NetBeans IDE scaling on Windows 8/10 - netbeans

I'm trying to run NetBeans under Windows 8.1 on a screen with a high DPI. Windows itself has scaling enabled to 400% and everything else looks just fine.
However, when I start NetBeans, it runs as if there's no scaling enabled and I just see tiny little letters in the IDE. I did check the properties under which the IDE starts and they do have "Enable scaling for this program" checked.
I could increase font size in the editor and the error log, which would at least enable me to view what I'm typing on the screen, however, all menus, side-bars, panels, etc, remain very small which is very uncomfortable trying to work with. So any idea how I can make NetBeans scale with Windows 8.1? Currently using NetBeans 8.0.

Open C:\Program Files\NetBeans 8.0\etc\netbeans.conf
Change -J-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=true to -J-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=false

Right click on netbeans icon on desktop.
Choose properties.
Go to Compatibility tab.
Tick Overide high DPI scaling and choose System in dropbox.
Click apply.
Open NetBeans.
Worked on Windows 10 on 4K resolution. Font and buttons are little blurred, but it doesn't bother me much because I am programming not watching movies anyway. Quick fix and easy to undo in case it gets messed up somewhere.
Image

A workaround is to increase the font size of menu options. See: FaqFontSize - NetBeans Wiki
Open C:\Program Files\NetBeans 8.x\etc\netbeans.conf
Locate the line containing netbeans_default_options
Add --fontsize 18 within the quotes. Example: "<other -J options> --fontsize 18"
This will increase the font size within menus, which causes dynamic UI elements to increase in size, effectively a DPI scaling workaround. Only downside is icons/images do not scale.

Unfortunately changing dpiaware setting in the .conf file did not work on my surface 4 pro and Windows 10. I found the solution in a link in the netbeans forum that seems to be an universal solution for all(!) programs that declare to be dpiaware and actually are not (see Dan Antonellis homepage).
The fix is quite simple: First set Windows to prefer external manifest files over internal ones (which was default until some Versions ago) by adding the key
DWORD PreferExternalManifest=1
to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
Then create a manifest file (in this case netbeans64.exe.manifest or netbeans.exe.manifest) in the directory of the corresponding exe file with the following content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0" xmlns:asmv3="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
type="win32"
name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"
version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*"
publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"
language="*">
</assemblyIdentity>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity
type="win32"
name="Microsoft.VC90.CRT"
version="9.0.21022.8"
processorArchitecture="amd64"
publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b">
</assemblyIdentity>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges>
<requestedExecutionLevel
level="asInvoker"
uiAccess="false"/>
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
<asmv3:application>
<asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
<ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware xmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
</asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>
</assembly>
This way I also could fix Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server Management Console 2012 which are only partly dpi aware (e.g. Visual Studio 2013 the form editor is unusable on 200% as the complete layout is broken). I fixed all my apps that were unusable or at least had a bad layout this way.
Of course, depending on the display and desired size things might get a bit blurry, it is a question of personal preferences (sharpness vs. layout). At least this fix makes essential applications usable on higher dpi settings.
As this thread was the first one in my google results I thought it would be a good idea to post this solution although the last activity is quite long ago.

Windows 10 does this for you now. Right click on your Netbeans shortcut (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\NetBeans) and select Properties.
Go to the Compatibility tab and then select Change High DPI Settings. From there, check the Override High DPI Scaling box and set it to System.

Similar to setting --fontsize 18, if you use the Darcula plugin, you can set the value for the "Override Default Fonts" option to 18. That has the same effect. Additionally, if you change it to Segoe UI, it matches Windows 10 nicely.

go to display settings and change scale and layout to 100%
Boom! :)

Simply hold down the Alt key then scroll up or down to zoom out or in

Related

Eclipse IDE horizontal lines in Editor

I'm using Eclipse 4.18 on Windows 10. The editor constantly shows horizontal lines at seemly random locations in the editor - see picture link for an example: (1). When scrolling up/down or when changing tabs those lines disappear (or get garbled) just to appear when scrolling again. It looks like a random pattern and I haven't been able to find anything in the Eclipse preferences to disable displaying the lines.
Previous versions of Eclipse had the same issue. Any ideas much appreciated.
Edit:
The first image (1) is taken from the sample Syntax Coloring option in Preferences -> XML > XML Files > Editor > Syntax Coloring which also displays the issue in a sample textbox.
Also, I include a screenshot of a sample .txt file opened in Eclipse IDE 2020-12 (4.18.0) (menu File -> Open File...) which shows the horizontal lines (2) on a new workspace with no plugins installed.
I hadn't encountered any similar issue on previous Eclipse versions on Win10 (I last used Eclipse in ~2019)
I had the same issue exactly.
It started after replacing my monitor.
I have a monitor that require me to increase the DPI so I will see larger fonts especially in eclipse.
When you play around with your windows DPI setting you also need to change the DPI setting in eclipse so it will try to match especially if you have high resolution.
To tweak Eclipse DPI to try to match Windows DPI you need to edit (eclipse.ini) file. It should be on the same folder where eclipse.exe is located.
I had my setting on (-Dswt.autoScale = 175) when I see the lines you describe.
After changing it to 150 it was fixed .
Play around with Eclipse DPI setting I believe it would solve your problem. It did in my case. (maybe also Windows DPI but start first with Eclipse DPI settings)
After changing DPI setting in eclipse.ini you will need to restart eclipse to see the changes.
#eclipse.ini
-Dswt.enable.autoScale=true
-Dswt.autoScale=150
-Dswt.autoScale.method=nearest

very small fonts and icons on 4k screens

I'm using CFeclipse on Windows 10 OS.
With the adaptation of new 4k resolution laptops. Eclipse displays small icons and fonts. Its also reported as a bug in https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=451693.
The mentioned bug has been fixed, Eclipse automatically scales images on high-DPI monitors on Windows since Eclipse Neon (4.6). So, make sure your Eclipse IDE is up to date.
If upgrading does not fix your issue, in eclipse.ini add the following line below the line -vmargs (see Tweaking SWT's auto-scaling):
-Dswt.autoScale=200
(In contrast to the compatibility mode of Windows, this is the way to get the double-resolution icons.)
To solve the problem in Windows 10.
Right click Eclipse Icon
Select Properties
Compatibility Tab
Under Settings Section check
Override High DPI scaling behaviour. Scaling performed by.
Select System.
Then Apply or Ok
I haven't encountered it yet in other application but this solution might also work for other apps that displays small icons and fonts.
This solution also works in Ultraedit,FastStone capture
The steps also helps for Coldfusion installer that appears too tiny to be readable or other Application installer in a 4k screen that shows everything too small.
I was having problems with a Windows 10 RDP connection using a Surface Pro machine. A recent update made Eclipse virtually unusable.
This solution worked perfectly :
Right click Eclipse Desktop Icon
Select Properties
Compatibility Tab
Change high DPI settings
Override High DPI scaling behaviour. Scaling performed by. Select
System.
Then Apply or OK
I then had to slightly adjust the font size within Eclipse itself. I found I could use a slightly smaller font

How to increase font size/font family of NetBeans IDE? (not the text editor's font)

I'm having a problem with NetBeans fonts on my computer which for some reason are getting distorted. I decided to open this question because all searches I made ended up on how to change the fonts of the text editor but not of the IDE itself. As you can see on this printscreen, it is kinda hard to read because of this missing parts of the characters. I was having exactly the same problem with burp suite then I increase the font-size (didn't found a option there to change font-family) and it solved a little bit. I think that if I change these configurations it will be easier for me to read. Thanks in advance.
The solution came from http://wiki.netbeans.org/FaqFontSize
There's 2 options to do:
Run netbeans with the additional --fontsize X parameter from the commandline
Edit the netbeans.conf file located in the %NETBEANS_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY\etc directory and at the part that says netbeans_default_options=.... append --fontsize X (Be sure that the option -J-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware is set to true. Netbeans will ignore the --fontsize instruction if is false).
This should change the default GTK font size. As noted in the link, it may not work in Gnome desktop environments because the font there is controlled by Gnome.
The netbeans.conf file for 10.x seems to have a slightly different syntax than previous versions.
In 8.2, adding "--fontsize x" worked. I couldn't get it to work in 10.0.
But adding "--fontsize x" to the start cmd works fine and doesn't compromise the font crispness when using a HD screen.

How to change caret (cursor) blinking rate in NetBeans?

How to change caret (cursor) blinking rate in NetBeans? (7.0)
NetBeans developers say that this is supported as a Swing option, see Bug 124211 - Cursor blink rate too fast but I can't figure out the name of this Swing option to set from the command line.
The closest example of setting Swing option that I found is setting look and feel by putting
-J-Dswing.defaultlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel to the netbeans.conf.
I realize this is old, but it's quite high up in google search so I thought I'd add an updated solution. The solution above by Tushar Joshi does not work for me in Netbeans 7.1.1. What I had to do, was quite similar though:
Basically, the setting have moved to <userdir>\config\Editors\text\x-java\Preferences\org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml.
The path for Unix/Linux is $HOME/.netbeans/<NetbeansVersion>/config/Editors/Preferences/org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml.
Exit netbeans and modify the file by adding the entry
<entry javaType="java.lang.Integer" name="caret-blink-rate" xml:space="preserve">
<value>1000</value>
</entry>
The value is the number of milliseconds of blink rate. I added a whole second. I added it so it lined up alphabetically with the other name properties of the other entries, but I don't know if that's important or not. That's it:)
There was a module for customizing the Cursor Blinking Rate created by Emilian Bold, but that module is not found easily available. Let me provide a less intuitive way but this solution works with NetBeans IDE 7.0.1 as tested by me.
Make sure the NetBeans IDE is shut down before making these changes.
Create file <userdir>/config/Editors/text/x-java/properties.xmlHere the <userdir> means the User directory used by NetBeans IDE. This directory can be found from the NetBeans Help > About menu. The config folder will already be there in this directory but the folders Editors/text/x-java may not be there and we will have to create them, they are case sensitive. The properties.xml file shall also be created in the x-java folder.
Add the following contents to the properties.xml file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties PUBLIC "-//NetBeans//DTD Editor Properties settings
1.0//EN" "http://www.netbeans.org/dtds/EditorProperties-1_0.dtd">
<properties>
<property class="java.lang.Integer" name="caret-blink-rate" value="0"/>
</properties>
The value="0" portion can be customized by desired blink rate in miliseconds, the default value used by NetBeans IDE is 300 in my opinion, but it can be changed with a new value, 0 will mean no blinking.
Start NetBeans IDE again and now you will get your desired blink rate for the cursor in Java files.
If you would like to disable it for all editors, instead of just the Java editor, add the following:
<entry javaType="java.lang.Integer" name="caret-blink-rate" xml:space="preserve">
<value>2147483647</value>
</entry>
under the <editor-preferences> element to the file:
config/Editors/Preferences/org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml
The full paths are:
On Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/NetBeans/8.2/config/Editors/Preferences/org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml
On Windows:
%APPDATA%\NetBeans\8.2\config\Editors\Preferences\org-netbeans-modules-editor-settings-CustomPreferences.xml
Source: https://forums.netbeans.org/topic9561.html

Eclipse: large toolbar icons

Does anybody know how to use large toolbar icons? Edit: How do I do it?
At first, close eclipse and be sure it is closed.
Than edit eclipse.ini and add the following lines:
-Dswt.enable.autoScale=true
-Dswt.autoScale=150
-Dswt.autoScale.method=nearest
The -Dswt.autoScale=150 will increase your Icons, 150 will say 150%. If it is not enough, increase it or decrease it otherwise.
Here is what to do for an easy solution:
Go to the start icon of your eclipse or PLCXpressoand
Click your right mouse bottom
Go to down and click properties
Click compartibility
Check overwrite high DPI scaling
Select system (enhanced)
Click OK at the bottom
Start Eclipse and enjoy
There is no support in Eclipse for large/small icons in the toolbar.
As this bug describes:
The other issue though is really that the GNOME toolbar style, similar to Mac OS X, is for a small number of large icons, while the Eclipse toolbar style is for a large number of quick-access buttons.
This means that the recommendations for, say, icons vs icons+text don't really apply to the Eclipse toolbar.
Update 2016 (5 years later)
Since 2011, you have some workarounds, like this answer referring to davidglevy/eclipse-icon-enlarger, which double the size of the icon in the eclipse main jar.
You have more instructions at PhantomYdn/eclipse-icon-enlarger.
You have the same idea (double the size of icons) implemented as a script (here is an gene1wood/scale_eclipse.sh)
But if the issue is poor (too small) resolution on HiDPI / Retina displays, try also the actual official Microsoft workaround (as illustrated here)
regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > SideBySide: create a DWORD PreferExternalManifest set to 1.
Beside eclipse.exe, create an eclipse.manifest file with, as content, one similar to this article.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCREENSHOT
I have searched and searched for weeks for a solution to this problem If you want to solve it go to your eclipse folder and *.png search. Resize all the icons from 16x16 to 32x32 Then do the same for *.gif.
As you can see in the image I have not finished the task but it does work if you want to put in the time. I am sure there is an easier batch method of doing it I am sorry I have not found that yet. Just in case anyone is still using eclipse (which I prefer) and wanted larger toolbar icons there you go.
EDIT: I found an easy to use batch tool called Fotosizer. It remembers all the icons file locations when you drag and drop your *.png *.gif found files into the image selection area. Just set up the options for sizing and set the output like the image I just uploaded. If 32x32 is too big for you just make them a little smaller. Fotosizer Click Here I used the free version.
Screenshot Click Here
Be sure when you do your search to right click and sort the images by dimensions to make it easy for you to find all the 16x16 files in a group. This is in windows 7 64 bit version and RapidClipse Version: 2.3.1.201607130701
Take care,
Barry
I solved it on Linux by appending this line to eclipse.ini:
-Dswt.autoScale=200
See the original answer on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/61zsds/eclipse_neon_on_hidpi_screen_and_plasmaa_5/
In 2022 on linux with an UltraHD display:
set your system as zoom 100% (forget 200% or fractional hacks, it's slow and buggy)
only use font scaling : gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor 1.5
To launch Eclipse (with perfect text and icon size) from terminal, use :
GDK_SCALE=2 GDK_DPI_SCALE=0.5 ./eclipse
I can't comment, because <50 reputation points.
I refer to the method of resizing the images to let's say 32x32.
I wrote a little python script, in case someone might be interested.
It changes the size of all .gif and .png to 32x32.
Use on your own risk :)
#!/usr/bin/python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import os
from PIL import Image
for path,dirs,files in os.walk(r"D:\win7\apps\renesas_e2_studio\eclipse"):
for f in files:
uri = os.path.join(path,f)
for t in ".gif .png".split(" "):
if uri[-4:] == t:
img = Image.open(uri)
img = img.resize((32,32))
img.save(uri)
print(uri)
print("FINISHED")
add -Dswt.autoScale=150 in eclipse.ini, is working for my hybrid win10 12.3"
Thanks to Markus B
Running Eclipse 2020-09 R (i.e, v4.17) on Linux (openSUSE Tumbleweed with XFCE session) on an HP Spectre x360 with 283 dpi, I found that out of the box the fonts were fine but the icons were unreadably tiny. Also, setting -Dswt.autoscale=300 in the eclipse.ini made the icons look perfect but completely disrupted the layout and functionality of SWT (couldn't click on tabs, many texts were unreadably clipped). So I had to resort to the method of scaling all of the icon files. Here's one way to automate it.
After running eclipse for the first time (since that first run unpacks a lot of icons), go to the top-level eclipse directory (the one in which the eclipse executable resides), and enter xonsh (the python-based shell) in that directory. Then you can execute the following commands (at your own risk), for example by copy-pasting them at the prompt:
pngl = $(find . -name "*.png").strip().split("\n")
for png in pngl:
if not ('#2x' in png):
print(f"Found icon {png}, moving...")
pngo = png.replace('.png','-orig.png')
mv #(png) #(pngo)
pngbig = png.replace('.png','#2x.png')
if pngbig in pngl:
print(" ...has enlarged, scaling that by 150")
convert #(pngbig) -resize 150% #(png)
else:
print(" ...no enlargement, scaling orig by 300")
convert #(pngo) -resize 300% #(png)
Of course if you wanted a different basic scaling factor, say 250%, you would change the 150% scaling of the double size icon in the pngbig branch to 125% and the 300% scaling of the original-size icons in the other branch to 250%.
In case you use STS 4, edit SpringToolSuite4.ini instead with the properties suggested by #Frank
-Dswt.enable.autoScale=true
-Dswt.autoScale=150
-Dswt.autoScale.method=nearest