Scaling individual applications in KDE Plasma

I just switched from Windows 10. Windows 10 has this feature where it allows you to specify the scale of everything by default, but also override it for individual applications. My screen is 1920x1080 but physically small, so this is a must for me.

Is there anything similar in Manjaro on KDE Plasma? I found a way to scale everything via Display Configuration > Scale (can set to 125% which is perfect), but I need to override it for a specific application to display it at 100% (pixel-perfect game I’m working on).

For GTK3 applications:

env GDK_DPI_SCALE=1.25 somegtkapp

For Qt5 applications:

env QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.25 someqtapp

Replace 1.25 with your preferred scaling.

I believe there’s a different variable used for “fonts only”, however. (But the above should do what you’re looking for.)

I also believe you might introduce glitches if you veer away from 25% increments.

So these work best: .5, .75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, etc…

If you’re happy with it, make a custom shortcut or .desktop entry, and replace the Exec line.

So if it looks like this:

Exec=someqtapp

Change it to this:

Exec=env QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.25 someqtapp

If you prefer the GUI route to make such edits, most menu launchers let you right-click → Edit Application → and change the “command”.

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Neither of those commands seemed to scale the application. If it matters, this is for the Godot editor; I think it uses OpenGL (GLES3). I tried multiple scale factors (0.5, 1.0, 1.25).

Looks like Godot uses its own custom GUI. Neither Qt nor GTK.

Reminds me of Steam.

Perhaps Godot has a custom flag to launch it with a specific scaling?

Godot has an extensive CLI (I’m not allowed to post URLs). While it allows you to specify --resolution WxH, it still gets scaled according to whatever Manjaro specified in the scaling properties. (It matters if I take screenshots of my pixel-art game, and they end up stretched 25% instead of pixel-perfect.)

Any other ideas?

For Godot? No. :frowning:

The fact that it uses a custom UI, scaling might only be feasible with Windows. (Unless Godot has a built-in scaling method that can be used under X11 or Wayland, but it sounds like it does not.)

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OK, thanks for your help. For now, I guess it’s back to 100% scaling in Manjaro.

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