# How to set font size in Rose GUIs

**URL:** <https://cylc.discourse.group/t/how-to-set-font-size-in-rose-guis/756>\
**Category:** Rose Support\
**Created:** [September 12, 2023, 10:41am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/how-to-set-font-size-in-rose-guis/756 "2023-09-12T10:41:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rosalyn\_Hatcher](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/rosalyn_hatcher/32/39_2.png) [@Rosalyn\_Hatcher](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/Rosalyn_Hatcher)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 10:41am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/how-to-set-font-size-in-rose-guis/756/1 "2023-09-12T10:41:45Z")

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Hi,

How do I configure font size in the Rose GUIs (& Cylc GUIs) please? Or maybe more accurately how does Rose (& Cylc) figure out what font size and formatting to use in the GUIs?

I’m ssh’ing to remote server from a Mac (using XQuartz) to use Rose Edit, but the fonts are coming up very big and the format/colour of the right hand panels is weird - see attached. When I do the same to another different remote server running Rose/Cylc the GUIs are all fine.

 ![Screenshot 2023-09-12 at 11.17.33](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/cylc1/original/1X/5b7146cda22ccf4a4a3a89c8271167a2102340a8.png)

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**Author:** ![oliver.sanders](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/oliver.sanders/32/110_2.png) [@oliver.sanders](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/oliver.sanders)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 12:29pm UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/how-to-set-font-size-in-rose-guis/756/2 "2023-09-12T12:29:03Z")

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Hi,

The old GUIs are GTK2 based. GTK 2 is now very old, having been replaced by GTK 3, as a result, the GUIs don’t look as nice as they once did. Those grey boxes are unfortunately a result of this.

The GUIs get their fonts, icons and application theme these from the system settings. E.G. on a GNOME Linux desktop environment, you’ll find these in the “Appearance” settings menu.

On Mac OS you have to go through X11/Xorg/Xquartz, which may or may not respect the system configuration. I wouldn’t be surprised if the scale is off as the result of a high-resolution display?

There are a couple of open issues on the xQuartz GitHub about this:

- [XQuartz does not properly support retina displays · Issue #91 · XQuartz/XQuartz · GitHub](https://github.com/XQuartz/XQuartz/issues/91)
- [Incorrect screen size on Macbook Pro Retina (2023) · Issue #357 · XQuartz/XQuartz · GitHub](https://github.com/XQuartz/XQuartz/issues/357)

There appear to be a few possible workarounds on Stack Overflow, none cover all cases, but it might be worth trying a few.

I’m not sure why you’re getting different results from different servers. It might be worth comparing the system appearance settings on the two.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rosalyn\_Hatcher](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/cylc.discourse.group/rosalyn_hatcher/32/39_2.png) [@Rosalyn\_Hatcher](https://cylc.discourse.group/u/Rosalyn_Hatcher)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 8:47am UTC](https://cylc.discourse.group/t/how-to-set-font-size-in-rose-guis/756/3 "2023-09-26T08:47:18Z")

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Thanks Oliver. I think I’m semi sorted now - font size ok and I can live with the grey box feature! 🫰 Not entirely sure what I did, but a reboot of my Mac seemed to help. Possibly and XQuartz update.