[HowTo] Change system default fonts

[fabien]

If you're unhappy with the system's default fonts, or want to try something else, or for any other reason, it's easy to do.

For a system-wide modification, create the file
/etc/fonts/local.conf
or use the file
/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf

For a per-user customization, place your file(s) in
$HOME/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/
or create the file
$HOME/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Do not modify any existing file unless you use /etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf

All definitions are in /etc/fonts/conf.d/, look there to find the fonts you want to modify.

Here is an example for modifying the serif, sans-serif and monospace families of /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf. The font at the top of the family has a higher priority.

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <description>Replace preferable fonts for Latin</description>
   <alias>
      <family>serif</family>
      <prefer>
         <family>DejaVu Serif</family>
         <family>Noto Serif</family>
         <family>Times New Roman</family>
         <family>Thorndale AMT</family>
         <family>Luxi Serif</family>
         <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family>
         <family>Nimbus Roman</family>
         <family>Times</family>
      </prefer>
   </alias>
   <alias>
      <family>sans-serif</family>
      <prefer>
         <family>DejaVu Sans</family>
         <family>Noto Sans</family>
         <family>Verdana</family>
         <family>Arial</family>
         <family>Albany AMT</family>
         <family>Luxi Sans</family>
         <family>Nimbus Sans L</family>
         <family>Nimbus Sans</family>
         <family>Helvetica</family>
         <family>Lucida Sans Unicode</family>
         <family>BPG Glaho International</family> <!-- lat,cyr,arab,geor -->
         <family>Tahoma</family> <!-- lat,cyr,greek,heb,arab,thai -->
      </prefer>
   </alias>
   <alias>
      <family>monospace</family>
      <prefer>
         <family>DejaVu Sans Mono</family>
         <family>Noto Mono</family>
         <family>Noto Sans Mono</family>
         <family>Inconsolata</family>
         <family>Andale Mono</family>
         <family>Courier New</family>
         <family>Cumberland AMT</family>
         <family>Luxi Mono</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono L</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono PS</family>
         <family>Courier</family>
      </prefer>
   </alias>
</fontconfig>

If you just want to modify the monospace family:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <description>Replace Latin monospace default font</description>
   <alias>
      <family>monospace</family>
      <prefer>
         <family>DejaVu Sans Mono</family>
         <family>Noto Mono</family>
         <family>Noto Sans Mono</family>
         <family>Inconsolata</family>
         <family>Andale Mono</family>
         <family>Courier New</family>
         <family>Cumberland AMT</family>
         <family>Luxi Mono</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono L</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono</family>
         <family>Nimbus Mono PS</family>
         <family>Courier</family>
      </prefer>
   </alias>
</fontconfig>

It may be useful to run

Code: Select all

#> fc-cache -r

as root to regenerate cache files (man 1 fc-cache).

Then disconnect your session and reconnect.

Bookworm default fonts

Default Bullseye fonts used in Bookworm

For now, Sid has reverted the default monospace font to DejaVu Sans Mono.

fontconfig (2.14.2-4) unstable; urgency=medium

* Team upload
* Change the default monospcace font for latin scipts
- Upstream‘s default monospace font for latin scripts is currently
Noto Sans Mono, and that has been reflected in Debian since
fontconfig 2.14.1-3. Due to some deficiencies in that font, we
change it to the well established DejaVu Sans Mono. To cover
situations when the fonts-dejavu-mono package is not installed,
we put the Noto Mono font — included in the fonts-noto-mono
package — as the second one in the list. (Closes: #1028897)

-- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <gunnarhj@debian.org> Sun, 20 Aug 2023 13:37:33 +0200

[donald]

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