How can I change the size of Unity 2D launcher icons?

Question

Is it possible to make Unity 2D launcher icons smaller or larger than the default size?

Answer 1

11.10

There is a way to make the icons smaller, however the icons are surrounded by backlit that's always 54x54 px and you can't shrink that, it's hard coded. What you can do is this:

Answer 2

The slider for resize icons - Launcher is not available in ubuntu-2d (Unity 2D) session. So I assume you are using Unity 2D.

An ascertainment of which session you use , would be

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION 

command in terminal.

If you want to resize the Launcher - Icons in Ubuntu-2d (Unity 2D) session you must "hack" some items manually.

Carefully read and carefully apply bellow changes.

Open the terminal and do

gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/Shell.qml 

find this entry

LauncherLoader {
    id: launcherLoader
    anchors.top: parent.top
    anchors.bottom: parent.bottom
    width: 65

and change the width to 52.

Save - close and then again

 gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/common/IconTile.qml

find the entry

 Image {
    id: icon
    objectName: "icon"
    anchors.centerIn: parent
    smooth: true

    sourceSize.width: 48
    sourceSize.height: 48

and change the sourcesSize.width and sourceSize.height to 32

save - close the file and then again

gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/launcher/LauncherList.qml

find the section

AutoScrollingListView {
id: list
Accessible.name: objectName

/* The spacing is explicitly set in order to compensate
   the space added by selectionOutline and round_corner_54x54.png. */
spacing: -7

property int tileSize: 54

/* selectionOutline tile size, so AutoScrollingList view can calculate
   the right height. */
property int selectionOutlineSize:  65

and change the titeSize to 40 and selectionOutlineSize to 52.

Save the file and logout - login for changes take effect.

Enjoy and be aware that with an update in the future maybe (not for sure) these values returned to defaults.

This procedure was previously described here in March 2012: Changing icon size in Unity 2d Ubuntu 12.04.

Answer 3

12.04

Update:

There is a little script to change the size of the Unity-2d launcher items. Download the script from the forums (you need to login to download the file).

Then make the file executable:

chmod +x script.py

Use the script to change the size of the Unity-2D launcher item:

sudo script.py 32

Here, I have used 32 as an example. You can use other icon sizes as you wish.

References:

• http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-adjust-size-of-unity-2d-launcher-and-icons/
• http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/04/how-to-change-unity-2d-launcher-icon-size-with-a-script/

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Original answer:

As of writing this answer, it is not possible to change the size of the launcher icons easily. Georgi's hackish method is the best possible way to change the icon size.

The feature to change the icon size is still not fully developed yet and hopefully, it will land in for 12.04.

See https://answers.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+question/175008.

Answer 4

You can change icon size in 12.04. Go to the forums and see my post on this in the Desktop Environments forum

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1943423