How to increase font size of Eclipse globally?

Question

I'd like to know how to increase the font size for Eclipse so it adjusts the whole GUI to not look so darn small on my screen.

For NetBeans there is the --font-size switch which can be set in netbeans.conf, is there something similar for Eclipse?

(In case it's useful, I'm on Snow Leopard.)

score 52 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 10 '17 at 16:14

52

Go to Preferences > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts, expand the "Basic" folder and select "Text Font" and change that to whatever size you like.

For Eclipse Neon: To Increase Ctrl + To reduce Ctrl - for Macs, use the command key, not the control key

edited Jun 10 '17 at 16:14

Iggs

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answered Jan 05 '12 at 07:10

uri

521
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Does not work at all. I am using Kelper on yosemite. – Alex Mar 18 '15 at 16:19
5

This only changes the text font. It has no impact on the GUI globally as the OP asked. – toolbear Apr 29 '16 at 19:16
1

`ctrl shift +` also works an was the only way for me to zoom in (eclipse 7.2) – PeterM Jul 04 '17 at 10:33

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 23 '17 at 16:59

44

Inside the Eclipse.app is a setting for the font size. To make the fonts globally larger edit Eclipse.app » Contents » Eclipse » eclipse.ini and remove the line

-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts

from the file. Save the file and restart Eclipse.

edited Apr 23 '17 at 16:59

Community

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answered May 19 '12 at 08:13

akuhn

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This actually helps, nice one! – Henrique Ordine Sep 20 '14 at 10:58
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Great. This solves also the small size of the interface elements, like the Package Explorer. I was turning blind before... BTW, you know what's fine? I have such line in my eclipse.ini twice, one was commented out and the other not. I wonder why the did that... – Fran Marzoa Nov 11 '14 at 17:09
2

In Mars it's located in Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/eclipse.ini Also, I found two lines in the .ini file that had this -D definition, so make sure to remove all of them before restart. – andrewz Aug 24 '15 at 13:48
This should be the accepted answer. This is the only way to increase the GUI fonts in Eclipse on OS X that I've found. – toolbear Apr 29 '16 at 19:26
3

In Neon, the .ini file is also in `/Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/eclipse.ini` just like @andrewz commented. Also, there are two lines in the .ini file as well, which you have to remove. – adino Jul 22 '16 at 16:36
Several items are duplicated in that file, in Neon.1 when installed by Oomph installer.-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8, -Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts, -XstartOnFirstThread. – kirkz Dec 18 '16 at 14:14
This setting doesn't change the font size with STS in macOS Sierra. – Alessandro C Dec 22 '16 at 15:47
works with neon3 and Yosemite. The GUI font size increase was pretty minimal though. At first I though it didn't work. I literally had to take screenshots before/after to realize it did increase. I'd estimate the Package Explorer font went from 4pt to 6pt (from tiny to small). – wisbucky Jul 11 '17 at 19:53
There's also an application called RDM that let's you choose any screen resolution on Mac, I often use that as a fix for apps with too small fontsizes. Like setting my laptop screen to 1280 x 800 for example. – akuhn Jul 20 '17 at 07:44
Now how can I also make the toolbar icons bigger? – Alex Jan 06 '23 at 18:36

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 16 '17 at 15:37

9

Solution for Eclipse Oxygen at MacOS High Sierra (Dec 2017)

Open terminal and run commands:

cd /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.2.1.v20170809-1435/css

vim e4_basestyle.css

Add a style:
```
* {
    font-size: 14;
}
```
Restart Eclipse to apply changes.

answered Dec 16 '17 at 15:37

liberborn

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I hope it is allowed here to remark that this solutions also works on Eclipse Oxygen Linux. The file is in plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.2.1.v20170809-1435/css I have used font-size: 24; on my screen (since it is a bit higher DPI than the retina Macs) – mak Mar 07 '18 at 09:51
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In 2019 Eclipse the css file is in ~/.p2/pool/plugins/... – jptknta Nov 28 '19 at 17:11
BUT there are mutliple css file there, which css file should i edit? – Luk Aron Mar 06 '21 at 07:38

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 22 '15 at 22:53

6

As far as I know, there's no way to increase the font globally. In Eclipse's Preferences, navigate to General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts.

Dialog font is the font used in the dialogs, and Text Font used in text editors, etc.

I don't know how to increase the font for the rest of the GUI, though.

edited Jun 22 '15 at 22:53

Sean Allred

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answered Sep 09 '11 at 23:03

Daniel Serodio

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@MichaelLange see my reply. – akuhn May 19 '12 at 08:14
This is a reasonable compromise for me. Eclipse uses so much screen estate on GUI-fluff that this is the only reasonable way to get a lot of _information_ on there too. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Dec 17 '12 at 12:13

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 26 '16 at 04:30

5

For eclipse luna : edit eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.0.1.v20141126-1957/css/e4_default_gtk.css

and add at end of file :

* {
  font-size:14;
}

This will make eclipse keep same font if you switch workspaces

answered Oct 26 '16 at 04:30

Gigy

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I've edited `/Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.themes_1.1.300.v20161107-1827/css/e4_basestyle.css` and it works on Sierra! – cahn Mar 27 '17 at 02:13

DrupalFever · Answer 6 · 2015-06-17T16:12:50.450

I have Eclipse installed in a Linux machine. A while ago I did a Linux update and it messed up the fonts on the entire system. All the fonts got larger. So, I went all over the place resizing the fonts for each application.

Guess what?! On the next Linux update, the fonts got back to normal. However, I had to go back and undo all the font resizing that I had previously done on every application. So, when it came time to reset the fonts in Eclipse, I couldn't remember exactly what I did. I went to the following location:

Window > Preferences > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts > Basic > Text Font > Edit

No matter what I did on this setting, the font remained the same.

I finally figured out what the problem was. I had also resized the fonts on the following location:

Window > Preferences > General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts > Structured Text Editors > Structured Text Editor Text Font (overrides default: Text Font) > Edit

Once I edited this setting, the fonts on Eclipse went back to normal.

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

0

NOTE: For those coming from Google, this change has no effect on later MacOS/Eclipse versions of El Capitan and Mars, respectively. See this related question: Yosemite: How do increase font size of Eclipse globally?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Jun 16 '16 at 23:49

stacksmashing

101

Removing the smallfonts option from the eclipse.ini file worked fine for me in Neon on Sierra. Are you sure you removed both occurrences of the option from the file? – Ward Muylaert Jun 01 '17 at 09:22
The font size increase is very subtle. Take a screenshot before/after and compare. – wisbucky Jul 11 '17 at 19:54

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 09 '16 at 17:30

0

You go to colors and font and go to the java drop down and find java editor and edit the size and it should work as it has for me.

answered Jul 09 '16 at 17:30

Arjan Dhingra

1

How does this improve on or differ to http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/35588/237 – mmmmmm Jul 09 '16 at 18:58
This only changes the font used in the editor, not globally. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Jul 04 '17 at 04:38

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 01:31

0

eclipse on Mac, for the font in the tools bar, you have to go to the system preference->display->resolution, and change the system font.

answered Jul 04 '17 at 01:31

Chris

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 22 '18 at 18:45

0

window --> preference-->general-->apperance-->colors and fonts-->basic -->text font

answered Jan 22 '18 at 18:45

senthilnathan

1

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 17 '18 at 13:40

0

Menu: window -> editor -> zoom in/out

answered Sep 17 '18 at 13:40

Sergei Krivonos

101
6

How to increase font size of Eclipse globally?

11 Answers11

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