SQL SERVER – SSMS Tip: How to Get Larger Fonts for Results in Grid Output

A couple of weeks back, I was at the GIDS (Great Indian Developer Conference) speaking on my favorite topic of performance. Often as a speaker I make sure I attend a couple of sessions from friends or from people in the industry to learn something completely new. It is easier to learn from someone who has done all the hard work of doing research compared to investing that time all by yourself to learn the nuances of the topic. Let us learn about SSMS Tip.

This time I was in the main hall where I could find the hall was really big and the screens were really small to visualize. I saw one of the speakers was showing Management studio output and was talking. As a back bencher always, I found it almost impossible to actually read what the output was. This is when I realized that my demo’s when executed in SSMS would be the same for someone who was sitting far away from the screen. I thought I had to change the font to make it less understandable.

I did the following steps of increasing the font style under SSMS -> Tools -> Options and when I was doing the session, I asked the audience to how many knew this. Not many knew these options existed. So I thought this required a separate blog post to explain the same.

Once you have the options, make sure to select “Fonts and Colors” -> Inside the Show settings for: Select -> “Grid Results”. Choose the font size you are comfortable. At this moment, please go through the complete list of items that can be customized – I am sure you will find some of these really useful.

Some of these settings don’t take immediate effect. You will need to close the SSMS window and reinitialize the same. It would take effect from the next instance. Once I did that, you can check a sample output of my Grid output below:

It is simple to increase the font size when it comes to text / code part. Not many are aware we can do the same for Grid results too.

Do let me know if you found this interesting. As a presenter at multiple conferences, I wish the speakers use these techniques to make an effective presentation. Do let me know your thoughts. Do take a moment to let me know some of the options you used to change in SSMS.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)