25. Change Fonts

You also have control over the fonts used for your applications, the desktop, window titles, and your terminal sessions. These options are available in the Font Preferences dialog box.

Before You Begin

22 About GNOME Personal Settings

Open Font Preferences Dialog

In the Settings dialog box (in the Appearance pane), double-click the Fonts icon. This opens the Font Preferences dialog box. Font changes can be made for applications, the desktop, window titles, or the terminal by clicking on the appropriate choice.

Open Pick a Font Dialog

Select one of the font change boxes (such as Application font). This opens the Pick a Font dialog box.

Tip

You can add TrueType fonts to your system as needed. Use Firefox to locate websites that provide font downloads. Download the fonts to a folder that you create on your desktop (right-click on the font download link and select Save Target to specify the appropriate folder). Open the folder on the desktop that you use to store the downloaded fonts. Open your Home folder on the desktop. In the Home window, select File and then select Open Location. In the dialog that opens, type fonts:/// and then click Open. This opens the Font folder for the system. Drag fonts from the folder that you created to hold downloaded fonts to the Font system folder. You now have access to the added fonts.

Select Font Family, Style, and Size

In the Pick a Font dialog box, select a new font family from the Family list. If you want to change the font style, select a new style in the Style list box. Finally, to change the font size, make a selection in the Size list. Click OK to return to the Font Preferences dialog box.

Select Font Rendering

By default fonts are rendered using the Best Shapes option. This option smoothes the edges of the fonts and is typically the best setting for standard monitors. You can also select Monochrome (fonts are shown in black and white, but edges are not smoothed), Best Contrast (sharpens the contrast and smoothes font edges; setting is designed to make screen easier to read), and Subpixel Smoothing (LCDs). The Subpixel Smoothing option is designed to get the best performance out of LCD (laptops) and flat-screen monitors. After making your font rendering selection, click Close to exit the dialog box.

Note

Changing the fonts and other options for your applications only affects your GNOME applications, which is fine because GNOME is the default GUI for NLD. However, if you switch to the KDE desktop, you will find that your font changes are not applied to your applications and applets.

Tip

You can specify additional settings related to how fonts are rendered on your monitor. Select the Details button to fine-tune settings for smoothing and hinting.