Hello there , i used to use Sketchup 2023 with “normal" or “historic” font from standard windows style i think.
Seen in every menu or anywhere on the OS or the internet
Sharp and black with coherant spacing and excellent readability !
BUT , now trying 2026
And i think the font look horrible , i hate it , and i can’t find anywhere in the software to change it.
Greyish , kind of blurry , with too much spacing and wasted screen real estate
I think it try to copy Windows 11 font style and presentation maybe , (wich of course i hate)
I am an old school computer guy and i hate this kind of “evolution” where we don’t have any choice of what we like
Thanks for reading me
here is an exemple of the wasted screen space and font rendering in the menu
(windows reduced to the smallest possible size limited by sketchup)
flat design , no more contrast , everything is white and ugly , i regret the old days
the font may be a little bigger in the new presentation , but it is putting a lot more strain on my eyes , so much precision and contrast lost
(did i already said i hate it ? 
)
You cannot change them within SketchUp.
However you can make Font Substitute entries in the Windows Registry.
You may need to know the names of the font you dislike and the name of the font to replace it.
There are some variances. Dialog fonts are often identified in the registry by a logical font face name rather than the font name.
As an example, I very much dislike the old “Courier New” monospace font.
I prefer “Consolas” for code text, so I have a Font Substitute setting in the registry.
As either the Copilot or Gemini AI for a .reg command script to change the Windows dialog font.
Otherwise you would need to find an install a tweaker applet like: PowerToys or WinAero Tweaker.
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i understand this is hardcoded in sketchup or any other programs , i don’t like it still !
i have not event switch to W11 yet because of all of this , tried a few tweak in a VM to get back the old style and it is pretty close to perfect , but it did not fix sketchup or others application that have wanted to “modernize” their style
the contrast in the dialog box and grey/greyier/white zone won’t come back even if i change the font right ?
Thanks
In the registry hive:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes
For Win 11, “MS Shell Dlg” is mapped to Segoe UI and “MS Shell Dlg 2” is mapped to Segoe UI Variable.
In older versions of Windows (up through early Windows 10), the registry usually mapped these logical font faces to Microsoft Sans Serif and Tahoma respectively.
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MS Shell Dlg → Segoe UI: This handles basic compatibility. If an old app asks for the “Standard Dialog Font,” Windows now hands it the classic Segoe UI instead of the blockier Microsoft Sans Serif. *Note that Segoe UI was used for menus and window captions, etc. since Windows Vista.
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MS Shell Dlg 2 → Segoe UI Variable: This is the “Modern” mapping. Segoe UI Variable is the new standard for Windows 11. It uses “optical scaling,” meaning the font actually changes its shape slightly depending on how small or large the text is to keep it readable.
Correct. Recent versions (23 and later) of SketchUp are now using the Qt GUI libraries. So the interface may look more generic than it did prior to the SU2023 release.
Qt is supposed to still use the fonts that are mapped to MS Shell Dlg and more likely MS Shell Dlg 2 in your registry.
To see the results of a font mapping change in the Windows Registry, a full restart is usually necessary.
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thanks for this very detailled answer with interesting information
will look deeper into this and do some research
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