Problem Description:
After updating to 26.04, the icons in the app grid got significantly smaller and the padding seems a bit off, especially on very wide monitors..
In 25.10 the icon size was bigger and the grid had more padding on the sides
Edit: I did just compare with another Ubuntu install and it’s the same icon size, however my Arch install does not have the same icon size. I changed icon theme with dconf, but the size remains the same. Seems like it’s a setting somewhere that has been changed in 26.04..
So, it’s probably intentional, but is it possible to change this back?
Maybe try a higher scale factor? I’m not sure on this, because I don’t have such a monitor, but given all the effort that went into fractional scaling, maybe you had 2x before and are now on 1.5x, or something along those lines.
But you could try with 150%, nonetheless. Maybe someone thought of said effort and decided to go with different defaults, since now people can simply adjust the scale factor, if they deem it too small.
I could, yes, but that would change the size of other elements in the UI and that is not preferable..
I did just compare with another Ubuntu install and it’s the same icon size, however my Arch install does not have the same icon size. I changed icon theme via dconf, but the size remains the same. Seems like it’s a setting somewhere that has been changed in 26.04..
So, it’s probably intentional, but is it possible to change this back?
Well, it wouldn’t be new Gnome version if there wasn’t at least a handful of changes made that ends up annoying its users looking to restore functionality and aesthetics of previous versions.
In this case, there is a useful gnome-shell extension called “App Grid Tuner” that will allow you to set the icon sizes. It customizes quite a few other aspects of the app grid, so its probably worth installing based on that ability alone.
Well, it probably is intended. The solution I posted thwarts that intention. Makes the app grid look like you want it look in defiance of the teeny tiny icon mindset that led to such a sub-optimal aesthetic choice.
Or you could just live with it. Up to you, of course.
