How to use jmeter ui on ultra high resolution display

Question

Edit as of August 2017 for version 3.2:

The answer below might be more up to date and simple

https://stackoverflow.com/a/45773659/460802

I stumbled upon answer about setting Swing font at runtime and it gave me a clue how to set JMeter’s fonts.

According to Swing’s DefaultMetalTheme.java source, this is a list of recognized Java properties which are used to determine the font size:

  128       private static final String[] defaultNames = {
  129           "swing.plaf.metal.controlFont",
  130           "swing.plaf.metal.systemFont",
  131           "swing.plaf.metal.userFont",
  132           "swing.plaf.metal.controlFont",
  133           "swing.plaf.metal.controlFont",
  134           "swing.plaf.metal.smallFont"
  135       };

So, what you need to do is to make sure these are set appropriately before JMeter starts. This is environment dependent, but I assume you use Windows and you are launching JMeter via the jmeter.bat file.
Just add these lines somewehere near the top of the jmeter.bat file:

set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.controlFont=Dialog-20
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.systemFont=Dialog-20
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.userFont=SansSerif-18
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.smallFont=SansSerif-16

Update: user lyaffe pointed out in comment that on a 4K laptop display you want to have fonts even bigger:

set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.controlFont=Dialog-32
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.systemFont=Dialog-32
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.userFont=SansSerif-20
set JVM_ARGS=%JVM_ARGS% -Dswing.plaf.metal.smallFont=SansSerif-20

Then start JMeter and make sure you use the Metal look and feel (Options -> Look and Feel -> Metal).

Unfortunately, this won’t affect font used in the left pane. It is either explicitly set to some small value, I guess, or it is controlled via another Java property I missed. I wasn’t able to find a comprehensive list of all Java properties used in Swing. There might be more properties for fonts. I someone knows it, tell us!

Leave a Comment Cancel reply