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> Gtk2 already had oversized controls compared to Windows GTK+2 can actually be run with a Windows 9x/2000 widget theme ("redmond9x" IIRC). It's a tiny bit mor

> Gtk2 already had oversized controls compared to Windows GTK+2 can actually be run with a Windows 9x/2000 widget theme ("redmond9x" IIRC). It's a tiny bit more compact, but just doesn't save a real amount of space compared to the default look. Unfortunately GTK+3 has moved to CSS which was probably necessary for things like proper support on high-DPI screens, but has broken the existing theming support altogether. I do agree that the current lack of a "compact" mode for touch-free, mouse/keyboard-only use is a bit of an annoyance. But, like you, I don't necessarily view Qt as being all that better. And the default Adwaita theme in GTK+3 is tolerable enough.

Crinus 7y ago
You do not need CSS for proper high-DPI support, you just need a scale factor for your windows that your code doesn't ignore. AFAIK this is what Qt5 does. Also AFAIK Gtk+3 cannot do real scaling and instead pretends the display is always a low DPI device and applies integer scaling to everything - their "fractional scaling" is really rendering with integer scaling upwards to a bitmap which is then downscaled (AFAIK^2 this is only done on Wayland because they rely on the compositor for that even though there is nothing that forbids them doing it on X11 too - but i guess they need to push their awful tech somehow). This is where things such as "there are no half-pixels" come from when they talk about fractional scaling. FWIW personally i use the OneStepBack theme for Gtk3 because it makes the controls actually visible (especially your selection in menus, tabs, etc that isn't just a blue line beneath the control) and saves a bit of screen space.