Pointer Size & DPI Calculator
Windows draws every cursor — stock or custom — at a base size of 32px, then multiplies it twice: once by your display scaling percentage, and again by the Mouse pointer size slider in Accessibility settings (a value from 1 to 15). Pick a high-resolution monitor with heavy scaling and the two multipliers can quietly cancel each other out — or stack up until the pointer looks oversized. This tool works out the slider value that gets you back to a comfortable, consistent physical size.
| Slider | Registry size (px) | On-screen size (px) | Physical height |
|---|
Method: Windows stores pointer size as CursorBaseSize at HKCU\Control Panel\Cursors, ranging from 32px (slider 1) to 256px (slider 15) in 16px steps. That base size is then rendered at your display's scaling factor. Dividing the result by your screen's actual pixels-per-inch converts it to a physical height, so you can compare across completely different monitors on equal terms. This is a sizing estimate for the stock arrow and for custom packs that ship at the same base resolution — hand-authored high-DPI cursor art may render slightly differently.
Why this happens
A 1080p laptop at 100% scaling and a 27" 4K monitor at 100% scaling have wildly different pixel densities — the 4K panel packs roughly twice as many pixels into the same physical space. Windows' scaling setting exists to compensate for that, but the pointer-size slider is a separate, manual control layered on top. If you copy a display profile from one machine to another, or just accept Windows' auto-scaling recommendation on a new monitor, the two settings can end up fighting each other. This calculator exists so you don't have to guess — see the install guide for the exact menu paths on Windows 10 and 11.
Using it with a Font Loft pack
Every pack in the catalog is designed around the same native .cur/.ani conventions the stock Windows cursors use, so the slider value this tool recommends applies whether you're running the default arrow or a themed pack from the collections. If a pack still looks soft after matching the slider to your screen, that's usually display scaling rounding the bitmap — see the DPI note on the install guide.