[Bug 1670222] New: Eclipse help browser unusable due to hard-coded font size being unreadably small
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
Bug ID: 1670222 Summary: Eclipse help browser unusable due to hard-coded font size being unreadably small Product: Fedora Version: 29 Hardware: x86_64 OS: Linux Status: NEW Component: eclipse Severity: high Assignee: mat.booth@redhat.com Reporter: dwt@poltec.com QA Contact: extras-qa@fedoraproject.org CC: akurtako@redhat.com, andjrobins@gmail.com, dbhole@redhat.com, ebaron@fedoraproject.org, eclipse-sig@lists.fedoraproject.org, jerboaa@gmail.com, jjohnstn@redhat.com, lef@fedoraproject.org, mat.booth@redhat.com, rgrunber@redhat.com Target Milestone: --- Classification: Fedora
Description of problem: Eclipse help browser fonts are unreadably small
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): eclipse-platform-4.10.0-2.fc29.x86_64
How reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce: 1. Launch Eclipse 2. Help=>Help Contents 3. Help browser will open, note size of font in content pane
Actual results: On a 1080p laptop screen the content font is < 1mm high
Expected results: The help browser should be helpful and use a readably-sized font, and beyond that should be user configurable like pretty much everything else in eclipse
Additional info: This has actually been true since at least fedora 23, though back then I didn't notice when using a lower resolution screen, and may not have had much occasion to open the help browser anyway.
The help font resists being changed by any method; it's like it's hard-wired into the code. Nothing under windows=>preferences=>colors and fonts seems to have any effect. There are some promising-looking css files under ~/.eclipse, but changing all the font sizes to something huge does nothing.
The only thing which touches this problem is to set the desktop (Mate) font rendering dpi to something ridiculously high, like 200 or 300, but then everything else is scaled up absurdly.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #1 from Eric Williams ericwill@redhat.com --- I cannot reproduce the issue on Fedora 29, using Eclipse/SWT build I20190128-1800.
Does the issue reproduce if you select a clean workspace? Are you using GNOME as the desktop environment? Please attach a screenshot of the bug.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #2 from Eric Williams ericwill@redhat.com --- Can't reproduce it using eclipse-platform-4.10.0-2.fc29.x86_64 either.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
Mat Booth mat.booth@redhat.com changed:
What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CC| |dwt@poltec.com Flags| |needinfo?(dwt@poltec.com)
--- Comment #3 from Mat Booth mat.booth@redhat.com --- (Setting the need_info flag)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #4 from Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com --- (In reply to Eric Williams from comment #2)
Can't reproduce it using eclipse-platform-4.10.0-2.fc29.x86_64 either.
Hmmm...that prompts a question of my own. What kind of display are you using? The help window is actually readable for me, though barely, if I have my laptop connected to a 27" desktop panel. Its builtin panel is 13", which does aggravate the problem. On my older low-res (1400x1050) 14" thinkpad it was OK. While eclipse's behavior in this matter hasn't changed in the last 3 years, it's only become an issue on more modern higher res gear. Even then, it's only an issue because the font is hard-wired.
Do you also mean to say you have a means of changing that font size? If so I'd like to know how--that would solve my problem instantly. I've googled extensively and found lots of reports from people with the same complaint, but no solutions which actually work.
As for my installation...
Once I started getting into the weeds on this I needed to simplify things as I did have a lot of eclipse components installed. So my first step was to
dnf remove `rpm -qa | grep eclipse` dnf install eclipse-platform cd ~ rm -rf .eclipse workspace
That's about as minimalist and basic as can be, I think.
Then just launch eclipse and open the help browser. What I get is shown in a couple of screenshot images which I'll upload momentarily--one for the help window and one for the whole screen. For reference, the terminal window in the latter uses the system monospace font, which you can see is Monospace Regular 8 pt.
As I noted in passing in the original report, I'm using Mate Desktop.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com changed:
What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flags|needinfo?(dwt@poltec.com) |
--- Comment #5 from Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com --- Created attachment 1524784 --> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=1524784&action=edit Eclipse Help Window Screenshot
First image for my comment #4.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #6 from Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com --- Created attachment 1524785 --> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=1524785&action=edit Eclipse Entire Screenshot
Second image for my comment #4.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #7 from Mat Booth mat.booth@redhat.com --- (In reply to Dennis W. Tokarski from comment #5)
Created attachment 1524784 [details] Eclipse Help Window Screenshot
First image for my comment #4.
Heh, Dennis your screenshots are perfectly readable on my 15 inch 1080p display -- the help page text is at least 5mm high and the text in the tree widget on the left is huge :-)
Eric: These pages are rendered in the webkit widget, I think the real bug is that widget is not respecting the user's configured text sizes, what do you think? User seems to have a much higher DPI screen than we do :-)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #8 from Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com --- (In reply to Mat Booth from comment #7)
(In reply to Dennis W. Tokarski from comment #5)
Created attachment 1524784 [details] Eclipse Help Window Screenshot
First image for my comment #4.
Heh, Dennis your screenshots are perfectly readable on my 15 inch 1080p display -- the help page text is at least 5mm high and the text in the tree widget on the left is huge :-)
How does the help text compare with the terminal text? For me the terminal text is about twice the size of the help text.
Your 15 inch screen is going make things bigger, but not by that much I wouldn't expect.
Yeah, the tree font is big. That was another common complaint I found, and the complaints go back years (ca 2012). I don't understand why the upstream eclipse devs just ignore this.
Eric: These pages are rendered in the webkit widget, I think the real bug is that widget is not respecting the user's configured text sizes, what do you think? User seems to have a much higher DPI screen than we do :-)
Interesting idea. The Xorg log says the server set my dpi to 96x96. In the Mate font settings I have the font dpi set to 166, which is the screen native physical dpi. If I change it to 96 everything becomes microscopic. If I change it to 200, the help text becomes (just) readable. If I use xrandr to set dpi to 166x166 then nothing changes.
Keep in mind that the rendered size which counts as "readable" is pretty subjective. Your eyes are not my eyes, for which you should be grateful ;(
The lack of configurability here is fundamentally an accessibility issue.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #9 from Eric Williams ericwill@redhat.com --- I tried on both my laptop screen and my monitors (14" laptop screen @ 1080p and 24" monitors @ 1080p) and I can't reproduce the issue. When I change my scaling settings in GNOME to 200%, the text in Eclipse's help browser scales properly. I verified this using Epiphany to read the same help HTML file -- it too is scaled just like in Eclipse. Now, if I mess around with the font rendering/scaling in GNOME tweak tool, Eclipse's help system font does not scale but Epiphany's does.
There could be an SWT issue but I don't know for sure yet. Dennis, can you try on GNOME with the default system theme (Adwaita)? Sometimes scaling can be thrown off by the desktop environment, we have seen this in SWT with KDE for example.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #10 from Dennis W. Tokarski dwt@poltec.com --- (In reply to Eric Williams from comment #9)
I tried on both my laptop screen and my monitors (14" laptop screen @ 1080p and 24" monitors @ 1080p) and I can't reproduce the issue. When I change my scaling settings in GNOME to 200%, the text in Eclipse's help browser scales properly. I verified this using Epiphany to read the same help HTML file -- it too is scaled just like in Eclipse. Now, if I mess around with the font rendering/scaling in GNOME tweak tool, Eclipse's help system font does not scale but Epiphany's does.
There could be an SWT issue but I don't know for sure yet. Dennis, can you try on GNOME with the default system theme (Adwaita)? Sometimes scaling can be thrown off by the desktop environment, we have seen this in SWT with KDE for example.
Sure, I'll have to set that up on a VM. It'll take a bit, so stand by.
Although hmmm...if you're using Gnome are you also using Wayland? And would that matter? I should probably first make sure the issue still shows up on a VM with Mate/Xorg, then try Gnome/whatever-you're-using.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #11 from Eric Williams ericwill@redhat.com --- (In reply to Dennis W. Tokarski from comment #10)
(In reply to Eric Williams from comment #9)
I tried on both my laptop screen and my monitors (14" laptop screen @ 1080p and 24" monitors @ 1080p) and I can't reproduce the issue. When I change my scaling settings in GNOME to 200%, the text in Eclipse's help browser scales properly. I verified this using Epiphany to read the same help HTML file -- it too is scaled just like in Eclipse. Now, if I mess around with the font rendering/scaling in GNOME tweak tool, Eclipse's help system font does not scale but Epiphany's does.
There could be an SWT issue but I don't know for sure yet. Dennis, can you try on GNOME with the default system theme (Adwaita)? Sometimes scaling can be thrown off by the desktop environment, we have seen this in SWT with KDE for example.
Sure, I'll have to set that up on a VM. It'll take a bit, so stand by.
Although hmmm...if you're using Gnome are you also using Wayland? And would that matter? I should probably first make sure the issue still shows up on a VM with Mate/Xorg, then try Gnome/whatever-you're-using.
Yes it would matter actually, good call. I am using Wayland.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #12 from Mat Booth mat.booth@redhat.com --- (In reply to Dennis W. Tokarski from comment #8)
(In reply to Mat Booth from comment #7)
(In reply to Dennis W. Tokarski from comment #5)
Created attachment 1524784 [details] Eclipse Help Window Screenshot
First image for my comment #4.
Heh, Dennis your screenshots are perfectly readable on my 15 inch 1080p display -- the help page text is at least 5mm high and the text in the tree widget on the left is huge :-)
How does the help text compare with the terminal text? For me the terminal text is about twice the size of the help text.
Your 15 inch screen is going make things bigger, but not by that much I wouldn't expect.
It's about the same size as my terminal text. Here, I over-laid onto your screenshot my terminal and Eclipse Help window so you can compare: https://fedorapeople.org/~mbooth/eclipse-help.jpg
FWIW, I've never changed any scaling factor or DPI setting away from the default. But I do always make my terminal font smaller than the default.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
--- Comment #13 from Ben Cotton bcotton@redhat.com --- This message is a reminder that Fedora 29 is nearing its end of life. Fedora will stop maintaining and issuing updates for Fedora 29 on 2019-11-26. It is Fedora's policy to close all bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora 'version' of '29'.
Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' to a later Fedora version.
Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not able to fix it before Fedora 29 is end of life. If you would still like to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version of Fedora, you are encouraged change the 'version' to a later Fedora version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.
Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes bugs or makes them obsolete.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1670222
Ben Cotton bcotton@redhat.com changed:
What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Status|NEW |CLOSED Resolution|--- |EOL Last Closed| |2019-11-27 20:51:35
--- Comment #14 from Ben Cotton bcotton@redhat.com --- Fedora 29 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2019-11-26. Fedora 29 is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.
If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you are unable to reopen this bug, please file a new report against the current release. If you experience problems, please add a comment to this bug.
Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.
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