[Feature Request] Separate font size / zoom controls for UI interface and chat content

[damifan3]

Summary

Currently, T3 Code scales the entire application (both UI chrome/menus and chat/message content) simultaneously when adjusting zoom/font size. There is no way to adjust the chat/message font size independently from the overall interface elements.

We request separating the UI scaling/font size and the chat/message font size settings.

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Problem & Motivation

• Context: On high-DPI or large desktop monitors, users often prefer compact UI controls (sidebars, status bars, buttons, tab headers) to maximize screen real estate, while needing a larger, more legible font size for reading and editing long chat transcripts, reasoning blocks, and code snippets.
• Current Behavior: Adjusting the zoom level (e.g., Ctrl/Cmd + or zoom settings) scales everything up or down together. Increasing the zoom to make chat text comfortable to read makes sidebars and UI components excessively bulky, crowding the workspace.
• Pain Point: Users are forced into a compromise between readable conversation text and a clean, efficient layout.

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Proposed Solution

Provide independent configuration options for:

1. Chat / Message Font Size: Specifically controls the font size of user prompts, assistant responses, markdown text, and code blocks in the chat view (e.g., dropdown/input: 12px, 14px, 16px, etc., or Ctrl/Cmd + Wheel specific to the chat area).

Ideal Settings Layout (Preferences / Settings):

• Appearance > Interface Scale: [ 14px / 16px / ... ]
• Appearance > Chat Font Size: [ 14px / 16px / ... ]

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Alternatives Considered

• Browser/Electron-level global zoom (Ctrl + / Ctrl -): Scales UI and content uniformly, causing layout bloat when only larger text is needed.
• Custom CSS injection: Possible in some extensible environments, but fragile across software updates and inaccessible to non-technical users.

[juliusmarminge]

Note

Grok responding on behalf of Julius.

Thanks for the detailed write-up! This is the same request as discussion #10769, which asks for conversation text to be sized independently of the Interface font size, so I'm closing this as a duplicate to keep it in one place. Please upvote and add your notes there (the compact-chrome on high-DPI monitors use case is a good one). #14074 covers the related sidebar-vs-conversation split too.