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I would like to delete some images with nautilus.

I increased the size to 200%.

My monitor has a high resolution and the image are too small for me.

I would like to increase the size even more, but it seems to be impossible.

See screenshot.

image thumbnails in Nautilus

Is there a particular reason why increasing beyond 200% is not possible?

7
  • It can go up to 267%. Would that be enough, or are you looking for even larger?
    – Enterprise
    Dec 2, 2018 at 16:36
  • Is it not possible to use an image viewer instead? It should be possible to "scroll" through images with the forward and back arrow keys, deleting the ones you don't want. The Dolphin file manager can scale thumbnails from 16px up to 256px but even that may not be enough to distinguish between two closely similar images.
    – DK Bose
    Dec 2, 2018 at 16:39
  • And a similar question was asked here: askubuntu.com/questions/1081905/…
    – DK Bose
    Dec 2, 2018 at 16:48
  • 3
    Does this answer your question? Nautilus Thumbnails Size Fix
    – vanadium
    Dec 14, 2019 at 10:36
  • 1
    With Caja you can get thumbnails as large as you want : askubuntu.com/a/1459134/607630 Mar 13, 2023 at 20:41

3 Answers 3

8
  1. Open a terminal and enter the following commands.

    In case you had enabled experimental views in Nautilus, we will first disable it.

    Then we set the desired "standard" icon thumbnail size. In this example, I've set thumbnail icon sizes to 400, but you can set it to whatever you want.

    gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences use-experimental-views false
    gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.icon-view thumbnail-size 400
    

    Note, if you want to make the above changes using a GUI application instead of a terminal, you can disable experimental views in Nautilus' Preferences menu. Also, you can install the package dconf-editor and set both fields using the Dconf Editor's GUI.

  2. Restart

    To make the changes effective kill the Nautius process (or simply restart your computer).

    killall nautilus
    
  3. Open Nautilus and navigate to the pictures folder you want to view.

  4. Click on the "Icons View" grid in the header bar.

    Click on the "Icons View" grid in the header bar

  5. Here is the thumbnails view with larger icons (100% = 400px). You can still scale them bigger or smaller from the new large default size you had set in step 1.

    Nautilus with larger thumbnails icons

8
  • Where this dconf/gsettings registry hack was documented? Please provide a link to official documentation.
    – N0rbert
    Dec 2, 2018 at 19:58
  • 1
    You can query gsettings for the key description: gsettings describe org.gnome.nautilus.icon-view thumbnail-size... "The default size of an icon for a thumbnail in the icon view when using NAUTILUS_ICON_SIZE_STANDARD size."
    – Enterprise
    Dec 2, 2018 at 20:33
  • Nice! In step 2, terminating and restarting Nautilus instead of rebooting work well.
    – pomsky
    Dec 3, 2018 at 5:26
  • This solution is too much typing for my grandma
    – guettli
    Dec 6, 2018 at 15:27
  • 8
    Sometime between 18.04 and 19.10 the thumbnail-size key seems to have been dropped
    – shay
    Dec 14, 2019 at 1:58
7
+50

Almost always modern glossy GNOME use strange non-intuitive methods for simple problems.
Seems to be limited by design.
You can see other snap problem as a good example of modern Nautilus "design".

It is time to switch to MATE or Cinnamon with their file-managers

  • Caja

    Caja on Ubuntu MATE 18.04.1 LTS

  • Nemo

    Nemo on Ubuntu MATE 18.04.1 LTS

as both they have 400% zoom.

IMHO: if you want to use computer for work without bells and whistles - do not use GNOME at all.

7
  • 1
    If I ever switch away from Kubuntu, it would be to Ubuntu Mate. I have the minimal install of 18.10 in a VM and it's extremely user-friendly.
    – DK Bose
    Dec 2, 2018 at 16:53
  • 1
    you said "if you want to use computer for work without bells and whistles - do not use GNOME at all." I want it to be simple and flexible. Thank you for your hint. I will have a look at Mate.
    – guettli
    Dec 2, 2018 at 19:56
  • 2
    Not an answer to the question
    – vanadium
    Dec 9, 2018 at 11:28
  • 1
    @vanadium True this isn't an answer to the question but it is valid as a "Frame Challenge" as I just learned about yesterday: askubuntu.com/questions/1098530/… Dec 9, 2018 at 17:47
  • Note: both caja and nemo have a dconf setting for custom thumbnail size if you want them really big (Nautilus doesn't have it anymore), but on nemo it's very buggy and unusable (at least on my XFCE system), whereas on caja it works fine. Nov 5, 2022 at 2:39
4

Here is a script that is easier for "grandma" to use:

zoom - Script to set Nautilus Thumbnail size

#!/bin/bash

# NAME: zoom
# DESC: Change nautilus thumbnail size based on parameter 1
#       For Ask Ubuntu question: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1097934
#       /nautilus-show-images-with-more-than-200-size

# DATE: December 7, 2018

if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
    echo "Usage: 'zoom 999'" 
    echo "Where 999 is zoom factor, eg 400 = 400% zoom"
    exit 1
fi

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.icon-view thumbnail-size "$1"
nautilus -q

exit 0

Installation and Usage

Place the file zoom in your search path.

Mark the file executable with chmod a+x /search-path-name/zoom

Call the script from terminal using zoom 999 where 999 is the zoom factor. For example zoom 400 will have nautilus zoom by 400%.

The script can be enhanced to use zenity for a desktop shortcut with GUI pop up window that prompts for zoom percentage.

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  • 2
    Grandma does not know how to create a script with gedit or vim. She does not know the command chmod(). She has old and weak eyes and all she wants is to see her grandson baby smile.
    – guettli
    Dec 7, 2018 at 15:24
  • The bash script is an easy method of changing zoom factor over 200%. After one-time setup, to copy and paste above script, you won't have to type "hard to remember" commands in the terminal. I was mislead by the "grandma" comments because I thought you were going to set this up on her computer. Dec 7, 2018 at 15:36
  • You are right. You can always walk around obstacles. Usability means for me "don't make me think". Maybe I should buy a commercial os for my grandma.
    – guettli
    Dec 7, 2018 at 15:40
  • @guettli types the script for granny, sends it as an attachment in email, tells her to save in ~/bin and types the chmod next time he visits granny. ;-)
    – Fabby
    Dec 7, 2018 at 22:11
  • 1
    @guettli Wouldn't it be much easier if you open the image with image viewer? Navigate with arrow key and delete with Delete key. You gotta see the image in full screen or a maximized window, albeit you can only delete the images one by one. Though, it can be argued if you enlarge the thumbnails large enough you'll only can see them two or three at a time.
    – aasril
    Dec 11, 2018 at 3:04

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