Adjust the height of a scale bar in an ArcGIS Pro layout

Summary

In ArcGIS Pro, when adding a scale bar to a layout, it might not be the desired height, especially when working with larger layout page sizes. Manually expanding the scale bar box vertically in the layout does not make the scale bar any taller, this is how the scale bar can be adjusted in ArcMap, but the workflow is not the same in ArcGIS Pro. This adjustment can be essential to have scale bars appear properly when exporting to a file.

Cause

ArcGIS Pro allows for a more individualized configuration, the height of each component of the scale bar can be adjusted. for example  text, scale divisions, subdivisions, to be larger/taller, rather than having the software determine the ratio of text to scale bar size. 

Procedure

1. Open the scale bar properties, right-click the Scale Bar item in the Contents pane, and click Properties.
2. Select the Properties icon that looks like a scale bar, if it's not selected already.

3. Adjust the height of the scale bar. For scale bars with tick marks for the divisions, such as the default ones shown in the images above:
   1. Under Marks, increase the Length value under Divisions and Subdivisions. This represents the height of the tick marks on scale bar. The values shown in the image below are the defaults. Increase these to the desired values.

2. For scale bars with no tick marks, like the one shown in the next image:

3. Under Bar, increase the Height property.

4. Adjust the Size (height) of the text.
   1. Select the Text symbol tab.
   2. Under Size, increase the font size. This increases the height of the text.

Additional Notes

The scale bar values may change when increasing these height components. This depends on the fitting strategy used. Under the Scale Bar tab, under the Fitting Strategy property. If Fixed bar width or Adjust width is selected, changing these elements only changes the heights and not the values.