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Unfortunately, Java applications have to have have an upper limit on the amount of memory that they can use. Normally they are given a default upper limit, the actual value is system dependant but it usually around 64 megabytes. In many cases, this is sufficient, but in situations where large data files have to be loaded into memory, it is quite possible to "run out of memory", even when your computer actually has plenty of available memory. To overcome this, Java must be told that it can use more memory than the default.

To control the amount of memory available to a Java application, you need to use a couple of command line arguments...

java -Xmx512M -Xms256M maxdLoad2.jar

In this example the maximum size is set to 512 megabytes and the initial size set to 256 megabytes.

The maxdSetup application (available from the maxd website) can help with writing a shell script (for Unix style systems) or batch script (for Windows® systems) which will do this memory allocation for you.

The font size and other related setings are controlled via the 'Appearance' section of the 'Options' panel which you can access by pressing the 'Options' button at the bottom of the main window.