Public bug reported:
I am using Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS on a HiDPI display.
Ncview's main Xaw interface can be made readable by increasing the X
resources/font sizes, but several parts of ncview do not scale
consistently with the rest of the interface.
Observed behavior:
- The main buttons, labels, and dialogs can be enlarged using X resources.
- The numerical labels below the colorbar remain very small.
- XY/time-series plots also use very small axis tick labels and fonts.
- When larger interface fonts are used, the default ncview window geometry is
too small and some widgets, especially the colorbar, become vertically
compressed.
- Starting ncview with a larger geometry, for example:
ncview -geometry 1000x1200 file.nc
fixes the layout/compression problem, but does not by itself provide
consistent HiDPI scaling for the internally rendered fonts.
I reproduced this behavior with ncview 2.1.11 built manually from the
upstream source on Ubuntu 26.04.1.
I also observe the same general HiDPI issue when running older ncview
versions, such as ncview 2.1.8, on remote HPC systems through X11
forwarding.
From inspecting the ncview 2.1.11 source code:
- The colorbar labels use the built-in helvR08 bitmap font in
src/interface/cbar.c rather than the X11/Xaw font resources used by the main
interface.
- SciPlot uses separate hard-coded font defaults, including a relatively small
axis font.
As a local test, I was able to make ncview much more usable on a HiDPI display
by:
- scaling the internal colorbar font,
- increasing the colorbar height,
- increasing SciPlot font sizes,
- and using a larger initial window geometry.
Expected behavior:
Ncview should scale all GUI elements consistently on a HiDPI display, including:
1. the main Xaw interface,
2. colorbar numerical labels,
3. SciPlot/XY plot fonts,
4. and the initial window geometry.
Ideally these elements would follow a common scaling factor or X
resource setting rather than requiring source-code modifications.
Actual behavior:
The main Xaw widgets can be enlarged using X resources, but the colorbar
labels and SciPlot fonts remain disproportionately small. Increasing the
window geometry prevents layout compression but does not provide
consistent HiDPI scaling.
System information:
Ubuntu release:
Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
Release: 26.04
Ubuntu package status:
$ apt-cache policy ncview
ncview:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: (none)
Version table:
The ncview 2.1.11 used for this test was built manually from the
upstream source because no ncview package candidate is currently
available through APT on this system.
** Affects: ncview (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2167894
Title:
ncview HiDPI scaling issue: colorbar and plot fonts remain tiny on
Ubuntu 26.04
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