Inconsistent UI Scaling on High-DPI Displays with Windows 11
Summary:
On Windows 11 with high-DPI scaling enabled, Inkscape does not scale all UI elements uniformly. Toolbar icons scale as expected, but many docked panel icons (e.g. Fill and Stroke, Layers) remain small and are unaffected by system or application scaling, leading to an inconsistent and difficult-to-use interface.
Steps to reproduce:
- Open Inkscape on a Windows 11 system with a high-resolution display (e.g. 4K)
- Set Windows display scaling to 175% or 200%
- Launch Inkscape
- Observe toolbar icons and docked menus (e.g. Fill & Stroke, Layers, Align & Distribute)
What happened?
- Toolbar icons and some menus scale up correctly
- Docked panel icons and controls (e.g. Fill and Stroke panel) remain small and unscaled
- Text sizes vary inconsistently between menus and panels
- Padding and spacing between UI elements feel cramped or uneven depending on the panel
What should have happened?
All interface elements, including icons and controls in docked panels, should scale consistently according to system DPI settings or the internal UI scale factor set in Inkscape.
Temporary workaround:
Setting the Inkscape executable to override high DPI scaling via Windows compatibility settings (Right-click > Properties > Compatibility > Change high DPI settings) and choosing “System (Enhanced)” as the scaling mode will force all UI elements to scale consistently. However, this method causes the entire application to appear slightly blurry, since it is being bitmap-scaled by Windows rather than rendered at native resolution.
Version info! 1.4
I did not have this issue on Windows 10 with a 4k monitor