Icons are too Small (MuseScore 2.1)

• Nov 27, 2017 - 07:24

I recently got a new computer and I never had this happened before. I first installed MuseScore and everything went fine until I opened the program when I notice the icons and the palettes are super small to almost hard to see and even do anything. The monitor I'm using is a TV Monitor and my last computer also used this monitor and didn't have this problem. Anyone else has the same problem?


Comments

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi Marc, I think I'm just useless understanding the command line instruction.
MuseScore.exe in the command prompt window does nothing for me.
I'm on Windows 10, and the reply I get back from it is "'MuseScore.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."
I'm sure I'm just doing it wrong. People like me need idiot guides for stuff like this!

In reply to by filthymanc

Not the under the "General" tab but under the Shortcut tab, where it says "Target". Right now it has the full path to MuseScore.exe (something like "C:\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore 2\bin\MuseScore.exe", including the quotes. Simply add "-D 200", without the quotes, after what is already there (that is, after the existing closing quote, with a space between the closing quote and the -D). Instead of 200, use whatever the actual resolution of your monitor is, but 200 is a good place to start - it's twice the default.

If you need further help on how to do Windows command line stuff, there is lots of information floating around on the web - billions of Windows users out there.

Figured out that the setting to increase the Icon size at the top is in Preferences > General > Theme > Icon width and height. Ramp that number right up.

Still not figured how to increase the palette icon sizes though!

The problem with Musecore displaying almost everything too small appears to be due to not being able to adequately handle the 'scaling' of graphics and text with the high resolution capabilities and high resolution screen settings available in recent OS versions. I have had the problem with other programs and applications.

If you are using windows 10, here is a fix:

1.) Right Click on the program icon
2.) Select the COMPATIBILITY Tab
3.) Check the box next to "Overide DPI Scaling behavior."
4.) In the selection box activated immediately underneath this, select SYSTEM.
5.) Note: I tried selecting both the SYSTEM & SYSTEM (ENHANCED) options, and MuseScore seems to behave the same way under both selections. Not sure what the difference is there.

When following the above procedure, the program startup splash screen, items in the Start Center, and other items that were previously too small to see were enlarged so that I could see them clearly. I'll be fooling around with these settings to see if there are any other setting to make things even larger, because my eyes are GOING.

Also note that checking options for setting compatibility with earlier versions of Windows (e.g., 7 or 8),
did not work, nor did using the "-D NNN" setting on the target path. Funny thing, keyboard shortcut would reduce the size of items in the MuseScore window just fine, but did NOT.

Cheers......

In reply to by TyPie

Actually, MuseScore does generally scale things properly - but only if the OS reports the monitor resolution to us properly. The problem happens if the OS reports the resolution incorrectly, which it occasionally does (mostly for things like TV sets attached by VGA).

I'm glad you were able to achieve success using the method you tried, but the -D option should definitely work too - what went wrong when you tried it? What resolution did you specify?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi Marc,
I went back in and toyed with the -D fix, and it does now work. It only increases the size of the main work screen, but not, for example, the palette, the navigator, and other screens. The other fix I suggested appears to increase the size of everything.

In reply to by TyPie

Hmm, well every system is different I guess, but "-D" really should have the same effect on palettes etc that it does on the main score. You might try Help / Revert to Factory Settings though - if you made any palette customizations (deliberate or otherwise) while in the other state, those might be preserved and now need to be reset.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

It's more in general (and maybe a little bit of topic) and I'm not sure if it's depends with this behavior (or: https://musescore.org/en/node/140636#comment-697641 or both) - but maybe it's interesting for the one or other.

A few weeks ago I read an article in an German Linux magazine about HiDPI monitors and qt applications. In summarize there are problems with applications, which are using qt versions below QT5 (and similar below GTK +3) to support the correct scaling factor. That means that the scale factor of the window manager doesn't have any effect with applications of these versions.
(There are mentioned some workarounds for some Linux applications).

But in my understanding it should be solved the problems on HiDPI monitors from MuseScore versions using QT5 and above.

note: here's the link (unfortunately in German): http://www.linux-community.de/Internal/Artikel/Print-Artikel/EasyLinux/…

I've been having this issue a lot recently after upgrading to Windows 10, and I found the solution.
For me, using the command line options didn't work, and neither did overriding the scaling in properties. I ran the program in compatibility mode with Windows 7 and everything is just how it was before I upgraded. Hope this can help others.

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I know this is an old post, but im putting my solution here for those who are still struggling with it on musescore 3.
For windows users, this issue stems from the interaction between windows 10 and musescore, the best solution i've stumbled across was making windows open the program in windows 8 compatibility mode. [you can reach that option from the properties menu of the EXE file].
Hope it helps you guys as well

In reply to by Alasdair Whyte

Definitely no need for all that! I assume from your screenshot you are on Windows? The easiest solution in that case is usually to find the EXE file for MuseScore in C:\Program Files \bin, then right-click it, Properties, Compatibility, and try different options for the high DPI settings. Very system is different and the OS communicates the resolution differently as well, so that's why this can happen and why there isn't necessarily a one-size-fits-all (literally) solution.

In reply to by Alasdair Whyte

Not surew which setting you mean, but glad it worked! The one I've sometimes seen work is not a number at all, the choices are something like application, system, or system (enhanced). But as I said, every system is different in terms of what display is present, what device driver is used, what defaults were set up by the computer manufacturer, what etc.

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