[R] Changing fonts in the standard R editor

[Ben Bolker]

On 9/18/25 16:17, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> 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

    I saw that, but as I mentioned I didn't know whether changes 
elsewhere in the pipeline (Rtools, Windows libraries etc.) might also 
have had an effect ...

   cheers
     Ben B.

> 
>>
>>
>>
>>> 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]]
>>>>>
>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>      [[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-
>>>> guide.html
>>>> 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.
>>
> 

-- 
Dr. Benjamin Bolker
Professor, Mathematics & Statistics and Biology, McMaster University
Associate chair (graduate), Mathematics & Statistics
Director, School of Computational Science and Engineering
* E-mail is sent at my convenience; I don't expect replies outside of 
working hours.