Powerline does not scale correctly after upgrading emacs to 27.1

[yzh119]

Description :octocat:

After I upgrade my emacs from 26.3 to 27.1, the height of powerline becomes twice the size it previously was:

and change the value of powerline-scale does not help.

Reproduction guide :beetle:

• Start Emacs

  $ emacs &

Observed behaviour: :eyes: :broken_heart: The height of powerline is larger than it previously was.

Expected behaviour: :heart: :smile: The powerline should look "thinner".

System Info :computer:

• OS: gnu/linux
• Emacs: 27.1
• Spacemacs: 0.300.0
• Spacemacs branch: develop (rev. ca2cdd0fc)
• Graphic display: t
• Distribution: spacemacs
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: helm
• Layers:

  (html coq lsp javascript helm auto-completion better-defaults ibuffer imenu-list
    (chinese :variables chinese-enable-youdao-dict t)
    semantic emacs-lisp
    (python :variables python-backend 'lsp python-lsp-server 'pyls)
    (c-c++ :variables c-c++-default-mode-for-headers 'c++-mode c-c++-enable-clang-support t)
    ocaml rust git themes-megapack latex racket markdown org spell-checking syntax-checking)

• System configuration features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND GPM DBUS GSETTINGS GLIB NOTIFY INOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 FREETYPE HARFBUZZ M17N_FLT LIBOTF XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 XDBE XIM MODULES THREADS LIBSYSTEMD JSON PDUMPER LCMS2 GMP

[practicalli-johnny]

Use SPC f e D to ensure that the .spacemacs file is up to date with the spacemacs.template file. dotspacemacs-default-font no longer includes the :powerline-scale1.

 dotspacemacs-default-font '("Ubuntu Mono" :size 24.0 :weight normal :width normal)

The dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme has a optional :separator-scale configuration, adjusting or removing this option should affect the size of the modeline

dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme '(spacemacs :separator wave :separator-scale 1.5)

Alternatively, suggest trying a different font family or theme. There may also be something missing from the Emacs build.

If using doom or all-the-icons themes, ensure the command SPC SPC all-the-icons-install-fonts is run to download the required files for these modeline themes.

I have not seen issues raised like this on the Spacemacs Gitter community https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs

Unfortunately the SPC h I key binding in Spacemacs was not used to raise this issue, so there is no information available about the system you are using and therefore it will be much harder to diagnose.

[yzh119]

Hi @jr0cket , I updated the issue description following your template. Yes I do think it's because of font, I'll try to figure out a workaround.

[duianto]

If someone else encounters the same issue, it would be helpful to know what you were using when the issue occurred:

• Linux distribution, maybe the default OS font has an effect, depending on the Spacemacs font choice
• Emacs Theme
• Is it a HiDPI display and is it using any OS level scaling

[andreyk0]

@duianto experienced the same issue on Arch / gnome / wayland / HiDpi screen @ 200%. My config is here.

I do have the fonts explicitly set in the config and was running with dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme '(vim-powerline) before the update.

dotspacemacs-default-font '("Source Code Pro Medium" :size 13.0 :weight normal :width normal)

If someone's looking for a way to re-create the issue -maybe this'll help.

After update tried to fiddle with a few more themes. Emacs default one didn't have this issue. Tried doom and it worked with an extra hack that I pasted from some search result. Ugly but works for now, sorry, I don't know elisp, can't fix this properly.

[yzh119]

@duianto, I'm using Arch / gnome / xorg / HiDpi screen @ 200%. The theme used is tango-dark, and trying other themes doesn't help (like @andreyk0 ). font configuration:

   dotspacemacs-default-font '("Source Code Pro"
                               :size 28
                               :weight normal
                               :width normal
                               :powerline-scale 1)

[duianto]

Maybe there's some useful info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/51wm7d/emacs_on_hidpi_displays/

[ghost]

Hi, I have the same problem since the emacs 27.1 upgrade. I run Arch / i3-gaps / xserver / Xft.dpi: 192 Here is what it looks like: https://folio.ink/SevRmI Here is my config file: https://github.com/philippera/arch-dotfiles/blob/master/homedir/.spacemacs For me changing themes does not change the problem and the powerline-scale option does nothing. dotspacemacs-default-font '("Source Code Pro" :size 13.0 :weight normal :width normal)

[ghost]

dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme '(spacemacs :separator wave :separator-scale 0.5)

:separator-scale at 0.5 solves the problem for me

[yzh119]

@philippera 's solution works for me as well :)

[yang-ling]

@duianto

Is it a HiDPI display and is it using any OS level scaling

→ I can confirm this issue only happens when you use HiDPI display and set scaling. I have installed spacemacs both on my home MacBookPro and my work PC. Spaceline looks well on my work PC, but it looks much more larger on my home MBP.

I solved it by changing dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme setting.

You can:

• set :separator-scale to 0.5 if you have a HiDPI display.

• Or set spaceline theme to vanilla, which is default Emacs mode-line. (I feel separator-scale doesn't take effect when vanilla is used.)

  Both of the following config work for me:

• dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme '(spacemacs :separator wave :separator-scale 0.5)
• Or dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme '(vanilla :separator wave :separator-scale 1.5)

@jr0cket Your comments are very helpful. Thanks!

[laynor]

I just fixed a very similar issue to this one in my config. The issue was related, at least in my case, to the font fallback. Try opening spaceline-segments.el and check the function spaceline--unicode-number. In my case the lines where the unicode chars appear had lots of interline spacing. It was due to emacs selecting Noto Sans to display the symbols, which appears to have a very different height w.r.t. my default font, at least when displaying those symbols. You can verify what font is being used with M-x describe-char. I solved my issue adding this to my config:

  (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" 'symbol (font-spec :size 12 :name "Symbols Nerd Font Bold"))

in my dotspacemacs/user-config function.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Please let us know if this issue is still valid!

[lebensterben]

For future references, try setting :separator-scale 0.5 in dotspacemacs-mode-line-theme on high DPI.