Steam Font Size Too Small

[Mother Goose]

Why isn't there an option to change font sizes? I play on 1920x1080 and the font size seems about to be 8-10.

I've tried changing values of steam.styles in D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\resource\styles but each steam update and nearly daily out of the blue it reverts values back to the originals even when I set it to read-only.

What should I do? Valve should be paying for my future pair of glasses.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6394/steamqx.png

[Getsuga Tensho]

Make a skin for it. If you do that and put the folder for your skin inside the skin folder then Steam updates won't revert the changes you make. This does mean you may have to update the skin yourself however if Steam releases an update that changes UI elements. That doesn't happen often though so you should be set to go if you do that.

[Mother Goose]

Originally Posted by Getsuga Tensho

Make a skin for it. If you do that and put the folder for your skin inside the skin folder then Steam updates won't revert the changes you make. This does mean you may have to update the skin yourself however if Steam releases an update that changes UI elements. That doesn't happen often though so you should be set to go if you do that.

Thanks for the suggestion. These hoops which I have to jump through are ridiculous to say the least. What is this? Soviet America in 1988 with only one flavor of anything? Can't they hire someone to work out an algorithm for calculating aesthetically pleasing font sizes that scale with resolution?

[Simian_]

It's kind of daunting for someone who has no familiarity with steam skinning.

Anyway, you need to open up C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\resource\styles\steam.styles and look for this section:

	friends_chat_text
	{
		textcolor="text"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		SelectedBgColor="focus"
		font-size=14
	}

	friends_chat_text_self
	{
		textcolor="ChatOwnTextColor"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
		font-size=14
	}

	friends_chat_event
	{
		textcolor="Text"
		font-size=14
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
	}

	friends_chat_bright_event
	{
		textcolor="text"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"
		font-size=14
		font-weight=1000
	}

	friends_chat_url
	{
		textcolor="text"
   		SelectedBgColor="focus"
		font-style=underline
		font-size=14
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
	}

	friends_chat_name_ingame
	{
		textcolor="Friends.InGameColor"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
		font-size=14

	}

	friends_chat_self
	{
		textcolor="Friends.OnlineColor"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
		font-size=14
	}

	friends_chat_name
	{
		textcolor="Friends.OnlineColor"
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
		font-size=14
	}

	friends_chat_accountid
	{
		selectedtextcolor="TextentrySelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="focus"
		textcolor="text"
		font-size=14
	}

	friends_chat_securitylink
	{
		textcolor="text"
		bgcolor="none"
		font-family=basefont
		font-size=14
		font-weight=400
		font-style=underline
		selectedtextcolor="TextSelected"	
		selectedbgcolor="Focus"
	}

Those control the chat window fonts. To also increase the size of the text in the text entry box ( where you type your message before sending ), You have to add this and customize the size:

	"ToolWindow TextEntry"
	{
		font-size=14
	}

So, you can see that everything is set to size 14 by default. I would try setting it all to size 16 or 18 and hopefully that's good for you. Size 20 should be way bigger than you need, so don't set it to that.

Now if you want your changes to persist between steam updates, you have to save a copy of the steam.styles into the skins folder.

So make a new folder inside the skins folder ( C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Skins\ ) and name it whatever you like ( this will be the skin name that shows up in the interface settings menu ), then open your new folder and make another folder inside it named resource, then another folder inside that named styles. put your edited copy of steam.styles inside there, then open the settings menu in Steam to chose a skin, and you should see the name of your skin in there ( again, this will be whatever custom name you chose for the first new folder you made ). Select it, and there you go.

Now since you are using a non-default file, you always have the possibility that steam is going to break the 'skin' you just made with a new update. So if that happens, you're going to have to do these steps all over again.

Yeah it is a total pain in the butt. So there you go. Now you know how to increase the size of the chat text.

[SweetNothing]

Thank you for that write-up, Simian. I've emailed it to myself so I always have the information to fix it.

+rep

I find it odd that no matter how many times people request changeable font sizes, Steam consistently ignores the request. Why oh why can't we have 20th century technology in our 21st century software?

[Simian_]

Originally Posted by SweetNothing

Thank you for that write-up, Simian. I've emailed it to myself so I always have the information to fix it.

+rep

I find it odd that no matter how many times people request changeable font sizes, Steam consistently ignores the request. Why oh why can't we have 20th century technology in our 21st century software?

Maybe because they're worried about it screwing up skins.

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by SweetNothing

I find it odd that no matter how many times people request changeable font sizes, Steam consistently ignores the request. Why oh why can't we have 20th century technology in our 21st century software?

If they won't have the font size changeable they should at least honour the DPI setting in windows

[Mother Goose]

Thanks for the suggestions and replies.

[JohnnyFronthole]

Originally Posted by SweetNothing

I find it odd that no matter how many times people request changeable font sizes, Steam consistently ignores the request. Why oh why can't we have 20th century technology in our 21st century software?

Because they haven't figured out how to make a TF2 hat to go along with the release.

Originally Posted by anniebrion

If they won't have the font size changeable they should at least honour the DPI setting in windows

add a LogPixels DWORD registry key and set to 120 decimal (120 dpi) to increase dpi settings for your steam window.

I use Windows 7 and I added this key to my HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Classes\Steam and it worked perfectly

[m_nadal]

Originally Posted by Taviyo

add a LogPixels DWORD registry key and set to 120 decimal (120 dpi) to increase dpi settings for your steam window.

I use Windows 7 and I added this key to my HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Classes\Steam and it worked perfectly

Tried it, didn't work.

Also changed every occurrence of "font-size=" in \Steam\resource\styles\steam.styles to bigger numbers, changes most of the UI fonts, but not all of them.

Maybe we should start a petition on facebook (or better yet, a Steam Community group) to stop buying games off Steam until this is fixed.
We just need to find a catchy name for it.

[SirDrexl]

Originally Posted by m_nadal

Maybe we should start a petition on facebook (or better yet, a Steam Community group) to stop buying games off Steam until this is fixed.
We just need to find a catchy name for it.

Big Picture Mode?

[m_nadal]

Originally Posted by SirDrexl

Big Picture Mode?

Big Picture Mode = Vaporware

[joyce fricken]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFronthole

Because they haven't figured out how to make a TF2 hat to go along with the release.

Gave me an idea, Johnny F!

I tried crafting a HUGE font in my Steam TF2 workshop by combining the Monoculus (big eyeball) with a bucket of Australium Gold (paint), and some big ol heavy Fists of Steel (huge fists for huge writing) but, surprisingly, it failed to craft.

Only one thing left to do! *Grabs Description Tag from backpack, writes "GIMME BIGGER FONTS OR GIMME DEATH!" slaps it on the Conscientious Objector, heads off to the front line*

Join the picket line on the font front line!!!!

[monopoly11]

I Thought it had changed