default font used by VS is Microsoft Sans Serif 8.25, which I believe is scalable. However, I tried Segoe UI 9 (that looks practically identical) but with the same result.
Giorgio Sfiligoi 391 Reputation points

2024-10-03T08:46:15.38+00:00

Thank you Jiachen Li, but I am puzzled.

The project is based on .NET Framework 4.7.2 and I do not see any manifest file.

In Properties > Application > Manifest the option 'Embed manifest with default settings' is selected - the alternative is 'Create application without a manifest'.

In Properties I cannot find any settings for 'DPI awareness' or 'rendering mode'.

In Win 11 the default font used by VS is Microsoft Sans serif 8.25, which I believe is scalable. However, I tried Segoe UI 9 (that looks identical) with the same result.
Giorgio Sfiligoi 391 Reputation points

2024-10-03T08:48:55.82+00:00

My apologies for the duplicated comment
Jiachen Li-MSFT 34,221 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-10-03T09:30:21.1+00:00
You can create and customize one manually to declare DPI awareness.

In Visual Studio, right-click on your project in Solution Explorer and select Add > New Item.

Choose Application Manifest File and click Add.

This will create a app.manifest file, which allows you to define DPI-awareness and other settings.

In the generated app.manifest file, look for or add the following entry inside the <windowsSettings> section: <dpiAware xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">true/pm</dpiAware>
Giorgio Sfiligoi 391 Reputation points

2024-10-03T12:47:28.85+00:00

DONE, but unfortunately it doesn't work - the issue with the fonts remained.

Besides, where can I set 'rendering mode'? This is not an entry in the default manifest - perhaps I have to create one?
Jiachen Li-MSFT 34,221 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-10-04T06:17:17.84+00:00

You can use Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(Boolean) Method to set the application-wide default for the UseCompatibleTextRendering property defined on certain controls.
Giorgio Sfiligoi 391 Reputation points

2024-10-04T06:57:16.43+00:00

Correction: the issue is fixed.

In Properties > Application > Manifest one must now select 'app.manifest'.

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FONT SCALING

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