378

To increase font-size in Xcode is a pain.

11
  • Not sure what you mean; you can change font size used in editor window just fine through xcode preferences. Commented Aug 27, 2009 at 9:34
  • 1
    I don't blame you :) ... it seems that lot of people are not facing this problem by default and lot are (pls see comment to my answer) ... not sure why this discrepancy ... my best guess is all are not using the same version of XCode ... I am working with 3.1.3 and they way you do things in another version might be different. Commented Aug 27, 2009 at 10:09
  • 1
    XCode 4 UI for font customization is horrible, too. Commented Nov 24, 2011 at 3:49
  • 18
    XCode IS the prime example of how NOT to design settings in any app. Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 14:24
  • 1
    Thx for asking this question. I was frustrated about this. :D The default font size is 11 and on macbook pro retina it is really small. Commented Feb 28, 2014 at 20:56

22 Answers 22

275

For Xcode 4.1

Still a huge pain. Poor UI design (But my mindset does not seem to match the mindset of software engineers that make 100+ character variable and method names. Enough of my complaining)

I'll modify a previous post for the current version.

  1. Close any projects you have open in Xcode (Otherwise the Font window will be inaccessible while a project is open.)
  2. Go to XCode > Preferences > Fonts & Color
  3. From the 'Theme' box select the theme you want to modify (or select the theme you want to modify and click the "+" button at the bottom of the theme list to clone it first for backup, for there is no undo option)
  4. In the source editor box there is a list of types of text that you may set the font for: Plain text Comments Documentation Comments . . .

  5. Select any or all items from the source editor list and the name and size of the font for that particular text will show up in the 'Font' window below the 'Source Editor' window. (If you happen to skip highlighting one of these, you will be able to get to the Font Inspector and select new sizes, but will wonder why the changes you make are not being applied!)

  6. In the 'Font' window, click the small, almost hidden, and surely poorly design 'T' icon to the right of the font name and size.
  7. Voila! In only 14 keystrokes you are able to get the Font inspector window!
  8. Your existing font will be preselected in the font inspector. Whatever changes you make now will be applied to the text types you selected in the 'Source Editor' window. e.g. All Fonts > Menlo > Regular > 14
  9. Close the windows you opened on this hunt for the holy grail.

Congratulations. Your may now read your code. Wasn't that painless?

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12 Comments

+1 for #4 "select any or all". I would never have thought that I could select all of the entries and then change the font.
Thanks! I'd like to add that if you have other files opened when you change the Font & Colour preferences the changes won't propagate to them. After quitting and reopening Xcode, new buffers should use the selected style.
+1 for "But my mindset does not seem to match the mindset of software engineers that make 100+ character variable and method name"
Could you add "Step 0. Close any projects you have open in Xcode"? I don't know if it's expected behavior or my error, however in Xcode Version 5.1 (5B130a), I can't change fonts if there are any projects currently open.
Steve Jobs just rolled over in his grave. Any reason that we can't use the conventional ctrl+ or ctrl- to increase/decrease font size, respectively?
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171

Easisest solution:

  1. Close any open projects.

  2. Xcode > Preferences > Font & Colors

  3. Make sure to press CMD+A to select all possible text types. Then change the font size from the picker.

enter image description here

8 Comments

This worked, however it took several tries before the thing would accept any font changes... jeez. I wish we didn't have to use xcode for editing. /me investigates alternative ways to compile xcode projects...
I had to make a duplicate of this theme before I could edit it.
Command + A worked just fine and I didn't have to duplicate the theme before editing. Not sure why others are having issues.
2019 and still useful :D
2022 preferences -> Themes (but this article is still useful)
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150

Update! - Behold Xcode 9 to the rescue! Now you can use cmd + to increase the fonts with Xcode 9. It took 5 Major releases for you to get it, Apple! But better late than never.

figured it out - however it was not very intuitive.

First some Pain Points

  1. When You try to change the font size directly using edit -> format -> font, nothing happens! - Not a good UX ... moreover why play dumb when you can tell user that they are using default or "System-owned" theme and they cannot change it? - Bad Design and more bad UX ... Why keep this option (Cmd t) alive, which by the way is most standard way to increase font size across most well behaved mac apps, if you do not want user to change the font this way?

  2. In Xcode preferences, when you try to change the font size by clicking on "fonts and colors", thats when XCode gives a pop-up saying what needs to be done. Also making a duplicate and then changing the fonts and colors is a lot of work rather than giving a button that says "Restore to Defaults" if Apple is so worried about the user messing up the default settings!

The solution is that - you need to duplicate the theme and then modify the copy you just made and apply that copy - phew!

3 Comments

some links that I found when you google for "xcode increase font size" where users are getting frustrated over this issue. <br> The person who asked the question might well have gulped down a 6-pack and has declared XCode as the worst IDE ever!!!! - iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-tools-utilities/… <br>Here thread ends with a suggestion is to reinstall the Leopard cos the Updates might have corrupted the fonts!!!! - iphonedevsdk.com/forum/iphone-sdk-development/…
Just a tiny tip: you can select all the different text types, and change the font size for all of them in one stroke.
Agree with @Dev comment, JIC there is a better IDE for MAC, it is AppCode, it is not free but is worth!
55
  1. Go to XCode > Preferences > Fonts & Color
  2. Double click on a font entry to get the Font inspector window
  3. Select all font entries with sizes you'd like to increase/decrease
  4. In the Font inspector window select the same font (e.g. All Fonts > Menlo > Regular > 14)

Watch out because there's no undo!

3 Comments

how about the line spacing too? how could they put so much excruciating detail into the "provisioning" of the product and screw up something as basic as a human readable default text display?
You can make a backup copy of the theme first, otherwise you can overwrite it.
I think there is a backup: you can add a new theme from a set of template themes (which are the ones are added by default)
55

You can use this plugin to change the font size using ⌘ + or ⌘ - (Control - and Control + in the latest versions of Xcode. The plugin developers changed the shortcut to avoid conflict with Interface Builder hotkeys):

https://github.com/zats/AdjustFontSize-Xcode-Plugin

3 Comments

Having some problems in code 7.2.1. Should it work here?
For Xcode 7.2+ the key bindings changed to to Control - and Control +. This confused me. I thought my plugin was broken for awhile.
link now says "Plugins manipulating UI (like this one) are not supported by Xcode 8"
32

You can use the following:

  1. Press xcode->preferences
  2. select fonts and colors
  3. select ANY font in the list and press cmd+a (select all fonts)
  4. select font size for all editor fonts at the bottom of the window

1 Comment

I hope this answer gets more love, because it's certainly the easiest. :)
13

Go to Xcode -> preference -> fonts and color, then pick the presentation one. The font will be enlarged automatically.

enter image description here

Comments

10

Actually, this is very easy:

  1. Go to preferences
  2. Then to font and colors
  3. Then select all the text options by clicking on "plain text" then pressing cmd+a
  4. then click the little t in the font section
  5. then change the font and size as you wish and it will apply to all the code

Good luck!

1 Comment

agreed, i didn't find this very painful -- much easier than editing VS.NET's text editor.
10

For Xcode Version 12.3 and above (not sure if it works for a little old versions, but you can give it a try)

Xcode

-> Preferences -> Themes 
-> Select your favourite theme on left panel 
-> SourceEditor 
-> Select All (`cmd + A`) 
-> Click on T option 
-> Select size

enter image description here

Comments

9

I used cmd+ and it worked well to increase.. Same for decreasing cmq-

Comments

6

Go to

Xcode menu > Preferences > Font & Color > Category

Double-click on Plain Text, a popup menu will come up. Change it from there.

Comments

5

For XCODE 13 +

In newest version of Editor (currently Xcode 13) Just press "cmd" + "+" for increasing text size. For decresing text size press "cmd" + "-" . It is as simple as that. Apart from that you can specify text size /font/color for each category in Xcode Preferences -> Themes.

Comments

4

When changing fonts in XCode from [Preferences] (after duplicating a template that matches colours close to what you want), you can select multiple entries and change the fonts all at once. Use [shift] to select a range or [cmd] to select multiple individual entries (e.g. you might select both 'comments' and 'strings' and change only their fonts).

Steve

Comments

4

I found that in the Preferences, there is no fonts and colors selection. Guess the version is different, following is the one that works for the latest version.

Method 1

enter image description here

  • Go to Xcode -> Preferences
  • Click Themes
  • Click the T symbol in the middle of the font
  • Adjust the size at the bottom right corner

Method 2

Simply adjust with cmd + or cmd -

Comments

3

I also found that you can change the fonts for printing which is controlled by the "Printing" theme. I wanted the print output to be the same as the default, but with a larger font.

  1. rename "printing" to "printing1" (select the printing theme and click on it and it should allow you to change the name).

  2. click the "+" and select "Default" from the "New Theme From Template" selection

  3. rename it "Printing"

  4. click in the font area for "Source Editor" and cmd-A to select all of the fonts

  5. change the font size to some desired value (I like 12 point) by clicking the "T" icon and selecting the desired font size

After this the printouts should match the new "Printing" template (i.e. in color and bigger, or however you make the template), the key is that printing takes its formating from the "Printing" Theme.

Comments

3

Go to Xcode -> Preferences... -> Font & Colors -> 'select all types of font in' Default tab.

On this Selection apply Font Size from bottom control.

Comments

3

Apply following some steps:

Go to xcode_preferences->Then select font and colors->select all the text options->click on the font section and change fonts u want

Comments

2

For Xcode 12: (beta 3)

For the code editing windows, use the new

Editor -> Font Size -> Increase

or

Editor -> Font Size -> Decrease

menu items. This globally increases or decreases the font sizes for all editing windows. There is also an

Editor -> Font Size -> Reset

option. These also respond to the ⌘+ or ⌘- keyboard shortcuts.

By default, the file navigator on the left side corresponds to the

System Preferences -> General -> Sidebar icon size

You can also override the system size inside Xcode using the

Xcode -> Preferences -> General -> Navigator Size

Comments

2

All previous answers focus on what was possible: change the font size of the editor and debug area. But if you're sharing your screen navigators (File Navigators, etc.) are still tiny. You can change the size now to three presets in Settings > General > Navigator Size.

This will make your files and folders more readable while presenting.

Settings > General > Navigator Size, Large is selected

Comments

2
  1. Press "Command" + "+" for increasing text size.
  2. Press "Command" + "-" For decreasing text size.

With Xcode 13 you can also adjust the

Navigator font size

inside the Preferences panel:

Xcode 13 -> Preferences -> General -> Navigator Size

By default, it matches the system font scale, but you can override the settings and choose one of three different options: "Small", "Medium" or "Large".

enter image description here

Credits: Artem M

Comments

1

It is Aug 2011, Xcode 4.1 and it continues to be nightmare. Why not allow Cmd+ and Cmd- like everywhere else. < end rant >

As suggested by other respondents I suggest that you copy your preferred theme before you tweak the fonts for there is no ease way to undo.

In my case, all I wanted to do was increase the font size. Mercifully you can select multiple items (Shift+select or Cmd+select) and set the font for all the ones selected in one fell swoop.

Minor relief for a major irritation.

1 Comment

In most IDE's you have to change font and font size in settings. It's probably because changes to font impacts other aspects of the scheme. I don't know the reasons though, and it should be easier.
0

for Xocde 12.0 beta 5:

preferences > Themes > at the bottom you will see the font family.

preview

Comments

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