[R] Changing fonts in the standard R editor

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 2025-09-18 4:08 p.m., Ben Bolker wrote:
> 
> 
> On 9/18/25 15:34, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>> On 2025-09-18 2:58 p.m., Bert Gunter wrote:
>>> By "standard R editor" to you mean the RGUI editor that ships with R?
>>> On my
>>> Mac platform, it has menu entries in the "Format" menu that allow you to
>>> choose different fonts and sizes. On Windows, of course, the menus may be
>>> organized differently, but I would assume there's something similar.
>>> If you
>>> mean some other editor (e.g. see ?edit), then you need to dig into their
>>> docs. Again, I assume something similar would be available.
>>
>> I don't think it is available in Rgui.exe.  I believe that as Tim
>> describes, there's just one choice of font, you don't get "rich text"
>> like you do in the Mac R.app editor.
> 
>     But did font size *used* to be adjustable in Rgui.exe?  "I think that
> this used to be possible"
> 
>     I don't know exactly where to look for changes, I was looking at
> history of stuff in R/src/gnuwin32 (especially editor.h, editor.c) but
> didn't get very far.  Maybe things also changed in the upstream Windows
> libraries, i.e. Rtools → MINGW-w64, etc. ??


Look here:

   https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/trunk/src/gnuwin32/editor.c

No sign of any big changes there.  The last ones to talk about fonts or 
other display issues were in 2008.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> 
> 
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Bert
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 11:36 AM John Warner
>>> <John.Warner using chdifoundation.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear R development  Team
>>>> I am a long time user of R with a distinctly poor vision.  I have been
>>>> using the standard R interface for many years and am comfortable with it
>>>> except for one minor detail.  There seems to be no way to change the
>>>> font
>>>> in the standard R editor.  I think that this used to be possible and
>>>> would
>>>> like it to be brought back in future releases.  At the moment I have
>>>> many R
>>>> command files with font sizes that suit my needs.  By copying these and
>>>> renaming I can continue to work with fonts that I like.  It also
>>>> seems to
>>>> work if I start a new file in notepad and set the font size there.  I
>>>> can
>>>> then open this file in the R editor and the font size will be
>>>> retained.  At
>>>> the very least I would like to be sure that work arounds like this
>>>> remain
>>>> possible in any new releases.
>>>> Best
>>>> John Warner
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> John H. Warner, PhD, MBA
>>>> Director, Biostatistics
>>>> CHDI Management / CHDI Foundation
>>>> 155 Village Boulevard, Suite 200
>>>> Princeton, NJ, 08540
>>>> (609) 945-9644: office
>>>> (609) 751-7345: cell
>>>> (609) 452-2160: fax
>>>> john.warner using CHDIfoundation.org<mailto:john.warner using CHDIfoundation.org>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>           [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>>
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>>>> https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>>
>>>
>>>      [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-
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>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-
>> guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>