Scale an entire WPF window

Question

I have a WPF application that I am going to be demoing to an audience on a large, high-resolution projector, and I am worried that the application will be too small to see from afar.

Is there a simple way to make the ENTIRE application bigger (like the zoom slider in the WPF designer, that lets you zoom in?) I tried adding a layout transform to the Window in XAML, like so:

<Window.LayoutTransform>
    <ScaleTransform ScaleX="1.5" ScaleY="1.5" CenterX=".5" CenterY=".5" />
</Window.LayoutTransform>

which makes the window look bigger in the designer, but seems to have no effect on the running application.

I figure this should be dead simple with WPF's "resolution independence", high-tech text rendering, vector graphics, etc.

(I know I can use a screen zooming tool, but that's lame since it makes everything fuzzy, and always makes me dizzy when the presenter pans around the screen.)

Fuss

I think you might want a RenderTransform rather than a LayoutTransform. – Procrustes

@Gabe: RenderTransform is not allowed on a Window (throws XamlParseException). And I really do want to do a LayoutTransform anyway, since I want the controls to all be bigger, and push each other bigger (e.g. the Grids need to grow, the StackPanels need to grow). I know that LayoutTransforms are slower, but this is a line-of-business application where there are few animations and performance is not critical. – Fuss

I agree with Gabe. An entire ui window can be scaled from a mainwindow – Dextrorse

Answer 1

I posted a fairly detailed example of scaling the main element in another question. Perhaps it would be of some use to you.

Laurielaurier

This basically boils down to putting the LayoutTransform on the top-level grid, but you've done a lot more work to make it adjustable at runtime. All I wanted was a quick thing I could to to compile at higher size, but this is a better general-purpose solution. – Fuss

Answer 2

Just realized that putting the transform on the top-level control (a Grid, in my case), instead of on the window itself, has a similar effect to what I was looking for. The only difference is that the window size doesn't change so everything looks a little cramped, but that is easily remedied by making the window larger.

Fuss

old post, but could the Window-Property SizeToContent help in "crampled view". should always resize the window to the actual content size. – Simonesimoneau

Answer 3

Using ViewBox would be the simplest way to make an entire application bigger, even the font size. Here you can find some discussion about ViewBox.

Edd

People always forget the ViewBox. It solves so many problems! – Daisy

Answer 4

Working Solution

At least in WPF .NET Core 3.1 Window supports SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight", it may work with older versions also as this property is supported since .NET Framework 3.0.
Combined with a fixed width/height of the content control and a ScaleTransform set on LayoutTransform, it scales the entire window.

Recipe

• Window
  • SizeToContent: WidthAndHeight
• Content
  • Fixed size
  • LayoutTransform: your custom ScaleTransform

Note

Setting SizeToContent by a style doesn't work (seems too late in the process).

Sample XAML

<Window x:Class="Some.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Some"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" 
        SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight"
        >
    <Window.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ScaleTransform x:Key="windowScaleTransform" ScaleX="0.5" ScaleY="0.5" />
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Window.Resources>

    <Grid Width="1080" 
          Height="1920" 
          LayoutTransform="{StaticResource windowScaleTransform}"
          >
        <TextBlock>This window is scaled to 50%!</TextBlock>        
    </Frame>
</Window>

Sesquicentennial

it works,Sizetocontent did not work as expected,so i reset the size of the window – Scott