How do I change icon size on desktop to less than 50%?

Question

I don't know if anyone notices at all that since Ubuntu 17 the icon size on the desktop is huge even though it will be set to 50%. The developers generously gave the possibility to change the size of each folder individually! This is unfortunately also in Ubuntu 19.

How to change the size of the icons below the magical value of 50%?

Update: Works very well, the screenshot shows the final result:

Answer 1

Workaround

take backup of the original directory desktop-icons@csoriano from /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ with below command.

sudo cp -r /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano.BAK

Open the file /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano/prefs.js with below command.

sudo -H gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/desktop-icons@csoriano/prefs.js

find the below content

const ICON_SIZE = { 'small': 48, 'standard': 64, 'large': 96 };
const ICON_WIDTH = { 'small': 108, 'standard': 116, 'large': 116 };
const ICON_HEIGHT = { 'small': 86, 'standard': 102, 'large': 134 };

adjust the sizes with basic things like if you reduce the size 48.. reduce the width and heights also with trails.

In my case

const ICON_SIZE = { 'small': 22, 'standard': 64, 'large': 96 };
const ICON_WIDTH = { 'small': 44, 'standard': 116, 'large': 116 };
const ICON_HEIGHT = { 'small': 44, 'standard': 102, 'large': 134 };

for adjusting the text size for desktop icons follow this Q & A How to customize 19.10 Desktop Icon Font Size

Answer 2

For those who do not want to make any changes to prefs.js follow these simple steps:

1. Open Files & Navigate to Desktop folder.
2. Click on the icon with 3 horizontal line in top right before the minimize icon.
3. You can change the icon size(lesser than 50%) by clicking on the "-" or increase by clicking on "+"

I hope this answer suits most users of Ubuntu.