Question

How do you change the font face and font size used by the Windows Ribbon Framwork‘s UIRibbon?

The font used by the ribbon does not match the font the user has chosen as their Windows preferences – which is the preference my application uses. This means that as the font in Windows gets bigger, the ribbon gets smaller.

Notice how the ribbon gets smaller in each screenshot:

Segoe UI 9pt (Windows default)

Segoe UI 12pt (what i use)

Segoe UI 16pt (what customer’s use)

You can see by the time we get to 16pt, the text on the ribbon is quite hard to read.

Background

The user can configure Windows to use their preferred font size, e.g.:

• 8pt
• 9pt
• 12pt

and their preferred font face, e.g.:

• MS Sans Serif
• Microsoft Sans Serif
• Tahoma
• Segoe UI
• Calibri

but the Windows Ribbon Framework by default uses a font that is not the user’s preference.

Edit: Moved picture up top to catch squirrels attracted by shiny things.
Edit 2: Added another colorful picture, to get a bump.
Edit 3: Editing to get a bump
Edit 4: Adding another different picture to get a bump

---

The ribbon does allow customizing the colors of the ribbon.

The following code fragment is used to set the UI_PKEY_GlobalBackgroundColor of the ribbon. In this case i use a color that is the user’s currently select Aero color scheme:

    IUIFramework framework;
    ...

    TColor glass = Dwm.GetColorizationColor();
    VarCast(v, ColorToUIHSB(glass), UI_PKEY_GlobalBackgroundColor.pid);

    IPropertyStore ps = framework as IPropertyStore;
    ps.SetValue(UI_PKEY_GlobalBackgroundColor, PROPVARIANT(v));
    ps.Commit;

And now the ribbon is now colored to match the color scheme of Windows:

But i can’t find the option to change the font face/size.

Note: While the ribbon may honor the user’s DPI settings, that isn’t this question.

---

It works in Outlook 2010

It might be helpful to note that Outlook 2010’s ribbon does honor the user’s (menu) font preferences. You can get the user’s menu font by calling [SystemParametersInfo][6]:

SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETNONCLIENTMETRICS, sizeof(NONCLIENTMETRICS), &ncm, 0));

ncm.lfMenuFont <---

9pt Outlook 2010

12pt Outlook 2010

12pt Outlook 2010

Notice the ribbon increases in size with the font size? (Which, in these resized screenshots, means that the ribbon does not get perceptually smaller.)

There are two possibilities:

• Outlook 2010 knows how to adjust the font size in the Windows Ribbon Framework
• Outlook 2010 does not use the Windows Ribbon Framework

Windows 7 Paint doesn’t work

It’s also useful to note that Windows Paint in Windows 7 does not honor the user’s font preferences. This leads me to believe that it (mspaint) does use the Windows Ribbon Framework, and that the Windows Ribbon Framework doesn’t support setting a font size. If if you’ve actually tried to be helpful, and read all the way down to here, you’ll realize this is the correct answer: it’s not possible. So if you want a free 300 rep, you add that as an answer.

Edit: Cross-posted to Microsoft

Keywords: Windows Ribbon Framework, change font size, UIRibbon, font face, ribbon ui, scenic ui, scenic ribbon, fluent ribbon, fluent ui, change font windows ribbon, uiribbon.h

Microsoft has a number of Ribbon implementations:

• Windows Ribbon Framework – native
• CMFCRibbonBar for MFC – MFC
• Ribbon (WPF) – WPF
• ribbon.codeplex.com – WinForms (unsupported)

---

MS Paint doesn’t honor menu font preference

Here’s a screenshot showing my configured Windows 7 Menu Font setting of 12pt, with msPaint visible, and Outlook 2010 visible for comparison.

---

Sample Code

type 
    TfrmRibbonTest = class(TForm, IUIApplication)
      ...
    private
       Fframework: IUIFramework;

       {IUIApplication}
       function  OnViewChanged(viewId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_VIEWTYPE; const view: IUnknown; verb: UI_VIEWVERB; uReasonCode: SYSINT): HResult; stdcall;
       function  OnCreateUICommand(commandId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_COMMANDTYPE; out commandHandler: IUICommandHandler): HResult; stdcall;
       function  OnDestroyUICommand(commandId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_COMMANDTYPE; const commandHandler: IUICommandHandler): HResult; stdcall;
    end;


procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
   hr: HRESULT;
begin
   Fframework := CreateComObject(CLASS_UIRibbonFramework) as IUIFramework;
   hr := Fframework.Initialize(Self.Handle, Self); //we implement IUIApplication
   OleCheck(hr);
   hr := Fframework.LoadUI(hInstance, 'APPLICATION_RIBBON');
   OleCheck(hr);
end;

function TfrmRibbonTest.OnCreateUICommand(commandId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_COMMANDTYPE; out commandHandler: IUICommandHandler): HResult;
begin
    Result := S_OK;
end;

function TfrmRibbonTest.OnDestroyUICommand(commandId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_COMMANDTYPE;
  const commandHandler: IUICommandHandler): HResult;
begin
    Result := S_OK;
end;

function TfrmRibbonTest.OnViewChanged(viewId: SYSUINT; typeID: UI_VIEWTYPE; const view: IUnknown; verb: UI_VIEWVERB; uReasonCode: SYSINT): HResult;
begin
    Result := S_OK;
end;

Windows Ribbon Framework 14pt != 14pt

Here is a screenshot with Windows Menu font configured for 14pt (on a 96dpi machine). Outlook 2010 is 14pt, Photoshop CS3 is 14pt. The Ribbon is…less.

See also

• https://i.stack.imgur.com/VseEN.png
• http://i42.tinypic.com/15x0pj5.jpg

Answer 1

Based on the behavior of Windows 7 Paint, this appears to not be possible. 🙂