make font size persisting to settings optional

[aexvir]

Summary

Persisting font size changes to settings.json in #23265 removes the ability to have a custom default font size / regresses the behavior of "Reset Zoom" (cmd-0).

Description

• most of my font size changes are temporary and done on the spot to fulfill a purpose
  • either because I'm screensharing and I need to zoom in
  • or because I'm laying in my chair more than usual so I need to see stuff bigger for a while
• I have my ideal font size that I always can rely on and reset to via cmd+0
  • now cmd+0 sets the size to null, which means some default I don't have control over
• I have my settings file tracked in git
  • I don't want my (mostly temporary) adjustments on font size to end up triggering changes in my dotfiles

I'd like if there were some way to support the old behaviour.

Zed Version and System Specs

Zed: v0.171.0 (Zed Preview)
OS: macOS 15.2.0
Memory: 18 GiB
Architecture: aarch64

[notpeter]

The fact that cmd-0 no longer allows one to have "base" font size which differs from the Zed default buffer_font_size of 15 (unless you never zoom) feels like a regression.

[didier]

Second this. I really liked the font size feeling "temporary" and being able to reset it.

[paveldroo]

Totally agree, when you are on a call and just temporary zooming in for explaining some parts of code, you should be able to return to your standard font size to continue coding after a call.
This is default behavior of terminals + nvim as a part of terminal for sure, google chrome etc. A little unexpected that cmd+0 now does nothing useful, just setting "null" for the font size.

So I'm not against writing font size to config particulary, but setting font size to "null" with cmd+0 - this is something unexpected. You should be able always return to your previous default value which you set earlier in settings. Now you can achieve this only via git reset config - something wrong here.

[injust]

I'm used to VS Code and this change caught me by surprise. I'm curious if there was any precedent for this, because I can't recall using an editor that behaved this way.

I don't see the point of making this configurable, either. If someone could find it in the settings, wouldn't they rather modify buffer_font_size instead?

[Dot32Dev]

I'm used to VS Code and this change caught me by surprise. I'm curious if there was any precedent for this, because I can't recall using an editor that behaved this way.

I don't see the point of making this configurable, either. If someone could find it in the settings, wouldn't they rather modify buffer_font_size instead?

Sublime Text saves your zoom to your config like this, but I agree that it makes more sense to just change your preferred default size in settings. Sublime also lags when zooming due to having to update the file before the changes appeared. I liked being able to temporarily zoom with the keyboard in Zed, as it was very useful when explaining code or concepts to other people.