changing the BaseX GUI menu font

Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 An: BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Betreff: [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hello -- So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. Thanks! Graydon

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: > Hi Graydon, > > JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. > > For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). > > Looking forward to your feedback. > > Best, > Christian > > [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar > > > > *Von:* Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 > *An:* BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > *Betreff:* [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hello -- > > So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html > > These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. > > What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. > > I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? > > I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. > > Thanks! > Graydon

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk < basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> wrote: > Hi Christian, > > FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with > FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. > (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) > > What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab > fonts. > > The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for > editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not > sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both > of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a > kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) > > So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the > window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and > searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than > applications. > > Thanks! > Graydon > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: > > Hi Graydon, > > JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a > chance to change the font size at all. > > For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the > latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and > proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). > > Looking forward to your feedback. > > Best, > Christian > > [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar > > > ------------------------------ > > *Von:* Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de > > > *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 > *An:* BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > *Betreff:* [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hello -- > > So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the > documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html > > These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application > looks different when I select different themes from the list. > > What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of > the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo > themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution > monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the > 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. > > I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base > font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. > (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume > those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort > of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? > > I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK > 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. > > Thanks! > Graydon > > >

Von: Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 An: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> Cc: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. Best, Bridger On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> wrote: Hi Christian, FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. Thanks! Graydon On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: Hi Graydon, JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). Looking forward to your feedback. Best, Christian [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 An: BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> Betreff: [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hello -- So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. Thanks! Graydon

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 11:50, Christian Grün wrote: > Hi Bridger, hi Graydon, > > It’s true, we included custom scaling support in the code of previous versions of BaseX. With our code, we tried to compensate deficiences of previous Swing versions. Which was hacky and unrewarding. With newer versions of the JDK, the support for high resolutions has become much more reliable, but unfortunately the improvements are not reflected on all operating systems. > > But I have good news! FlatLaf comes with builtin options to control font scaling, which you can now assign before launching the GUI. I have added instructions on how to do this in our Wiki [1]. > > In addition, some may be glad to read that FlatLaf comes with dark themes, which are correctly detected and rendered by the latest snapshot [2]. > > Hope this helps, > Christian > > [1] https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/system-properties/ > [2] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > > > *Von:* Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > *Gesendet:* Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 > *An:* Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > *Cc:* Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > *Betreff:* Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, > > I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). > Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? > Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. > Best, > Bridger > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> wrote: >> Hi Christian, >> >> FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) >> >> What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. >> >> The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) >> >> So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. >> >> Thanks! >> Graydon >> >> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: >>> Hi Graydon, >>> >>> JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. >>> >>> For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). >>> >>> Looking forward to your feedback. >>> >>> Best, >>> Christian >>> >>> [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ >>> [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> *Von:* Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> >>> *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 >>> *An:* BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> >>> *Betreff:* [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font >>> >>> Hello -- >>> >>> So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html >>> >>> These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. >>> >>> What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. >>> >>> I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? >>> >>> I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Graydon >>

Von: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 18:01 An: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> Cc: BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hi Christian, The [1] link seems to go to formdev's flatlaf docs, rather than the BaseX documentation? Thanks! Graydon On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 11:50, Christian Grün wrote: Hi Bridger, hi Graydon, It’s true, we included custom scaling support in the code of previous versions of BaseX. With our code, we tried to compensate deficiences of previous Swing versions. Which was hacky and unrewarding. With newer versions of the JDK, the support for high resolutions has become much more reliable, but unfortunately the improvements are not reflected on all operating systems. But I have good news! FlatLaf comes with builtin options to control font scaling, which you can now assign before launching the GUI. I have added instructions on how to do this in our Wiki [1]. In addition, some may be glad to read that FlatLaf comes with dark themes, which are correctly detected and rendered by the latest snapshot [2]. Hope this helps, Christian [1] https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/system-properties/ [2] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ Von: Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 An: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> Cc: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. Best, Bridger On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> wrote: Hi Christian, FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. Thanks! Graydon On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: Hi Graydon, JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). Looking forward to your feedback. Best, Christian [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 An: BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de<mailto:BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de>> Betreff: [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font Hello -- So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. Thanks! Graydon

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 12:03, Christian Grün wrote: > Oh dear; thanks: https://docs.basex.org/13/Graphical_User_Interface#flatlaf > > > > *Von:* Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > *Gesendet:* Montag, 26. Januar 2026 18:01 > *An:* Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > *Cc:* BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > *Betreff:* Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hi Christian, > > The [1] link seems to go to formdev's flatlaf docs, rather than the BaseX documentation? > > Thanks! > Graydon > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 11:50, Christian Grün wrote: >> Hi Bridger, hi Graydon, >> >> It’s true, we included custom scaling support in the code of previous versions of BaseX. With our code, we tried to compensate deficiences of previous Swing versions. Which was hacky and unrewarding. With newer versions of the JDK, the support for high resolutions has become much more reliable, but unfortunately the improvements are not reflected on all operating systems. >> >> But I have good news! FlatLaf comes with builtin options to control font scaling, which you can now assign before launching the GUI. I have added instructions on how to do this in our Wiki [1]. >> >> In addition, some may be glad to read that FlatLaf comes with dark themes, which are correctly detected and rendered by the latest snapshot [2]. >> >> Hope this helps, >> Christian >> >> [1] https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/system-properties/ >> [2] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ >> >> >> >> *Von:* Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> >> *Gesendet:* Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 >> *An:* Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> >> *Cc:* Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> >> *Betreff:* Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font >> >> Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, >> >> I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). >> Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? >> Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. >> Best, >> Bridger >> >> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> wrote: >>> Hi Christian, >>> >>> FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) >>> >>> What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. >>> >>> The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) >>> >>> So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> Graydon >>> >>> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: >>>> Hi Graydon, >>>> >>>> JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. >>>> >>>> For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). >>>> >>>> Looking forward to your feedback. >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Christian >>>> >>>> [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ >>>> [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> *Von:* Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> >>>> *Gesendet:* Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 >>>> *An:* BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> >>>> *Betreff:* [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font >>>> >>>> Hello -- >>>> >>>> So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html >>>> >>>> These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. >>>> >>>> What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. >>>> >>>> I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? >>>> >>>> I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> Graydon >>> >

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 5:06 PM Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> wrote: > > I am entirely pleased to report that it works for me. > > Thank you very much! > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 12:03, Christian Grün wrote: > > Oh dear; thanks: https://docs.basex.org/13/Graphical_User_Interface#flatlaf > > > ________________________________ > Von: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 18:01 > An: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > Cc: BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hi Christian, > > The [1] link seems to go to formdev's flatlaf docs, rather than the BaseX documentation? > > Thanks! > Graydon > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 11:50, Christian Grün wrote: > > Hi Bridger, hi Graydon, > > It’s true, we included custom scaling support in the code of previous versions of BaseX. With our code, we tried to compensate deficiences of previous Swing versions. Which was hacky and unrewarding. With newer versions of the JDK, the support for high resolutions has become much more reliable, but unfortunately the improvements are not reflected on all operating systems. > > But I have good news! FlatLaf comes with builtin options to control font scaling, which you can now assign before launching the GUI. I have added instructions on how to do this in our Wiki [1]. > > In addition, some may be glad to read that FlatLaf comes with dark themes, which are correctly detected and rendered by the latest snapshot [2]. > > Hope this helps, > Christian > > [1] https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/system-properties/ > [2] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > > ________________________________ > > Von: Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 > An: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > Cc: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, > > I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). > Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? > Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. > Best, > Bridger > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> wrote: > > Hi Christian, > > FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) > > What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. > > The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) > > So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. > > Thanks! > Graydon > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: > > Hi Graydon, > > JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. > > For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). > > Looking forward to your feedback. > > Best, > Christian > > [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar > > > ________________________________ > > > Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 > An: BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > Betreff: [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > Hello -- > > So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html > > These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. > > What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. > > I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? > > I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. > > Thanks! > Graydon > > >

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 12:08, Bridger Dyson-Smith wrote: > Hi Christian, hi Graydon - > > Eagerly downloading now. Thanks so much for the update(s), Christian, > and thanks to you, too, Graydon, for bringing this up! > > Have a good day! > Best, > Bridger > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 5:06 PM Graydon Saunders > <graydonish at fastmail.com> wrote: > > > > I am entirely pleased to report that it works for me. > > > > Thank you very much! > > > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 12:03, Christian Grün wrote: > > > > Oh dear; thanks: https://docs.basex.org/13/Graphical_User_Interface#flatlaf > > > > > > ________________________________ > > Von: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > > Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 18:01 > > An: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > > Cc: BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > > Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > > > Hi Christian, > > > > The [1] link seems to go to formdev's flatlaf docs, rather than the BaseX documentation? > > > > Thanks! > > Graydon > > > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 11:50, Christian Grün wrote: > > > > Hi Bridger, hi Graydon, > > > > It’s true, we included custom scaling support in the code of previous versions of BaseX. With our code, we tried to compensate deficiences of previous Swing versions. Which was hacky and unrewarding. With newer versions of the JDK, the support for high resolutions has become much more reliable, but unfortunately the improvements are not reflected on all operating systems. > > > > But I have good news! FlatLaf comes with builtin options to control font scaling, which you can now assign before launching the GUI. I have added instructions on how to do this in our Wiki [1]. > > > > In addition, some may be glad to read that FlatLaf comes with dark themes, which are correctly detected and rendered by the latest snapshot [2]. > > > > Hope this helps, > > Christian > > > > [1] https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/system-properties/ > > [2] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > > > > ________________________________ > > > > Von: Bridger Dyson-Smith <bdysonsmith at gmail.com> > > Gesendet: Montag, 26. Januar 2026 16:46 > > An: Graydon Saunders <graydonish at fastmail.com> > > Cc: Christian Grün <cg at basex.org>; BaseX <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > > Betreff: Re: [basex-talk] Re: changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > > > Hi Graydon, Christian, et al, > > > > I started poking through old commits and found this one: https://github.com/BaseXdb/basex/issues/1219 ("Disable Scaling"). > > Was there an option for scaling the GUI at one point, or am I misunderstanding the general concept of that commit? > > Echoing Graydon's point, it would be great to have more control over fonts/font scaling in the GUI, including the UI outside of the editor/project windows. > > Best, > > Bridger > > > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, 8:43 AM Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> wrote: > > > > Hi Christian, > > > > FlatLaf works. I can download the snapshot, download FlatLaf, and with FlatLaf in `custom/` I get a list of themes and those themes all do stuff. (I removed JTatoo from `custom/` before trying FlatLaf.) > > > > What I don't see is a way to adjust the size of the menu and editor tab fonts. > > > > The font dialog gives me the expected two font options, I think one for editor panes and one for everything else like the Results view. I am not sure which way around those font options are but I am sure I'm getting both of them (the Editor pane has a dotted zero; the Results pane has a kinda-like-a-phi zero with a slash.) > > > > So far as I can tell, the themes internal to BaseX are invisible to the window manager; any theme adjuster tool would need to be a Java one, and searching has so far has found programming tutorials rather than applications. > > > > Thanks! > > Graydon > > > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026, at 07:23, Christian Grün wrote: > > > > Hi Graydon, > > > > JTattoo has not been updated for ages, so I am not sure if there is a chance to change the font size at all. > > > > For testing, I have just added support for FlatLaf: You can download the latest snapshot [1], add the FlatLAF library to the classpath [2], and proceed as usual (start BaseX, choose the L&F, restart BaseX). > > > > Looking forward to your feedback. > > > > Best, > > Christian > > > > [1] https://files.basex.org/releases/latest/ > > [2] https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/formdev/flatlaf/3.7/flatlaf-3.7.jar > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > > > > Von: Graydon Saunders via BaseX-Talk <basex-talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > > Gesendet: Sonntag, 25. Januar 2026 06:12 > > An: BaseX <BaseX-Talk at mailman.uni-konstanz.de> > > Betreff: [basex-talk] changing the BaseX GUI menu font > > > > Hello -- > > > > So I've successfully added the JTattoo themes mentioned in the documentation https://jtattoo.de/index.html > > > > These work, in that new theme names appear and the BaseX GUI application looks different when I select different themes from the list. > > > > What they don't seem to do is provide any way to change the font size of the menus or the editor tabs with the file name in them. (The JTattoo themes do provide antialiasing, which is welcome.) It's a high resolution monitor and a notional 40 point font in the editor looks about right; the 11 or 12 point font to which the tabs and menus default is hard to read. > > > > I am forming the impression that there might be some sort of global base font setting somewhere but I have no idea where I'd even start looking. (The themes that appear built in to the BaseX GUI also work; I presume those live in the JDK somewhere?) Is there some sort of -Djdk.controlFont.size setting available? > > > > I'm using Linux (with LXQt as the window manager); I'm using OpenJDK 25.0.1 and BaseX 12.2. > > > > Thanks! > > Graydon > > > > > > >