# Extremely tiny font in pyplot windows

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/extremely-tiny-font-in-pyplot-windows/92863>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** plotting, pyplot\
**Created:** [January 12, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/extremely-tiny-font-in-pyplot-windows/92863 "2023-01-12T10:31:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jishnub](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jishnub/32/33620_2.png) [@jishnub](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jishnub)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/extremely-tiny-font-in-pyplot-windows/92863/1 "2023-01-12T10:31:58Z")

</div>

This is a somewhat unusual issue that I’m facing: the font sizes in the matplotlib windows is far too small:

 ![Screenshot from 2023-01-12 14-28-01](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/7/1/71382197f3323b55e0c174eac03ec7fa0e53422b.png)

I’m using PyPlot.jl for my plots, and trying to save the plot from the icon in the plot window.  
Does anyone know how to change this?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 2:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/extremely-tiny-font-in-pyplot-windows/92863/2 "2023-01-12T14:38:19Z")

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> [@jishnub](#):
>
> Does anyone know how to change this?

What is `PyPlot.backend`? (You could try to switch to a different backend with the [`MPLBACKEND` environment variable](https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/explain/backends.html).)

~~If you are using the `TkAgg` backend, this seems to be a [known issue with `tkinter`](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58443904/how-to-change-the-font-size-in-tkinter-filedialog-askopenfilename).~~ I can’t reproduce — on my system, tkinter uses the native file dialog.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jishnub](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jishnub/32/33620_2.png) [@jishnub](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jishnub)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 6:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/extremely-tiny-font-in-pyplot-windows/92863/3 "2023-01-13T06:51:07Z")

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```julia
julia> PyPlot.backend
"qt5agg"

```

Oddly, this happens only when I’m calling matplotlib through Julia, and not when I’m using python. I’m using the same matplotlib with the same backend in both cases:

```julia
julia> PyPlot.matplotlib
PyObject <module 'matplotlib' from '/home/jishnu/anaconda3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/matplotlib/ __init__.py'>

```

and

```julia
In [2]: matplotlib. __file__
Out[2]: '/home/jishnu/anaconda3/lib/python3.9/site-packages/matplotlib/ __init__.py'

In [6]: matplotlib.get_backend()
Out[6]: 'Qt5Agg'

```

Anyway, changing the backend to something else like `Qt5Cairo` does resolve this.