Xfce Forum

John_Jason_Jordan

Member

From: USA, left coast

Registered: 2011-11-13

Posts: 107

Font settings

I have Xubuntu 16.04.2, dist-upgraded from Xubuntu 14.04.5. After the upgrade finished there were the usual things that needed to be fixed, and I have now succeeded with all the repairs except where sometimes a font is so tiny that I literally need a magnifying glass.

I set the font in Settings > Window Manager (no problem) and in Settings > Appearance. It is the latter that is not working properly. It is currently set to Deja Vu Sans Book 10 points, which is too tiny in FireFox URL bar and when I right-click on a link. It is equally tiny in the menu bar and tab names in all applications that have such features. To get these things legible I have to increase it to about 18 points, but then file listings in Thunar are huge, as well as in some places in other applications.

I searched the forums and found a few posts, but none that address this particular problem. Any suggestions welcome!

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Linguistics on Linux!

Crippled

Member

From: U.S.A.

Registered: 2015-10-13

Posts: 42

Re: Font settings

Try adjusting font size in Appearance> Fonts.

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MX-17.1 Linux, Xfce 4.12.3

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Font settings

In Appearance -> Fonts Tab, is the DPI setting checked? I've read somewhere that something might mess with that setting during an update, but it hasn't happened to me...

Crippled

Member

From: U.S.A.

Registered: 2015-10-13

Posts: 42

Re: Font settings

In Appearance -> Fonts Tab, is the DPI setting checked? I've read somewhere that something might mess with that setting during an update, but it hasn't happened to me...

I have the Custom DPI checked and set at 150 because of my eyes. Stock setting should be 96. It won't mess up anything from an update, if it does that's a very poorly made distro.

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MX-17.1 Linux, Xfce 4.12.3

John_Jason_Jordan

Member

From: USA, left coast

Registered: 2011-11-13

Posts: 107

Re: Font settings

In Appearance -> Fonts Tab, is the DPI setting checked? I've read somewhere that something might mess with that setting during an update, but it hasn't happened to me...

I have the Custom DPI checked and set at 150 because of my eyes. Stock setting should be 96. It won't mess up anything from an update, if it does that's a very poorly made distro.

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

I had the Custom DPI box checked and set at 96 DPI for years before the upgrade, and it remained so afterwards. But since it was something that I had not messed with in my previous attempts to fix the problem, I unchecked it. Suddenly a lot of things that were too small before got bigger, although not big enough. And the font in the panel, which was OK before, suddenly got too small. Sheesh! What a pain in the patootie this is!

But knowing that 'Custom DPI' could be tweaked as yet another tool to work with I set about trying various things. At the moment I have everything pretty much OK. To get there I set Custom DPI up to 120, and then unchecked the box, which caused another change. But unchecking the box did not return things to 96 DPI, as it should have if that is the default. Still, using Custom DPI as well as Appearance and Window Manager back and forth over and over again I finally got things on my desktop legible and looking good.

Oh, and maybe Xubuntu is a poorly made distro, but it's mine and I'm keepin' it.

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Linguistics on Linux!

Crippled

Member

From: U.S.A.

Registered: 2015-10-13

Posts: 42

Re: Font settings

Oh, and maybe Xubuntu is a poorly made distro, but it's mine and I'm keepin' it.

O.K. cool. It's good to hear that it worked. We all have our favorite distros and stick with what works. If Xubuntu becomes trouble you are welcome to come over to MX Linux which is based off of Debain stable branch with systemD disabled. MX Tweak makes it easy to move the panel and to change theming. Good luck.

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MX-17.1 Linux, Xfce 4.12.3

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Font settings

But unchecking the box did not return things to 96 DPI, as it should have if that is the default. Still, using Custom DPI as well as Appearance and Window Manager back and forth over and over again I finally got things on my desktop legible and looking good.

Who knew DPI could be so complicated? I'm glad it looks good again, but if you still want to dive into the matter, there's some more info (if a bit scattered) in this Ask Ubuntu thread.