Font Size in Tableau Desktop Does Not Match Font Size of Other Programs on Mac

Issue

When working with text in a visualization in Tableau Desktop, the font size used in the GUI (not in the viz) might appear larger than the same font in another application.

Environment

Tableau Desktop on the Mac
OS X

Resolution

This does not affect the functionality of Tableau Desktop and no action is required. The font size within the viz are adjustable.

Cause

This behavior is by design to ensure cross-platform layout consistency and avoid text size issues on the Mac which arise from Windows assuming 96 pixels per inch while the Mac assumes 72 pixels per inch by default. To keep visualizations consistent when viewed in Tableau Desktop on the Mac or Tableau Desktop on Windows, Tableau default DPI is used instead of system DPI. On Windows and on Mac both, 12pt text is 15px tall. 12pt text in another program on Mac may be 12px tall instead of the 15px in Tableau Desktop.