As documented by issue http://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-16689, there are plans to support CSS property -fx-columns to let developers control the width of a text field. As stated, the width of a text field will be equal to the width of a 'w' times the number of columns specified.

From the viewpoint of a UI designer, this indirect way of controlling the visual appearance of text fields is quite untypical. If an application's visual design has been defined using a visual design tool, the UI designer will tell you that the text field should have a width of, say 600px. This requires me, the developer, to figure out the width of a 'w' of the chosen font, divide the 600px by that width, and enter the result as the value of -fx-coumns.

I request that you instead support a -fx-pref-width and -fx-pref-height for text fields allowing me to ask the UI designer what width and height he prefers, and enter those values directly into the style sheet.