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I've had issues like this since I installed ubuntu on my ASUS ux303LB with Nvidia graphics and 3200x1800 resolution, but after messing around with the scaling in display properties and the font in firefox itself I've fixed most of the issues. However my lockscreen has a very small font for everything and it's really hard to see it. Sometimes when I close my laptop and it enters sleep mode, I'll open it and lockscreen will have a bigger font and everything just looks bigger, but then it'll go away

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High DPI Screens Configuration

Preparations

Install dConf and the Unity Tweak Tool from the Ubuntu Software Center.

Alternatively install from terminal:

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor unity-tweak-tool

Accept any other dependencies it may require. This programs let you change values for different settings of the system.

Scale the Display

Using dConf look for scale-factorUnder under com->ubuntu->user-interface. This property will change the size of many things but it will change the size of the icons you want to change.

On my laptop

Scale 8:dConf on scale 8

Scale 13:dConf on scale 13

As you can see the icons change size. You will notice other things also change size.

The scale value is specific for each display. In my examples HDMI2 is the external HDMI monitor and eDIP is the laptop integrated monitor.

Per monitor scale factor for all user interface components. The values are stored in a dictionary where the keys are IDs of monitors and the values are the scale factors. The scale factors are not the traditional float scale factors that one might expect. Instead they are integers that need to be divided by 8 before being used as regular scale factors. That limits the number of possible scalings applied to the UI without jeopardizing flexibility (there is still enough possible scalings for all devices out there). This limiting allows for better testing since there is now only a finite number of possible scalings. The scale factor also maps directly to the grid units used in the Ubuntu UI Toolkit where one grid unit is exactly equal to 'scale factor' number of pixels.

I suggest you change the value only by 1 at first to test that you are changing the scale of the correct monitor.

Launcher Icons

If you don't like the size of the Unity Launcher then you can go into System Settings -> Appearance and change the size of the Launcher icons. This will not change back the size of the other icons.

Alternatively you can use dConf again under org->compiz->profiles->unity->plugins->unityshell modify icon-size to change the size of the Launcher Icons.

Login Screen

As of changing the size of the icons at the login screen (ubuntu-greeter) it is not as straight forward. A bug has been reported on this subject but its importance appears as undecided.

Firefox

From this site, I found that entering about:config in the Firefox address bar will let you change some settings. Change the value of layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to 1.5 or 2. It takes a floating(Decimal) value so play with it until you like it.

Font Size (Including Firefox)

Install the Unity Tweak Tool. From here you can change the system wide font sizes. Unlike chrome this sizes will affect the fonts of Firefox interface.

Left Chrome - Right Firefox

enter image description here

If the websites are not viewed correctly I suggest to use zoom but the configuration of the style sheets of each website control the content.

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  • Okay so after using dconf I managed to change the size of what I wanted, however the lockscreen is only affected once th laptop is already up and running. When i first start it up the lockscreen is it's default self in my system, so very small. Any clues as to why?
    – Andy
    Jan 8, 2016 at 8:36
  • What do you mean? This should affect the lock screen and return from sleep. I am trying to determine how to affect lightdm before login but haven't been able to find a solution, editing this way is user specific rather than changing the default for all users. If it is not changing the size when you return from sleep let me know.
    – Torrien
    Jan 8, 2016 at 9:46
  • It does the lockscreen and return from sleep, but the only thing that remained unaffected by it was when I first boot my laptop normally. Once I'm in and do anything involving my lockscreen that's when it's affected and the font increases
    – Andy
    Jan 10, 2016 at 1:33
  • But i just realized that you mentioned that a bug has been reported on the login screen so this might be what I'm referring to?
    – Andy
    Jan 10, 2016 at 1:34

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