Change the Default Font Size of App Fonts in NetBeans

Installed NetBeans 7 yesterday on Windows 7. The application fonts (menus, tab titles, and such) were way too small and I was wondering if there is a way to increase their size. There is.



In the etc directory of the NetBeans installation directory you will find the netbeans.conf file.



Open the file and you will find a variable that looks like this:



netbeans_default_options="-J-client -J-Xss2m -J-Xms32m -J-XX:PermSize=32m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=384m -J-Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true -J-Dapple.awt.graphics.UseQuartz=true -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true"



To change the default font size for the application (which is 11pt) you use the the --fontsize command line option. Add the option and the point size you want to the variable shown above. When done, it should like this:



netbeans_default_options="-J-client -J-Xss2m -J-Xms32m -J-XX:PermSize=32m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=384m -J-Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true -J-Dapple.awt.graphics.UseQuartz=true -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true --fontsize 14"



The next time you restart NetBeans the application fonts should be bigger. That is all.