Changing Font in MySQL Workbench

Question

I am using MySQL Workbench 5.2, the newest version as far as I know, but I simply cannot change the font. It is very inconvenient, because the default font is very small and harsh on the eyes. The appearance tab has options for changing the font, but no change can actually be made there, as the field cannot actually be edited.

Does anyone know of a way around this? It seems to be a common bug, but I can't find a fix anywhere.

Diploblastic

5.2 is a long series. Exactly what 5.2.x version do you have? – Latoyia

My exact version is 5.2.38, I downloaded it only a couple of days ago, so I assume that it is the most recent version. – Diploblastic

Yes, so far 5.2.38 is the most recent WB version. – Latoyia

Welp here's after 8years, 2020 MySQL Workbench 8.0 in Windows10 still have very small font size and there's no Real solution. Yea, the font size of script and result can be changed, but the rest of GUI like the side panel and the weird Windows Vista style prompt will have super small font in mostly standard resolution like 1920x1080, and there is little hope for user with higher resolution like 4k screen. Just Bad UI design. A work around is to use other tool, like DBeaver is quite good (but very terrible dark mode in Windows). However, may get compatibility issue and missing native feature. – Tyler

Answer 1

In the

Edit > Preferences... > Appearance > Fonts section

of the mentioned version, you can edit the font but you have to slowly double click, as its very wonky (or press enter) and then you manually have to type in the font name followed by a space and font size for example mine states:

Source Sans Pro 10

Also it requires a program restart.

Himself

It also applies for MySQL Workbench 6.0.6. – Lillith

Also confirmed in MySQL Workbench 6.0.8. Instead of slow double click, I always use click(to select), slight move (to avoid double), click (for the edit action) – Concavity

Causes a crash for me on Mac, with MySQL Workbench version 6.3.4.0 - but works apart from that. So save your work before attempting to change the font! – Mountebank

Don't need to restart Workbench. It is sufficient to open a new query window (>5.2). – Squirmy

6.3 doesn't need a restart. I wanted to have "Courier New", bold variant and font size 30. In the properties tab, click the 'Font' field and press enter, then I used this value: "Courier New Bold 30" and it worked like a charm. – Discriminate

Press F2 and restart – Worrywart

What about object explorer, how to change the font there? I've applied a lot larger for sizes and true query window font size did change but object/schema explorer didn't. – Titillate

i have updated all fonts to 16/18 under both appearance, and fonts in the left sidebar of preferences, closed reopened, no change for me on mac 6.3.3. still extremely small to see on my 28inch monitor. – Broadcloth

Thank you, slow double click are the most important information. – Creamcups

This answer is correct, BUT there seems to be NO Way to change the font for any of the Program's text. I can hardly read the screens or the menus. Or the Options File. It seems the font sizes it lets us choose is limited to queries and results, et al. Any insight on how to change the OTHER fonts? – Cirri

Answer 2

On Mac, on the top left corner,

MYSQLWorkbench -> Preferences -> Fonts 

Increase the numbers here

NOTE : Make sure to close the instance and reopen it for these changes to apply.

Quyenr

Answer 3

Only thing you need to do is increase zoom:

(MySQL: 8.0.12)On a mac computer.

picture of mysql and an arrow pointing to the zoom tool

IF YOU ARE ON LINUX (DEBIAN and many others)

Hold ctrl and scroll up (mouse scroll)

Vachon

Hello @victor-kolis, welcome to StackOverflow community. You can make your answer more informative by providing version information like which workbench version onwards has this feature or all versions have this feature or you can mention your workbench version as well. – Dovelike

I do not see this on MySQL Workbench 8.0, on Windows 10. Do I have to enable it somehow? – Cirri

Disclaimer: I am not 100% sure. But the zoom option is a Mac thing. Windows workbench would rather use the preference means: dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/… – Vachon

On windows theres no zoom size shown, but you can zoom in/out using the standard ctrl+'mouse scroll wheel' – Pensionary

Worked for me , a small tab for developer a giant leap for dev community! – Ancheta

Answer 4

Similarly for Mac OS X using the hidden path below (ref: this link):

"You can edit the preferences directly in their XML files. Shut down MWB. Then edit the file ~/Library/Application Support/MySQL/Workbench/wb_options.xml. Look for the key workbench.general.Editor:Font, and change the font there. Now restart MWB to see your change."

Frankish

Answer 5

Edit -> Preferences... -> Appearance -> Fonts section

Highlight a row, click ENTER, you can then edit the font and size.

Restart the app after.

Jacky

On Windows 10, Workbench 8.0, Enter closes the dialog. Instead a Click to select a row. Then a second click (but not so fast as to be registered as a double-click), will let you edit. This is a very poor UI. Super frustrating. – Cirri

Answer 6

Well, I just wanted to increase the size of font only because it was too small in my WB 6.1.

1. Close WB

2. Go to:
   C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\MySQL\Workbench\wb_options.xml,
   where <User> is your Windows user login name.
   Locate "workbench.general.Editor:Font".
   I had Consolas 10 there, and changed it to Consolas 13.
   That increased font to a comfortable size.

Hexahedron

Definitely easier to edit font sizes from here than using their UI. However I cannot find an entry that changes the font used by the program itself. Most text, labels, menus, settings, options, etc use a very tiny font that I can hardly read. Hurts my eyes too. The ones they give access to only affect stuff such a Queries, Results, etc. Stuff that WE edit or control. Main Workbench font is never affected. Zoom, which works in Browsers and some programs, has no effect on WB. Anyone have any work around for this? I'm on Windows 10, Workbench 8.0.21 (8.0.22 won't export anything, so I reverted). – Cirri

Answer 7

After clean installing MySQL Workbench (WB) 5.2.47 (Windows 7) on a new machine, I wanted the Lucida Console font as I am used to, but for some reason WB chooses a different font for reserved keywords, making the code unreadable. There is no setting for reserved keywords. So I could not easily change this by editing the wp_options.xml file. The only font setting which was acceptable was Courier New.

Then I went to another machine, and copied wp_options.xml from a WB 5.2.47 which had a history of WB upgrades. That did the trick, it worked fine on the newly installed WB.

Looking at the both wp_options.xml files in a text diff tool, I noted many differences, but not any that could explain the difference. My conclusion is that Oracle needs to work with UI configuration, as it is not OK that subtle, obscure edits in the wp_options.xml file is what is required to make the WB UI acceptable.

Gyrostatic

Answer 8

You can also do ctrl + mouse scroll to control size of font just like we do in VS code

Nutshell

Answer 9

I am using version MySQL Workbench 8.0 CE, I selected the editor, clicked control, and then scrolled up. Worked perfectly.

Timoshenko

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Answer 10

Edit -> Preferences -> Fonts & Colors

I bumped all the fonts up 4 points - beautiful.

Librate