# HiDPI scaling ignored in Jabref 5.2

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [January 18, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512 "2021-01-18T16:03:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jrohwer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/jrohwer/32/850_2.png) [@jrohwer](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jrohwer)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512/1 "2021-01-18T16:03:19Z")

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I upgraded to Jabref 5.2 today (downloaded and installed the DEB file on Ubuntu 20.04), from Jabref 5.0. I have a hidpi display and previously adjusted the screen scaling according to the installation documentation:

> **[Installation](https://docs.jabref.org/installation#everything-looks-too-big-or-too-small-how-can-i-change-it-to-to-a-more-reasonable-size)**

This worked fine with JabRef 5.0, but with 5.2 the `-Dglass.gtk.uiScale` setting is ignored and everything appears very small, irrespective of the value set for uiScale.

My current configuration file at `/opt/jabref/lib/app/JabRef.cfg`:

```
[Application]
app.mainmodule=org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.JabRefLauncher

[JavaOptions]
-Dglass.gtk.uiScale=1.5

```

I have not tried the standalone version as I would like to avoid manually creating all the application startup shortcuts and the DEB does this automatically. Any ideas?

Edit: the standalone version also does not work. I was assuming it is distributed as a jar file but it is not, otherwise I could have tried to launch the option on the command line à la  
`java -Dglass.gtk.uiScale=1.5 -jar JabRef.jar`

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512/2 "2021-01-18T17:36:42Z")

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Hi,

The issue with the HiDPI scaling is a Java(FX) bug which will be hopefully fixed in the next version.  
Meanwhile, you can find the script which calls JabRef with parameters in the file  
JabRef/lib/runtime/bin/JabRef

```
"$DIR/java" -p "$DIR/../app" -m org.jabref/org.jabref.gui.JabRefLauncher "$@"

```

I guess the deb file also just calls this. So you could add the option `-Dglass.gtk.uiScale=1.5` before the `-p` argument

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**Author:** ![jrohwer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/jrohwer/32/850_2.png) [@jrohwer](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jrohwer)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:53am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512/3 "2021-01-19T08:53:45Z")

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Thanks for the pointer, this worked after an additional workaround. 👍

After the deb installation, the executable file in the path is a link  
`/opt/bin/jabref -> /opt/jabref/bin/JabRef`

However, the target file is a binary file, and executing this does not respect any changes made to the script `/opt/jabref/lib/runtime/bin/JabRef`. By changing the link in `/opt/bin` to point to the script `/opt/jabref/lib/runtime/bin/JabRef` rather than the binary executable `/opt/jabref/bin/JabRef`, I could get it to work.

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**Author:** ![jrgant](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/jrgant/32/824_2.png) [@jrgant](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/jrgant)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 4:51pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/hidpi-scaling-ignored-in-jabref-5-2/2512/4 "2022-02-17T16:51:39Z")

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For anyone else having this trouble, I did not see the link referred to here after installing the DEB. After altering the script suggested by @Siedlerchr, I had to edit `/opt/jabref/lib/jabref-JabRef.desktop` as follows: replace the line `Exec=opt/jabref/bin/JabRef` with `Exec=/opt/jabref/lib/runtime/bin/JabRef`. After that, JabRef launches from the application shortcut while respecting the scaling factor.