How to make Thunderbird's User Interface scale properly in Linux Mint
I've been using Thunderbird on Linux Mint for several years and I like it. However, I've recently switched from using a 4K 32" screen to a 1920 x 1080 (27") screen. Everything else in Mint and all other applications and browsers seem to scale their interfaces appropriately but Thunderbird looks awful. All the elements of it's User Interface are far too big and any message text is huge and has to be zoomed out to make it comfortable to read. It really looks childish and I know it isn't. Is there some setting I'm missing that would make Thunderbird look sensible/professional, rather than the mess it looks like at the moment?
Many thanks.
Craig
All Replies (6)
Forgot to mention it's TB 60.6.1 (64-bit) and Linux Mint 18.3 (64-bit) with Cinnamon 3.6.7.
If you switched from a high-res. display to a 'standard-res.', with the same TB profile, maybe you have to rebuild the layout by deleting or renaming the xulstore.json file in the profile folder.
Help/Troubleshooting Information, click Open Folder, close TB before making any changes.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Toolbar_or_windows_layout_not_working
Thanks but that didn't change anything. I renamed the old one and allowed TB to create a new one. Not sure there's anything in that file pertaining to things you can't change via the preferences anyway. But thanks.
The xulstore.json file is not just a collection of settings you can easily change in TB. Maybe you need to delete other files mentioned in the kb article, or re-install TB, or create a new profile. I seriously doubt that every Mint/TB user with a standard monitor has a distorted display. There is some discussion here about switching Firefox or TB between displays with different resolutions. Look at the layout.css.devPixelsPerPx preference in Edit/Preferences/Advanced/General/Config. editor.
Thanks again. Deleted the localstore, xulstore and session.json files but got the same. In detail the issues are:- Folder Tree and post list view are both fine. Header menu and footer texts are both fine. Today Pane list is fine. Everything else is over-large even with icons set to smaller. Everything in emails themselves is huge.
I should be able to switch back to 4K res on the 27" screens soon when a new laptop arrives so it'll probably be fine then. It's just I was hoping I could get it to look a bit more refined at "normal" res, as everything else does.
Not to worry. Thanks anyway.
try creating a new profile. I know it will not have your accounts, but does it get the resolution right?