Text too small in High DPI display and Large Fonts causes popups to be too large

klpeake

Please do not reply with all of the standard "fixes" for window scaling and Quicken "Large Fonts" and accessibility settings, I have tried them all.

This problem has been going on for YEARS Intuit! I have used Quicken for 40 freaking years and I am so sick and tired of the bandaides that keep getting applied to the software. I cannot see the regular text of the program, so I have to turn on "Large Fonts" which then makes every pop-up screen too big and I can't click the buttons on the bottom to accept the change, continue or even "X" to close the window, instead of I have to crash the program and reboot it! Ridiculous.

I cannot believe that you charge an annual fee for a piece of software which behaves so badly. If this were the initial days of high DPI displays it would be understandable, but it's been 10-13 years that you have had to make the corrections to this software to make it work properly and you do nothing. I have set multiple AI's on the task of trying to correct the problem and I have read through the Community bulletin boards and I am not finding any solution for this. Intuit started charging an subscription fee for this software but they don't fix the problems with it? What are we paying for if you are not going to actually upgrade the software and fix the bugs? Every AI program starts off with "Ah yes, this is a well known Quicken bug…".

Chris_QPW

Intuit sold Quicken years ago, the new company is called Quicken Inc. In fact, Intuit sold Quicken two years before "Quicken Subscription (which started in 2018)".

And since have tried "everything" and want no help, will just leave you with the fact that if Quicken Inc had a way to "fix this" they would surely have done so long ago. Unless you just believe that Quicken Inc just ignores what their customers ask for. And if that is the case I don't see what one more rant is going to make the difference.

I personally think it is an "unsolvable" problem. Quicken has 40+ years of mixed API most of which were put out long before high DPI was a thing (from a programming standpoint that works for all combinations of "high DPI").

klpeake

Exactly, they are in technical debt on the Quicken software. They need to invest in the future and scrap the crap and build something new. I am ready to leave.

Jim_Harman

It appears that like it or not, Quicken's main investment for the future is in their cloud-based Simplifi product. It does not yet have all the features of the desktop software, but maybe it would be OK for you. Unfortunately, there is currently no easy way to migrate your data from what is now called Quicken Classic to Simplifi.

I know you say you have tried everything, but please try this if you have not already:

Turn off the Large fonts setting in Quicken

Right-click on the Windows desktop and select Display settings.

Make sure the the Display resolution is set to the recommended value for your monitor. This will generally be the maximum resolution of your monitor.

Change the Scale to one of the selections greater than 100%. For me 125% works well even though the "Recommended" setting for my laptop is 150%.

If that makes the text too big in your other applications, you may be able to adjust them to make things smaller, or you can change your display settings back after you exit Quicken.

Pedro504

@Jim_Harman , this is excellent advice and I personally have setup my Display as you recommended.

I found 25% over the Recommended Settings the best approach for my High DPI Display.

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20536335#Comment_20536335

They don't have the resources to rewrite Quicken Windows Classic. Intuit started a rewrite of Quicken Mac in 2006 that isn't "finished" to this day. And if they had done that to Quicken Windows at the time, Quicken wouldn't exist. It took them two years to come out with Quicken Mac Essentials, which could have be termed "the bare minimum check book". Almost no one bought, and they didn't make money on Quicken Mac until something like 2015, in fact if I remember it correctly Intuit had sold Quicken by the time. If it wasn't for the fact that Quicken Windows was still a money stream, I'm sure they would have killed it.

People just don't really realize that unless you are a big as a Microsoft or Apply companies can't make a program with so many features in a short period of time. And frankly the Desktop personal finance business just isn't worth the cost. Microsoft decided that and so did Intuit.

klpeake

Thanks Jim, yes already tried that. My display resolution is maxed at 3840x2160 and Quicken does not get readable till I get to 300% on my scale, which brings it up to approx. 10pt fonts, but then I get a warning screen that pops up in Quicken stating that my display settings are going to cause problems with Quicken! LOL.

300% scale is SOOOO huge for everything else, this box of text I have typed covers almost 1/2 of my entire screen! I am just not going to keep changing my settings every time I need to open Quicken, it's ridiculous. Like I said, I'm just going to move to a different app.

Jim_Harman

How big is your screen in inches? If you need that much magnification to make the text readable, perhaps you need a bigger screen. These days monitors are surprisingly inexpensive.

[adding] Also is the problem at lower magnification blurriness, or is the text sharp but too small? If it is blurriness, the settings recommended by @Q97 below may help.

Q97

You might try turning off View → Use Large Fonts and using the System (Enhanced) setting. I use this on a 4k display and Quicken mostly looks fine, aside from a few bits of text that don't render in column headers.

Key Details for System (Enhanced) Scaling:

• Function: It acts as a bridge between older apps and modern, high-resolution screens by allowing Windows to handle the scaling, rather than relying on the application's native (and often outdated) scaling methods.
• Benefits: It specifically improves the appearance of text and user interface elements in GDI-based applications.
• How to Enable:
  1. Right-click the application executable or shortcut and select Properties.
  2. Go to the Compatibility tab.
  3. Click Change high DPI settings.
  4. Check Override high DPI scaling behavior.
  5. Select System (Enhanced) from the dropdown menu.
• Best For: Legacy applications that appear blurry or have incorrectly sized user interface elements on high-DPI screens.
• Limitations: While it generally provides better results than "System" (non-enhanced) scaling, it may not work perfectly with all applications. 

This method is highly effective for improving user experience on modern, high-resolution displays, particularly on laptops or monitors with high pixel density.