Christian Haines

This maybe of interest to folks who want to resize the font / interface of the inbuilt documentation.

I was looking around in the forums for a way to resize the inbuilt Max documentation. Since I couldn't find a solution amongst the forum community I started looking around the Max application strings, preferences and application bundle on OSX. I discovered that the Max documentation renderer uses information in a folder called "unibrowser". Inside this folder is a CSS style sheet which controls much (all?) of how the documentation is rendered.

This maybe of interest to folks who want to resize the font / interface of the inbuilt documentation. 

To access the style sheet on OSX right click the application Max and select show "Show Package Contents". 

Navigate to the folder "Contents > Resources > C74 > docs > unibrowser > css". 

Inside the folder is a CSS stylesheet called "theme.min.css". 

Open this in a text editor and you can see many many different style sheet attributes. 

The simplest way to globally resize all the fonts is to add the line "* {font-size: 102% !important; }" and relaunch the Max Documentation Reference.

 Adding the line "* {zoom: 102% !important;}" will zoom everything - fonts, images, containers etc

It needs more work, probably targeting more attributes with specific sizes

I've only tried this on OSX - maybe some other folks could confirm it works on Windows?

 "theme.min.css" is difficult to read as it is a heavily minimised CSS file with carriage returns missing. You can use an online CSS format tool, like http://www.cleancss.com/css-beautify/, to make it readable

 Given that it is changing a file in the application bundle, it is best to keep a backup elsewhere on your computer for when Max gets updated so you can replace the changed file

I can't see a way to change the left navigation font size

 I'd imagine it would be possible for those with time to write an extra which dynamically rewrites the style sheet with key commands and relaunches the file - AKA zoom keycommands

documentation-font-size-solution

Thanks Christian, that was very useful.
Cheers Al.


Well done, Christian! Like me, you seem to've felt the need to change the text in the documentation. I do something much more basic, but it's still effective enough to help my old eyes: I use the online documentation instead of what's in the app itself; that way Command+ and Command- change the font size. Cheers, Bill

you can also open the documentation in jweb object. slightly blurry or something (although if you made it bigger and zoomed out...) and you loose the ability to drag objects from it into patch - which woulda been pretty neat because then you could make a document with objects you use a lot and drag them in - but i found it useful to have more than one reference open at a time.

maybe in combination with adjusting the css it could be useful to you though...

you can also open the documentation in jweb object. slightly blurry or something (although if you made it bigger and zoomed out...) and you loose the ability to drag objects from it into patch - which woulda been pretty neat because then you could make a document with objects you use a lot and drag them in - but i found it useful to have more than one reference open at a time. 

maybe in combination with adjusting the css it could be useful to you though...


TO ADD ON THAT , this CSS file is EXACTLY the css used on Online Max 7 documentation Pages example :

https://docs.cycling74.com/max7/tutorials/basicchapter15

so you can basically inspect with your browser or your web dev tools and find specifically which part is which !

i noticed the main text (which i mainly needed it to be zoomed) is p tags (paragraph) , i tested :

when it worked in browser i copied it in the end of theme.min.css file and worked in the offline documentation as well !

after all the online documentation is just a web view so you can basically edit it whatever you like (which is soo coool !)

TO ADD ON THAT , this CSS file is  EXACTLY the css used on Online Max 7 documentation Pages  example : 

https://docs.cycling74.com/max7/tutorials/basicchapter15 

when it worked in browser i copied it in the end of  theme.min.css file and worked in the offline documentation as well !

after all the online documentation is just a web view so you can basically edit it whatever you like (which is soo coool !)


This was super helpful. I wanted to share how I made it more readable for me.

The complete lack of attention to usability in 2016 is mind boggling. It's clear the UX designers at Cylcing74 know better, yet they somehow just decided not to allow us to zoom? I mean, there is a Magnifier in the Window menu - which means "hey guys, we know things are small." However, instead of fixing them or allowing us to just zoom in and out as per our preference, everything is rigidly configured and very difficult to see and read. Don't even talk to me about the color choices :)

Anyway thanks to the OP you can simply put this code after the existing theme.min.css stuff and it will make it look like the attached image.

/* make it readable! */
#doc-contents-table {
    width: 300px !important;
}
.docshtml #doc-body.slide-in {
    padding-left: 310px !important;
}
.docshtml #doc-body {
    padding: 24px !important;
}
h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {
    font-weight: bold;
}
#doc-contents-table .toc-list > li {
    line-height: 24px !important;
}
#doc-body h2 {
    border-bottom: 1px solid #999;
}
#doc-index {
    font-size: 18px !important;
    line-height: 24px !important;
}
html .docshtml #doc-body {
    font-size: 18px !important;
    line-height: 24px !important;
}
* {
    font-size: 18px !important;
}
h1 {
    font-size: 32px !important;
}
#doc-scroll-header * {
    font-size: 13px !important;
}
html a:link {
    color: #0078ff;
}
html a:visited {
    color: #9e31ce !important;
}
html a:hover, html a:focus, html a:active {
    color: #ff7500;
}
html .hilit {
    color: #333;
    font-style: oblique;
}
html img {
    zoom: 120%;
}
html p {
    margin: 24px !important;
}



/* make it readable! */
#doc-contents-table {
    width: 300px !important;
}
.docshtml #doc-body.slide-in {
    padding-left: 310px !important;
}
.docshtml #doc-body {
	padding: 24px !important;
}
h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {
    font-weight: bold;
}
#doc-contents-table .toc-list > li {
	line-height: 24px !important;
}
#doc-body h2 {
	border-bottom: 1px solid #999;
}
#doc-index {
	font-size: 18px !important;
	line-height: 24px !important;
}
html .docshtml #doc-body {
	font-size: 18px !important;
	line-height: 24px !important;
}
* {
	font-size: 18px !important;
}
h1 {
	font-size: 32px !important;
}
#doc-scroll-header * {
	font-size: 13px !important;
}
html a:link {
	color: #0078ff;
}
html a:visited {
	color: #9e31ce !important;
}
html a:hover, html a:focus, html a:active {
	color: #ff7500;
}
html .hilit {
	color: #333;
	font-style: oblique;
}
html img {
	zoom: 120%;
}
html p {
	margin: 24px !important;
}



"The complete lack of attention to usability in 2016 is mind boggling."

Whilst I'm happy with most of the usability features in Max 7, I agree that the fact that you can't easily change the font size/zoom in on the documentation is pretty poor.

@Cycling74, I hope you will address this in the next Max 7 update.

"The complete lack of attention to usability in 2016 is mind boggling." 

Whilst I'm happy with most of the usability features in Max 7, I agree that the fact that you can't easily change the font size/zoom in on the documentation is pretty poor. 

I wish the cycling74 team would change there font size philosophy regarding the documentation in an upcoming update.

great thread.
I wish the cycling74 team would change there font size philosophy regarding the documentation in an upcoming update.


I'm more than gobsmacked that this continues to be an issue. Not to have changed it in this day and age smacks of rank ignorance. Somebody prove me wrong. I would love to apologise.

Thanks to those above for providing solutions ... hey, but what a faff.

I'm more than gobsmacked that this continues to be an issue. Not to have changed it in this day and age smacks of rank ignorance.  Somebody prove me wrong. I would love to apologise.

Thanks to those above for providing solutions ... hey, but what a faff.

Super late to the party here, but totally agree with most of whats said here. Loving Max but the in-app doc viewer just needs a resize option. I've resorted to just hitting the equivalent docs on the web as needed. https://docs.cycling74.com/max8/tutorials/01_mspintro

My question is I have a fixed size div 200px by 150px now in this div I have certain text contents. Some div have more text content then the other. So the div that has lesser content, it leaves lots of white space. I am using font-size:23px. S o is there any way to fill the white space by dynamically changing the font-size based on white space left in the div. 

My question is I have a fixed size div 200px by 150px now in this div I  have certain text contents. Some div have more text content then the  other. So the div that has lesser content, it leaves lots of white  space. I am using font-size:23px. S o is there any way to fill the white  space by dynamically changing the font-size based on white space left  in the div. VidMate TeaTV Shareit 

This is no longer relevant in Max 8 as there is no folder called "css" in the given pathway. If anyone has an updated version, please link me. cheers~

Documentation Font Size Solution