Larger text? I'm begging here!

[merkvah]

Please help. Not some third party mod, not some forge install that I can never get to work... please help. Is there ANY way to do this?

I want to do game prep in Fantasy Grounds, not read through the PDF that I had to copy / paste into a Google doc.

Please...

[Jiminimonka]

Try this one - you already have it from previous posts but it has been updated. Just enable to Extension in your campaign https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/376/view - it is called CoreRPG - Large Fonts in the extension list.

Just testing it now and it is .... working as intended. This is from Test so the book is slightly odd. But nice and easy to read.

64877

[merkvah]

Thank you... i'll try it. I've tried things in the past and have been unable to get them to work... I don't know if it's my system or if PEBKAC.

I appreciate your help.

[LordEntrails]

When I'm reading reference manuals I often set scaleui to 200. I even collapse the navigation/index window as well.

[merkvah]

it seems like there should be a better solution to this problem. This isn't the first time it's been asked for, and nothing I've tried works.

At this point, I'm doing my game prep in another program. But hey, there's new dice on the marketplace to purchase!!

[Jiminimonka]

it seems like there should be a better solution to this problem. This isn't the first time it's been asked for, and nothing I've tried works.

At this point, I'm doing my game prep in another program. But hey, there's new dice on the marketplace to purchase!!

What seems to be the difficulty getting this to work? Works for me with zero effort so please explain what you are doing and what extension you are using. Old and PEBKAC don't cut it - a lot of us are pushing 60 years old and some 70-80.

[LordEntrails]

it seems like there should be a better solution to this problem. This isn't the first time it's been asked for, and nothing I've tried works.

At this point, I'm doing my game prep in another program. But hey, there's new dice on the marketplace to purchase!!
It's not so simple.
Windows, buttons, fields, etc in FG are defined by pixels. If you increase the font size w/o increasing the underlying object, the font doesn't fit. The solution to this is /scaleui.

One solution might be to scale individual windows. You can vote on the request here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php?titlesearch=Scale%20Window%20U I%20Per%20Window

Another possible solution is to allow text within story/books that can allow for dynmaic window and text growth and scrolling etc. You can vote on that suggestion here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php?titlesearch=Adjustable%20font% 20size%20(or%20zoom)%20for%20Story%20Books

Neither are simple to implement, but the more votes the ideas get, the more likely the devs are to invest the time to make the changes.

[Zacchaeus]

it seems like there should be a better solution to this problem. This isn't the first time it's been asked for, and nothing I've tried works.

At this point, I'm doing my game prep in another program. But hey, there's new dice on the marketplace to purchase!!

I just posted a video (video three here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?55797-How-do-I-in-Unity) which might help. If not or if you aren't confident in editing a font extension please reach out to me on the Smiteworks Discord and I can help get things sorted.

[merkvah]

https://youtu.be/XznIzivMQ2A?si=7sCsMBAudKmdFBc4

So I did it. And it worked. And it took a couple of hours for me to get things to work right. I didn't have "Show file extensions" enabled, i didn't have Notepad ++, I don't understand any of that stuff. But I got through it. It worked.

And then I realized that Zacc could simply have uploaded the file we watched him create to the Forge, and let us download it directly from there, rather than making us re-create it.

I mean... I'm grateful for the solution to the problem. But we WATCHED Zacc create the solution: It could be as easy for us as clicking the "Get" button on Forge.

Dear Fantasy Grounds,
Is this problem REALLY one that you want to tell your customers they have to fix themselves? The people who need a bigger font most likely don't understand the level of programing needed to fix it; I realize it's a very low level of programing, but it's a VERY simple solution for you, and a REALLY frustrating solution for some of us.

Please give us less shiny new dice and more Quality of Life improvements. I realize the dice make you money, but I promise you... Fantasy Grounds is the best VTT out there, but the learning curve is SO VERY STEEP that a lot of people are using Owlbear Rodeo or AboveVTT instead, because they're easier to use. If you make Fantasy Grounds easier to use, you will attract more of those customers.

Do yourselves a favor: Bring in some people who are completely new to Fantasy Grounds and just run some games for them for a few weeks or months. See where they struggle with it. Then fix those areas.

[merkvah]

It's not so simple.
Windows, buttons, fields, etc in FG are defined by pixels. If you increase the font size w/o increasing the underlying object, the font doesn't fit. The solution to this is /scaleui.

One solution might be to scale individual windows. You can vote on the request here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php?titlesearch=Scale%20Window%20U I%20Per%20Window

Another possible solution is to allow text within story/books that can allow for dynmaic window and text growth and scrolling etc. You can vote on that suggestion here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php?titlesearch=Adjustable%20font% 20size%20(or%20zoom)%20for%20Story%20Books

Neither are simple to implement, but the more votes the ideas get, the more likely the devs are to invest the time to make the changes.

Zacc's video shows a very simple solution for someone who understands that sort of thing.

Here's the file he showed us how to create. You can solve everyone else's problem by uploading it to the Forge and letting people download it by clicking the "get" button.

[Jiminimonka]

There are several extensions on the forge that already do what the video shows you how to make. So you know now how to load an extension.

The extension needs to be loaded for each campaign.

[Neovirtus]

I'm grateful for the solution to the problem. But we WATCHED Zacc create the solution: It could be as easy for us as clicking the "Get" button on Forge.

In your original post you asked for a solution that wasn't "a third party mod" or Forge install... Which is exactly now what you're asking for? He taught you how to make a custom mod yourself! The reason there's is no one size fits all fix is that everyone's needs are different. Allowing people to set their own ScaleUI value, or modify the program as they see fit is the ultimate solution. Not that things can't be improved, but I feel like you are asking for conflicting solutions.

[Jiminimonka]

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?85407-Larger-text-I-m-begging-here!&p=747359&viewfull=1#post747359

Has a link to an extension on the forge that does that.

[Zacchaeus]

Zacc's video shows a very simple solution for someone who understands that sort of thing.

Here's the file he showed us how to create. You can solve everyone else's problem by uploading it to the Forge and letting people download it by clicking the "get" button.

I removed the link to the file. We can't post things like this without the permission of the author of the original extension. You can use the file that you created for your own personal use however.

Additionally the file that I created in the video might not be suitable for everyone. As you saw you can edit quite a lot of things and not everyone might want red text or might want 28px text rather than 24 or some other value. Covering every possible combination would require hundreds, if not, thousands of extensions.

The ideal solution would be to be able to change the font size without changing the UI but that is something that would take a huge amount of effort in reprogramming how text fonts work inside of FGVTT.

[Zacchaeus]

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?85407-Larger-text-I-m-begging-here!&p=747359&viewfull=1#post747359

Has a link to an extension on the forge that does that.

That link goes to an item no longer available on the forge

[Trenloe]

You can solve everyone else's problem by uploading it to the Forge and letting people download it by clicking the "get" button.
What Lord Entrails is referring to when they say "it's not so simple" is valid. Changing the size of fonts can result in mispositioned/truncated text - as LE mentions, GUI definitions are in pixels, so changing font size from that used in the original design can result in a screwy looking GUI (rhyme intended).

If you change font size, you need to be aware of what you're changing and what screwy-GUI issues you're prepared to live with.

With this in mind, just producing an extension on the Forge that changes font sizes, when looking deeper, won't necessarily solve everyone else's problems, unfortunately.

[merkvah]

In your original post you asked for a solution that wasn't "a third party mod" or Forge install... Which is exactly now what you're asking for?

I was begging for ANY solution THAT WORKED.

I have tried several forge installs that didn't work. Increasing the font from 8 point to 8.5 point or whatever isn't as effective as you might imagine it is.

Please understand, I've been asking for this for years. And apparently, it's as simple as changing two digits in the coding. The only difficult part for the Devs would have been adding an interface within the FG Options menu to let you pick your font size. But like Zacc pointed out, many people have been asking for this for many years.

But hey! New dice we can purchase!

Imagine the difference in the manhours for coding particle effects on dozens of sets of new dice, as opposed to the interface and two digits in the code.

And the more I see modern VTTs, the more I see how old Fantasy Grounds really is.

[merkvah]

If you change font size, you need to be aware of what you're changing and what screwy-GUI issues you're prepared to live with.

With this in mind, just producing an extension on the Forge that changes font sizes, when looking deeper, won't necessarily solve everyone else's problems, unfortunately.


Trenloe, I have a lot of respect for you, but please see this from my perspective:

What you're saying is that you have a problem that your customer base has been complaining about for years, but because this problem isn't a simple fix, you've ignored it.

Fantasy Grounds is absolutely the best VTT on the market, but it needs to keep up with the others, because it has far stiffer competition than Roll20 at the moment. I'm grateful for the 2.5d perspectives, but they never get used at my table.

But, IMO, 50% of Fantasy Grounds' mission is presenting information. Readable fonts facilitate that.

I get that difficult problems have difficult solutions, but when so many people are shouting about it, maybe it's worth doing.

[Jiminimonka]

I was begging for ANY solution THAT WORKED.

I have tried several forge installs that didn't work. Increasing the font from 8 point to 8.5 point or whatever isn't as effective as you might imagine it is.

Please understand, I've been asking for this for years. And apparently, it's as simple as changing two digits in the coding. The only difficult part for the Devs would have been adding an interface within the FG Options menu to let you pick your font size. But like Zacc pointed out, many people have been asking for this for many years.

But hey! New dice we can purchase!

Imagine the difference in the manhours for coding particle effects on dozens of sets of new dice, as opposed to the interface and two digits in the code.

And the more I see modern VTTs, the more I see how old Fantasy Grounds really is.

It has been explained several times...

and you now have a solution.

Not many people have been asking for many years, a few have, and there have been extensions put on the Forge and forums already over the years.

Sarcasm about dice is not productive.

Use the extension you "wrote"

[merkvah]

deleted repost

[merkvah]

It has been explained several times...

and you now have a solution.

Not many people have been asking for many years, a few have, and there have been extensions put on the Forge and forums already over the years.

Sarcasm about dice is not productive.

Use the extension you "wrote"

My apologies. You're absolutely right. I will just shut up about my issues.

Have a great day.

[Jiminimonka]

My apologies. You're absolutely right. I will just shut up about my issues.

Have a great day.

The sarcasm is strong with you young padawan.

[LordEntrails]

(ugh, forum failed to post, sorry if this version is not as well written as the lost version.)

First, Trenloe, Zacchaeus, and myself do not represent SmiteWorks (SW), we are all just users like everyone else. SW employees will have a "SmiteWorks" label under their name.

Second, SW has not ignored this issue. Years ago they implemented /scaleui to address this issue for many (most?) users. And other have posted numerous big font type extensions to resolve this to their individual needs and shared them with the community via the Forums and the Forge. SW still is not ignoring that this issue is not solved for all users. SW simple has not prioritized it ahead of other issues that they have chosen to work on. SW has many factor to consider what they choose to spend their limited resources developing, and no matter what they chose, it will never be a perfect list of improvements for every user.

Finally, we all should make sure to encourage everyone to share their ideas, both here on the forums and through the Feature request list. Even when we don't share those priorities. But each of us has to realize that our individual desires are only one factor that SW has to consider.

So please, don't snipe at each other. It does us, the FG community, no good and only serves to annoy each other.

[Trenloe]

Trenloe, I have a lot of respect for you, but please see this from my perspective:

What you're saying is that you have a problem that your customer base has been complaining about for years, but because this problem isn't a simple fix, you've ignored it.

Please understand, I've been asking for this for years. And apparently, it's as simple as changing two digits in the coding. The only difficult part for the Devs would have been adding an interface within the FG Options menu to let you pick your font size
As has been pointed out, I don't work for SmiteWorks.

My post was purely about trying to provide further feedback as to why just changing font sizes is not the solution, which your post seemed to suggest and was strongly advocating. I wanted to provide feedback, to help you understand, that to fully change text size, without truncation/mispositioning text, would requires changes to all areas of FG to reposition/expand current hard coded GUI control positions. It's not a case of simply changing two digits in the coding. Hence the scaleui functionality was introduced to allow scaling across the whole GUI on a per-user basis to take into account not just text size, but other GUI element positions, which are often hard coded in different ways in different products. I know this isn't perfect, but it's a good catch-all solution based on the FG architecture.

SmiteWorks have been working through back end standardization for the back end code over the last few updates - this has actually been a pain for a lot of ruleset and extension developers, but in the long run it will allow for better control of GUI layout and maybe help do something like text size changes easier in the future. I don't work for SmiteWorks, so I can't comment if that is in the pipeline, but the ongoing Core changes help to facilitate this type of direction in the future.

I think a good interim solution is to allow individual windows to have UI scaling - therefore you can scale the Book window (reference manual), story entries and chat window - the main areas where there's lots of text, but leave the windows where control positioning is key as-is (character sheet, combat tracker, party sheet, NPC sheet, etc.). I went to the FG Wishlist to add this request and see that @MrDDT added this 11 days ago (nice one @MrDDT!): https://www.fantasygrounds.com/featurerequests/featurerequests.php?titlesearch=Scale%20Window%20U I%20Per%20Window Go vote for it!

[MrDDT]

Trenloe, I have a lot of respect for you, but please see this from my perspective:

What you're saying is that you have a problem that your customer base has been complaining about for years, but because this problem isn't a simple fix, you've ignored it.

Fantasy Grounds is absolutely the best VTT on the market, but it needs to keep up with the others, because it has far stiffer competition than Roll20 at the moment. I'm grateful for the 2.5d perspectives, but they never get used at my table.

But, IMO, 50% of Fantasy Grounds' mission is presenting information. Readable fonts facilitate that.

I get that difficult problems have difficult solutions, but when so many people are shouting about it, maybe it's worth doing.

You are not wrong.

The UI needs some major work, they keep saying they going to work on it and have not been doing anything with the UI other than themeing.

Being able to resize fonts per window per client is a must. Many people have 2k or 4k monitors and would like to be able to read text in a module.

I've made a feature request as you can see in my sig. I wish they would take it up.

[LordEntrails]

I wish they would take it up.
I'm not much a ruleset hack, yet. But I'm pretty sure they have to get all the windows templated and standardized before a meaningful solution can be rolled out. Otherwise it would probably either break nearly every extension and ruleset and have to be implemented one ruleset at a time. Such would not be a good way to resolve the issue.

I do wish we had more input from SW on these types of things, but I also understand why they remain mostly silent on future plans.

[MrDDT]

I'm not much a ruleset hack, yet. But I'm pretty sure they have to get all the windows templated and standardized before a meaningful solution can be rolled out. Otherwise it would probably either break nearly every extension and ruleset and have to be implemented one ruleset at a time. Such would not be a good way to resolve the issue.

I do wish we had more input from SW on these types of things, but I also understand why they remain mostly silent on future plans.

It's also one of the most complained about issue. I would say on the daily people ask about it.