How to make desktop icons less fat on Gnome 3.16?

Question

I am contemplating putting these icons on a diet too, however before I start on their diet plan, I am going to try whatever you guys have on offer... So the problem at hand is that although I have now fixed this: How to make Nautilus icons in Gnome 3.16 less fat?

I am still unable to do the same for the desktop while not in Nautilus so icons look like this:

So that is really my question, without putting these icons on a diet, how do I shrink them down to normal size like they were in Gnome 3.14 and like I achieved in my other question?

OS Information:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.04
Release:    15.04
Codename:   vivid

Note: In GNOME 3.16, the smallest icon size is still too big. This was fixed in GNOME 3.18. — , Jun 03 '16 at 10:41

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 08 '15 at 15:36

4

The icon size settings for the desktop are the same as for the icon size in Nautilus for Icon View Defaults.

For smaller or bigger sizes, use the next steps

Right Click the desktop icon
Select Resize Icon…
Left Click the resize handlers at the edges of the wire frame
Resize the icon

You can restore the original size with

Right Click the desktop icon
Select Restore Icon's Original Size

If that doesn't work though, you really should think about changing their diet... ;-)

edited Aug 08 '15 at 15:36

answered Aug 08 '15 at 12:36

A.B.

90,397

1

I knew you were going to answer this! :P – Fabby Aug 08 '15 at 20:46
1

@Fabby Sure, why not :) – A.B. Aug 08 '15 at 21:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '16 at 10:33

1

In nautilus click on an icon then with CTRL mouse scroll you can resize the icon size. The desktop icons will resize too.

answered Jun 03 '16 at 10:33

Wiert Dijkkamp

11

Hi ! Is there actually a way of resizing icons in nautilus without resizing the ones on the desktop ? – Johannes Lemonde Jul 10 '17 at 07:46

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '17 at 03:55

Going below 48px requires changing the Nautilus source code and recompiling. (Yes, they hard-coded icons sizes.)

**** INSTRUCTIONS FOR NAUTILUS 3.20.4 ON UBUNTU-GNOME 17.04 ****

Install the following dependencies:
```
sudo apt install libgd-dev autotools-dev libexif-dev libexempi-dev libselinux1-dev libtracker-sparql-1.0-dev libext-dev libxml2-dev libgnome-desktop-3-dev
```
Each one installs a bunch of other stuff, so hopefully I've given you the correct parent package name. I apologize for not recalling with 100% accuracy exactly what I installed, but this looks fairly correct to me immediately after my install. (Notify me if I'm inaccurate anywhere.)
Download from the Nautilus snapshots website the version of Nautilus that you are currently using. To find that out, run "nautilus --version" from the terminal. After downloading the archive, unzip it to whatever directory you want to work from.
From within the unzipped package, open the file "nautilus-icon-info.h". Within the first several lines you will see various sizes designated for the particular scroll-setting options. For instance, within the file for version 3.20.4 the icon sizes start on line 36. Change each of those levels to whatever you want to use so that you can make the icons much smaller (or larger).
After editing and saving the file, it's time to configure, compile, and install. Run the following commands from the terminal from within the base directory of the version of nautilus that you have downloaded and unzipped. Make sure that you are within the base of the folder structure of the nautilus directories!
```
./configure  
make  
sudo make install
```
This can be run altogether with the command ./configure && make && make install.

If the ./configure command fails it's because you are missing some other dependencies. I apologize if my list of dependencies above was incomplete. Google (or whatever search engine you want) to find what package it is that you need. You can use Synaptic to search for what you need if you're unsure even after Googling.
Once installed, I suggest a reboot just to make sure that every single thing is reloaded properly. You can now tweak your icon sizes as you wish.

Nanashi No Gombe · Answer 4 · 2021-01-06T23:15:45.277

As of Gnome 3.36, the default way to change the Desktop icons size is through the Gnome Extensions settings for Desktop Icons. There are only three options: Small, Standard and Large, with Small meaning an icon of size 48 px inside a 120 px by 98 px padded box.

This can be changed by editing the file located at

/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano/prefs.js

and changing the values of ICON_SIZE, ICON_WIDTH and ICON_HEIGHT.

After you have saved your changes, restart the Gnome shell by pressing Alt+F2 and then running r at the prompt. This should immediately have visible effects on your desktop icons.

P.S. You can find a detailed walkthrough over at ubuntuhandbook.org.

How to make desktop icons less fat on Gnome 3.16?

4 Answers4