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How can I make Ubuntu Dock smaller? I want to narrow it horizontally (i.e. I want to reduce the size of the icons and make it take up less space).

pomsky
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cervantes
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  • I replaced the default Dock with Docky and it's fully customizable. https://askubuntu.com/questions/50522/replacing-unity-bar-with-docky – EODCraft Staff Dec 28 '17 at 10:41

2 Answers2

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GUI option:

Open Settings and navigate to the "Dock" section (or the "Appearance" section in later releases). You'll see a slider to control the size of icons in the dock.

enter image description here
(screenshot source)

CLI option:

Launch a Terminal window and run the following command

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dash-max-icon-size <VALUE>

for example

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dash-max-icon-size 24
pomsky
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  • This does not work in 20.04 – Roel Van de Paar Aug 20 '20 at 04:22
  • @roel What *exactly* doesn't work? The GUI option is still there, but it's now moved into the '*Appearance*' section of *Settings*. The CLI option still works as well. Please be specific. – pomsky Aug 20 '20 at 06:17
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    @RoelVandePaar I just noticed you posted an answer suggesting *dconf Editor* to set the icon size to something less than 16 (lower limit in the GUI option). In case you're unaware `dconf` is a low-level configuration system whose main purpose is to provide a backend to `gsettings`. So the `gsettings` command here achieves the same goal as the `dconf` alternative (notice the `gsettings` schema id is analogous to the `dconf` schema path), which I confirmed in my 20.04 setup. If it doesn't work for you, then most likely you're doing something wrong and/or `gsettings` is broken in your system. – pomsky Aug 20 '20 at 07:05
  • @pomsky agreed... but, a "backend"... or a front-end????? – WU-TANG Aug 20 '20 at 08:31
  • @WU-TANG I don't see where the problem is with what I wrote. The main purpose of `dconf` (*not* the 'dconf Editor' application which is just a GUI editor for `dconf`) is to provide a backend to `gsettings`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dconf – pomsky Aug 20 '20 at 08:48
  • I had tried the `gsettings` command and it did not work for me. Using dconf did. Thanks for testing on your end also. – Roel Van de Paar Aug 21 '20 at 05:37
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In the gui, at least in 20.04, it will not let you set it smaller then 16. I needed it to be smaller. With thanks to another answer (https://askubuntu.com/a/1249861/682596) this is possible;

$ sudo apt-get install dconf-editor
dconf-editor

Browse to:

org / gnome / shell / extensions / dash-to-dock / dash-max-icon-size

Then change custom value as required: dconf-editor screenshot

Roel Van de Paar
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