Discord is a much-beloved online video, voice, and text messaging application, especially popular among gaming communities. As such, it’s important for it to be customizable, and allow the user to alter zoom levels in order to maximize their enjoyment and accessibility to the app.
To learn how to zoom in and out on Discord, simply follow our step-by-step instructions below. For any additional information, see our FAQs at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to alter zoom levels on Discord for PC or Online (keyboard shortcuts)
- Open up the Discord application on your PC, or navigate to the browser version of the Discord app via your preferred web browser, and sign in to your profile, if prompted.
- Now, to zoom in using the keyboard shortcuts, hold CTRL on your keyboard and tap the PLUS (+) key – each tap will zoom you in one increment.
- To zoom out using the keyboard shortcuts, hold CTRL on your keyboard and tap the MINUS (-) key – each tap will zoom you out one increment
- To reset the zoom level on Discord (whether the PC app or browser version), hold CTRL on your keyboard and tap ZERO (0) – doing so will reset the zoom level to its 100% default setting
How to alter zoom levels on Discord for PC (zoom slider)
- Open up the Discord application on your PC, and sign in to your profile, if prompted.
- From the homepage, you’ll find your profile name and number down in the bottom-left corner, next to a microphone and a headphone icon. Click the cog-shaped ‘User Settings’ button to the right of this.
- From the left-hand sidebar, locate and click on ‘Appearance’
- Scroll down and you’ll find three distinct sliders: ‘Chat Font Scaling’, ‘Space Between Message Groups’, and finally ‘Zoom Level’. You’ll see that they are all positioned at their default green-highlighted percentage or level.
- To zoom in across the application, drag the ‘Zoom Level’ slider to the right, until you reach your desired zoom level
- To zoom out across the application, drag the ‘Zoom Level’ slider to the left, until you reach your desired zoom level
- To reset the zoom level, simply drag the slider back to the green-highlighted point on the slider (in the case of ‘Zoom Level’, the default level is ‘100%’).
- To apply your changes, press ESC on your keyboard, or click the ‘X’ at the top-right of the Settings page to exit the Settings menu.
How to alter the chat font scale on Discord for PC or Online (slider)
- Open up the Discord application on your PC, or navigate to the browser version of the Discord app via your preferred web browser, and sign in to your profile, if prompted.
- From the homepage, you’ll find your profile name and number down in the bottom-left corner, next to a microphone and a headphone icon. Click the cog-shaped ‘User Settings’ button to the right of this.
- From the left-hand sidebar, locate and click on ‘Appearance’
- Scroll down and you’ll find three distinct sliders: ‘Chat Font Scaling’, ‘Space Between Message Groups’, and finally ‘Zoom Level’. You’ll see that they are all positioned at their default green-highlighted percentage or level.
- To increase chat font size across the application, drag the ‘Chat Font Scaling’ slider to the right, until you reach your desired font pixel size
- To decrease chat font size across the application, drag the ‘Chat Font Scaling’ slider to the left, until you reach your desired font pixel size
- To increase chat font size across the application, drag the ‘Chat Font Scaling’ slider to the right, until you reach your desired font pixel size
- To reset the chat font size, simply drag the slider back to the green-highlighted point on the slider (in the case of ‘Chat Font Scaling’, the default level is ‘16px’).
Tip: You can see a preview of what the chat font will look like, as you’re adjusting it, in the box at the top of the Appearance settings window.
How to alter the chat font scale on Discord for Mobile or Tablet (slider)
Unfortunately, you can’t zoom in and out generally on mobile or tablet. What you can do, though, is alter the chat font size, which is the next best thing.
- Open the Discord app on your mobile or tablet device, sign in to your profile if necessary
- From the homepage, tap your Profile icon in the bottom-right of the screen
- If you can’t see your Profile icon, first tap the hamburger menu (three stacked horizontal lines) in the top-left – this will reveal your Profile icon to you
- Scroll down to and tap on ‘Appearance’ to take you to the ‘Appearance Settings’
- You’ll be presented with a slider for ‘Chat Font Scaling’.
- To increase the size of chat font across the application, slide the slider to the right in increments of 1%, until you reach your desired font scale
- To decrease the size of chat font across the application, slide the slider to the left in increments of 1%, until you reach your desired font scale
- To increase the size of chat font across the application, slide the slider to the right in increments of 1%, until you reach your desired font scale
- To reset the chat font scale, either slide the slider back to 100% (Discord’s default), or press the blue-green ‘Reset’ button in the bottom left
- To apply changes, exit out of the Appearance Settings menu by tapping the backward arrow in the top-left. When you do so, the app will automatically close, applying your changes only when you reopen it.
Note: There is no way to preview how changes to font scale will look – you’ll have to just work by trial and error until you find your optimum chat font scale level.
And there you have it! Simply by following our tutorials above, you can quickly learn how to easily zoom in and out across Discord, or solely across the chat font scale. For any additional information, or if you have any further queries, please see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I want to zoom in and out on Discord?
Discord is a fantastic online chat app, loved by millions of users around the globe. It can be used online, via a downloadable PC application, or on your mobile or tablet. Through each version of the app, you can chat with friends, colleagues, fans of the same game or content; play games, voice chat, video call, and text message.
Since you may well find yourself using Discord across several versions of the app, or just for sake of improving your enjoyment of the app, knowing how to zoom in and out can be super helpful. Altering the Discord zoom level simply means that the elements on your screen – text, images, menus, server windows, et al – are either enhanced or reduced in scale.
Altering the zoom level on Discord is easiest on the PC application; the mobile or tablet app, as well as the browser/online version, has only one zoom option, and that’s for text. Either way, altering the zoom or text size levels to your preferred scale can help ease the strain on the eyes, and ultimately just improve the user’s experience of Discord.
If I change the zoom on my PC, is the change reflected on the mobile app?
Unfortunately not. Changes made to the zoom or text size levels in Discord – regardless of whether you use the same Discord profile across several versions of the app – are confined to the version of the app you’re using when you make them.
What you can do, however, is manually ensure that your text size levels and zoom levels (wherever possible) are made uniform across the various versions of Discord you use. Doing so can streamline your user experience, and keep you from experiencing any difficulties reading or navigating whilst on the app.
How do I reset the zoom to the Discord default?
If you’re on a computer, the answer’s easy. Simply press CTRL + 0 (zero) together on your keyboard whilst in the Discord app, and the zoom level will reset to default (100%). Alternatively, navigate back to the Appearance settings (as detailed above) and manually drag the zoom slider back to default (the percentage highlighted in green – AKA 100%).
If you’re using a mobile or tablet version of the Discord app, then the question is more likely to be: “How do I reset the text size to default on Discord?”. To do so, navigate back to the settings (as detailed above) and below the text size/scale slider, you’ll find a green ‘Reset’ button; tap this and wait, or tap this and navigate back out of the settings menu. The Discord app will automatically close, and upon reopening it you’ll find text size has been reset to default.
Is there a difference between Discord zoom and text size settings?
Yes. Altering the zoom levels on Discord alters the entire application, increasing or decreasing the size of server windows, chat windows, text, icons, images, toolbars, menus – you name it. On the other hand, altering the text size (“chat font scaling”) on Discord changes only the size of the text in any given chat. It does not alter the size of anything else, including text outside a chat window.
As such, altering the zoom level on Discord does not automatically alter the chat font scaling (AKA text size) at the same time. If you want them both bigger, you’ll have to alter them both separately.
