HiDPI & UI Scale — Sharp Display on Any Screen

Askimo is built to look sharp on every type of screen — from standard HD monitors to 4K displays and high-resolution laptops. This page explains how display scaling works and how you can take control of it if the default ever feels too small or too large.

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What Is Display Scaling?

Modern high-resolution screens pack many more pixels into the same physical space. Without scaling, everything on screen — text, buttons, icons — would appear tiny. Display scaling tells Askimo how much to enlarge the interface so it looks comfortable and readable at your screen’s native resolution.

Think of it like zoom on a document: 100% is the baseline, 150% makes everything half-again bigger, and 200% doubles the size — ideal for 4K monitors where 100% would be uncomfortably small.

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How Askimo Handles Scaling Automatically

Askimo tries its best to detect the right scale for your screen so you don’t have to configure anything.

Windows

On Windows, Askimo respects your system’s DPI setting. If you’ve already configured display scaling in Windows Settings → System → Display → Scale, Askimo honours that choice automatically. You only need to step in if Askimo’s rendering doesn’t match your expectation.

Linux

Linux display environments vary widely, so Askimo does active detection at startup. It reads hints from your desktop environment (such as GDK_SCALE, QT_SCALE_FACTOR, display DRM properties, and similar signals) to calculate the best scale for your monitor. If a non-default scale is detected, Askimo applies it silently — no action needed from you.

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Linux auto-detection in action: When Askimo finds a clear scaling hint (for example, a 200% HiDPI display), it sets the scale automatically and logs the decision. If no hint is found, it falls back to the platform default (100%), which you can always override manually.

If the auto-detected value isn’t right for your setup, you can override it in Preferences — see the next section.

macOS

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macOS users: nothing to configure here. macOS manages Retina display scaling entirely at the operating system level. Askimo inherits macOS’s native resolution handling automatically, which is why the Display Scale option is not available in Askimo’s Preferences on Mac. If your screen looks blurry or too small on macOS, adjusting the resolution in System Settings → Displays is the right place to start.

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Setting Your Own Scale (Windows & Linux)

If the automatic scale doesn’t feel right — perhaps text is slightly too small on a 1440p monitor, or too large on a low-DPI display — you can set it yourself.

To change the UI scale:

1. Open Settings using Ctrl + , (or via the menu bar)
2. Go to the Appearance tab
3. Scroll down to the Display Scale section
4. Pick your preferred scale from the dropdown
5. Restart Askimo to apply the change

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A restart is required after changing the scale. The setting takes effect on the next launch.

Available Scale Options

Windows offers fine-grained steps:

Scale	Best for
75%	Very large monitors where the default feels too big
100%	Standard HD (1080p) screens — the baseline
125%	1440p or 13“ laptops
150%	1440p or mid-size HiDPI displays
175%	Large HiDPI monitors
200%	4K displays or small screens with high pixel density

Linux supports whole-number steps only, due to a limitation of the X11/XRender display pipeline:

Scale	Best for
100%	Standard monitors
200%	HiDPI / 4K displays
300%	Very high-density displays

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On Linux with a Wayland compositor (such as GNOME or KDE Plasma on Wayland), fractional scaling may be available at the desktop environment level. In that case, set the scale in your desktop settings and leave Askimo at 100% to avoid double-scaling.

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Your Setting Always Wins

Askimo uses the following priority order to determine the final scale:

1. Your saved preference (set in Settings → Appearance → Display Scale)
2. JVM launch flags (-Dsun.java2d.uiScale or -Dskiko.uiScale) — for advanced users
3. Linux auto-detection (only when no preference or flag is set)
4. Platform default

This means once you pick a scale in Preferences, Askimo remembers it and won’t be overridden by system changes or restarts.

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Troubleshooting

Text or icons look blurry on Windows → Try enabling a higher scale (150% or 200%) in Settings → Appearance → Display Scale, then restart.

The interface is too large after connecting an external monitor → Lower the scale to 100% or 75% in Settings → Appearance → Display Scale, restart, and readjust.

Auto-detection picked the wrong scale on Linux → Override it manually in Settings → Appearance → Display Scale. Your saved preference always takes priority over auto-detection.

I don’t see a Display Scale option → You are likely on macOS, where display scaling is managed by the operating system. Adjust resolution in System Settings → Displays instead.