change text size for raspi config and retropie setup menu?

ohmycommodore

HI folks, I've seen mention of changing text size for the console / shell (I'll paste that info from the wiki below)... but what about changing text size for the blue-and-grey raspi config and retropie setup menus? I'm not finding any hits (or the right one) searching.

On my 240p CRT setup (on Pi 3B+) the text in those menus ends up so large that I can't see anything close to complete commands or file paths. For example, when installing themes, I see the first 20-30 characters maybe, but have no idea what the actual name of the theme is down at the end of the path. Frustrating when there are a few themes at basically the same path.

Reducing the font size in those menus would help me not fly so blind. It's the opposite problem I suppose from HDMI and LCD where you might be squinting at small text on a large screen. Assuming this text is NOT console text... is there a way to adjust it?

console text size adjustment from the wiki:
How can I increase the console font size? Recent versions of the RetroPie-Setup script include a Console Font script module at Configuration / tools -> consolefont. Alternatively, you can execute the following command and follow the instructions on screen: sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

mitu

@ohmycommodore said in change text size for raspi config and retropie setup menu?:

HI folks, I've seen mention of changing text size for the console / shell (I'll paste that info from the wiki below)... but what about changing text size for the blue-and-grey raspi config and retropie setup menus? I'm not finding any hits (or the right one) searching.

These are using the console text fonts, so the advice there should work. You can also use choose to use smaller fonts from the RetroPie-Setup menu:

As per the FAQ page, you can also run sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and you'll have a wider choice of fonts and sizes:

EDIT: I assume you're running a 240p video mode, right ?

ohmycommodore

@mitu Yeah 240p. I'll give that a try. I thought I did a couple of days ago, and it just changed the console, nothing else. I might have moved on to tinkering elsewhere before I gave it a complete look.

ohmycommodore

Actually it goes the other way because of my video size I guess... if I choose the smaller size, it blows up to the point where it's massive and I can't do anything. Good thing I had made a backup last night :)

mitu

That's why having SSH configured is handy, you can always log in remotely and fix things.

ohmycommodore

Yeah I'm in there now, but in either of those menus, 16x32 is the max. Technically I'd want even larger if I've wrapped my head around this correctly. Like 32x64 or something.

mitu

Use setfont to load an additional font for testing. console-setup doesn't list all the fonts available - which are in /usr/share/consolefonts:

setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/Uni3-Terminus32x62.psf.gz

Note that you need to run this from the console in order to see them in 'real-time'.

Once you find a good font, edit /etc/default/console-setup and add a line with the FONT filename:

FONT="Uni3-Terminus32x62.psf.gz"

ohmycommodore

Interesting. Though that first command (or the path) isn't working for me:

pi@retropie:~ $ setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/Uni3-Terminus32x62.psf.gz
Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

mitu

You need to run it from the console, not via SSH.

ohmycommodore

All I get is "cannot open font file". Not sure if it's actually 32x62 or 32x64 that is the correct size, but either way, same error.

Seeing the irony that I have to somewhat blindly type into giant console in order to make it not-giant console :)

mitu

Maybe a script that goes through all the available fonts and shows them for 3-5 seconds would be useful, so you don't have to type anything. You can always interrupt it with Ctrl+C or adjust the filename wildcard to get different font sizes.

#!/bin/bash
for f in /usr/share/consolefonts/*32*; do
    setfont "$f"
    clear
    echo Testing font $f ...
    echo
    echo "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
    sleep 3
done

ohmycommodore

I can see the font files from my Mac via FTP, and a number of 16x32 fonts seem to be the largest there is. That's fine, I hopefully I can just SSH in for 99% of things.