Scale an entire WPF window

Question

I have a WPF application that I am going to be demoing to an audience on a large, high-resolution projector, and I am worried that the application will be too small to see from afar.

Is there a simple way to make the ENTIRE application bigger (like the zoom slider in the WPF designer, that lets you zoom in?) I tried adding a layout transform to the Window in XAML, like so:

<Window.LayoutTransform>
    <ScaleTransform ScaleX="1.5" ScaleY="1.5" CenterX=".5" CenterY=".5" />
</Window.LayoutTransform>

which makes the window look bigger in the designer, but seems to have no effect on the running application.

I figure this should be dead simple with WPF's "resolution independence", high-tech text rendering, vector graphics, etc.

(I know I can use a screen zooming tool, but that's lame since it makes everything fuzzy, and always makes me dizzy when the presenter pans around the screen.)

I think you might want a `RenderTransform` rather than a `LayoutTransform`. — Gabe, Feb 16 '11 at 22:01
@Gabe: `RenderTransform` is not allowed on a `Window` (throws XamlParseException). And I really do want to do a `LayoutTransform` anyway, since I want the controls to all be bigger, and push each other bigger (e.g. the `Grids` need to grow, the `StackPanels` need to grow). I know that `LayoutTransforms` are slower, but this is a line-of-business application where there are few animations and performance is not critical. — Hank, Feb 16 '11 at 22:10
I agree with Gabe. An entire ui window can be scaled from a mainwindow — pollaris, Oct 17 '16 at 21:07

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 16 '11 at 21:51

13

Just realized that putting the transform on the top-level control (a Grid, in my case), instead of on the window itself, has a similar effect to what I was looking for. The only difference is that the window size doesn't change so everything looks a little cramped, but that is easily remedied by making the window larger.

answered Feb 16 '11 at 21:51

Hank

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this is the easiest way. Thank you – FLICKER Jan 23 '15 at 21:27
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old post, but could the Window-Property SizeToContent help in "crampled view". should always resize the window to the actual content size. – dba Mar 30 '18 at 08:58

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

9

I posted a fairly detailed example of scaling the main element in another question. Perhaps it would be of some use to you.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Feb 16 '11 at 22:15

JacobJ

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This basically boils down to putting the `LayoutTransform` on the top-level grid, but you've done a lot more work to make it adjustable at runtime. All I wanted was a quick thing I could to to compile at higher size, but this is a better general-purpose solution. – Hank Feb 28 '11 at 14:15

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

5

Using ViewBox would be the simplest way to make an entire application bigger, even the font size. Here you can find some discussion about ViewBox.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Aug 21 '14 at 06:58

Jeff T.

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People always forget the ViewBox. It solves so many problems! – DonkeyMaster Dec 16 '15 at 10:47

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 07 '20 at 10:45

Working Solution

At least in WPF .NET Core 3.1 Window supports SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight", it may work with older versions also as this property is supported since .NET Framework 3.0.
Combined with a fixed width/height of the content control and a ScaleTransform set on LayoutTransform, it scales the entire window.

Recipe

Window
- SizeToContent: WidthAndHeight
Content
- Fixed size
- LayoutTransform: your custom ScaleTransform

Note

Setting SizeToContent by a style doesn't work (seems too late in the process).

Sample XAML

<Window x:Class="Some.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Some"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" 
        SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight"
        >
    <Window.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ScaleTransform x:Key="windowScaleTransform" ScaleX="0.5" ScaleY="0.5" />
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Window.Resources>

    <Grid Width="1080" 
          Height="1920" 
          LayoutTransform="{StaticResource windowScaleTransform}"
          >
        <TextBlock>This window is scaled to 50%!</TextBlock>        
    </Frame>
</Window>

it works,Sizetocontent did not work as expected,so i reset the size of the window — sync, Oct 17 '22 at 02:52

Scale an entire WPF window

4 Answers4

Working Solution

Recipe

Note

Sample XAML