Hello Plasma developers,
I would like to request an improvement to the System Tray (org.kde.plasma.systemtray) panel icon size settings.
Current behavior
In the System Tray settings, the panel icon size effectively has two usable modes:
-
Small (appears to be capped at smallMedium ≈ 22px), and
-
Scale with panel height (auto-scaling)
On tall/thick panels this auto-scaling becomes unusable. In my case I use a panel height around ~130px, and “Scale with panel height” makes tray icons extremely large and the tray layout looks broken/awkward (oversized icons, poor spacing, multi-row behavior). Because of this, I have to keep “Small”, but it is too small for readability.
Proposed improvement
Please consider adding additional fixed sizes, and ideally a custom size:
-
Medium (e.g. 28–32px)
-
Large (e.g. 36–48px)
-
Custom (px): allow the user to type a value (e.g. I prefer 50px)
This would provide a middle ground between “Small” and full auto-scaling, especially for users with thick panels.
Technical notes (how it can be achieved today)
In the System Tray QML, the “Small” icon sizing is driven by Kirigami.Units.iconSizes.smallMedium. A workaround is to replace that constant with a fixed pixel value (e.g. 50) in:
-
applets/systemtray/qml/main.qml -
applets/systemtray/qml/ConfigGeneral.qml -
applets/systemtray/qml/ExpandedRepresentation.qml -
applets/systemtray/qml/ExpanderArrow.qml
Example of the change (conceptually):
-
Replace:
Kirigami.Units.iconSizes.smallMedium -
With:
50(or another user-chosen value)
This works well, but requires rebuilding the package on distributions like Arch (so it’s not practical for most users). A proper UI option in the System Tray configuration would solve this cleanly.
Why this matters
-
Thick/tall panels are a common Plasma customization.
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Auto-scaling is too aggressive for tall panels.
-
Medium/Large/Custom sizes would improve usability and readability without breaking layout.
Thank you for considering this request. I’m happy to provide screenshots or more details about my panel setup if needed.
Best regards,
Davi
