How to enlarge GRUB boot screen text

[HappySoplosUser]

Hi - I tried editing the grub file in /etc/default to specifically set a resolution that would be readable, but it's not working. Nothing changed. Do you have some custom file or setting somewhere to adjust the size of the text displayed on grub boot?
Thanks

[Simnandez]

This post is deleted!

[Simnandez]

Hi, the best way to editing te grub is the Soplos Grub Editor Application, but if you have manually edit a grub configuration file you must run the sudo upgrade-grub command in the terminal.
Please remember: manually editing configuration files can lead to system problems and instability.

[HappySoplosUser]

Hi again - actually I just noticed your post in a different forum section about the Soplos Grub Editor. So I just tried that. It didn't help. I switched the resolution down to 1920x1200 and also made the font 30px. But when I boot the computer it still shows everything super tiny.

[subdes]

Hi again,

Actually the Soplos Grub Editor itself has a font conversion/installation feature built in (the "Font Selector" tab, TTF/OTF → PF2 conversion), so you don't need to use grub-mkfont manually — you can generate a larger font right from there.

Try going to that section of the editor, picking a TTF/OTF font, generating it at a larger size (e.g. 48-60px given your resolution on the XPS 16), and applying it from there. The "size" field you tried earlier in the general settings had no effect because it doesn't regenerate the actual font file — that has to be done through the font converter.

Let us know if it still doesn't look right after generating the font at a bigger size.

[HappySoplosUser]

@subdes Hello
Thanks for the information. I tried that Font Selector thing (I selected NotoSansDisplayBold) and set the size to 50 and it says it generated it successfully, and then I clicked apply and it said it worked and updated the config, but no change. GRUB screen still really small.
It's not a huge problem, I can still read it if I try, and it's not like I need GRUB for anything on a regular basis, but it would be nice if the changes did apply.
Oh well. Probably some weird bug with Panther Lake and/or my screen.

[subdes]

Hi again,

Ah, that explains it — the Font Selector only generates the .pf2 font file, it doesn't automatically wire it into the theme. You still need to edit theme.txt by hand and point it to the new font you generated, otherwise GRUB keeps using the original font reference in the theme.

The font file itself should be sitting wherever the Font Selector saved it (likely /boot/grub/fonts/). You'd need to open theme.txt (usually under /boot/grub/themes/<theme-name>/theme.txt) and change the relevant font= line to point to that new file.

I'll look into making the Font Selector apply this automatically in a future update, since right now it's a manual step. Thanks for testing it and reporting back — no worries that it's not urgent for you!

[HappySoplosUser]

@subdes Ah! That did it! (editing the theme file). I also had to edit the item_height property too, to fit the larger font on a line, but it works. Thanks for the help

[subdes]

Great to hear it worked! Good catch on item_height too — makes sense, a bigger font needs more vertical room per menu entry, and that's exactly the kind of detail the Font Selector doesn't handle automatically yet. Thanks for sticking with it and reporting back what fixed it, that's useful for anyone else who runs into the same thing.