pycharm: change documentation font size

Question

Pycharm's included documentation has a pretty small font. I'd like to make it more readable.

I've found how to change the font size in the editor and menus, but not in the docs. How do I change this?

Answer 1

You can't change font size in help, as a workaround use online help.

Answer 2

file->settings->colors&fonts-> save as (save the current scheme as your own)-> font- >change size

Answer 3

I asked a similar question and it was marked as a duplicate to this one. After digging around, the answer above is, unfortunately, technically correct. You can't change the font size of the help documentation through the application.

I did find a way to make it usable. Here's my work around. In the PyCharm application directory, locate the help directory.

• Make a backup copy of "pycharmhelp.jar" and call it something like pycharmhelp.jar.bak, or whatever you'd like. Keep this file in case you mess up!

• Using Nautilus, right click on "pycharmhelp.jar" and open it with the archive manager.

• Drill down through the folders to "/pycharm/DefaultCSS/"

• Copy the file "s.CSS" to the desktop and open it with an editor of your choice.

• PyCharm uses two font sizes: 10px for text, and 8px for navigation. I decided to double the size, you can set it to whatever is most comfortable to you. Using Find and replace, I searched for: "font-size: 10px" and replaced it with "font-size: 20px" and searched for: "font-size: 8px" and replaced it with: "font-size: 16px"

• After editing the file, save it and close the editor.

• Next, back in the archive manager, delete the "s.CSS" file by right clicking on it and choose "delete"

• Finally, drag the copy from your desktop and drop it into the archive.

You may have to repeat the process a couple of times to get the fonts to a size you like. This won't scale the pictures up, but at least you can read the documentation.

Hope this helps, and if things don't work out for some reason, just delete the entire jar file and restore your backup copy.

-james

Answer 4

even if the question is pretty old I've stumbled into the same challenge...but its now surpringsly easy with PyCharm CE 2019.2! After I couldnt found the "pycharmhelp.jar" I take a closer look. If you open e.g. the "Quick documentation" you will find a gear wheel in the right top - sorry, cant post an image because I am too new.... Just click on it - "Adjust font size" n thats it!