Howto: Fix Xfce fonts

August 9, 2006 at 6:04 pm | Posted in tips and tricks, xubuntu | 13 Comments

Xfce’s fonts can act weird sometimes. (I’ve noticed this when switching window managers.) Fonts can shrink in some places, and stay consistent in others. Here’s a screenshot:

The fix for this is easy:

1) Edit the file ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb:

mousepad ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb

And paste in:

Xft.dpi: 96

Save and exit.

2) Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

sudo mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And paste in under Section "Files" (if it’s not there alread):

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"

Save and exit.

3) Configure your DPI settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You can follow this guide here: http://xubuntulinux.blogspot.com/2006/07/ubuntu-set-correct-dpi-for-x-server.html.

4) Log in and out. Your fonts should now be consistent.

(credit goes to evaldas at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=220502).

13 Comments »

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  1. wonderful :)) thank you for appreciation. internet is small place 🙂

    Comment by evaldas— August 11, 2006 #

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  2. here’s some more info how to set DPI in xorg.conf http://xubuntulinux.blogspot.com/2006/07/ubuntu-set-correct-dpi-for-x-server.html

    Comment by evaldas— August 11, 2006 #

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  3. Thanks. I’ll admit I was a little lost when you mentioned configuring DPI in xorg.conf.

    Comment by xubuntu— August 11, 2006 #

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  4. I enabled xfce’s compositor for transparency effects (looks nice but slow)

    http://customisinglife.wordpress.com/2006/09/05/enabling-xfwms-compositor/

    and it messed up my font sizes. Luckily i remembered your howto and now all is good. Thanx!

    Comment by Mart— September 15, 2006 #

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  5. i’m a newbie of xubuntu.

    when i mousepad my ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb , it’s empty. i put line:
    Xft.dpi: 96
    and try to save and exit, it shows up:
    can’t open file to write

    any idea?

    Comment by 8o— February 25, 2007 #

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  6. 80: if you haven’t figured this out already (which you likely have …) – you’ll need to open Xft.xrdb as root or use sudo. Read up on the ‘sudo’ command and root privileges.

    Thanks for the tutorial – I’m working out some font challenges, and this was definitely helpful. Cheers from Austin, TX!

    Comment by dentonlt— March 23, 2007 #

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  7. […] 6 , 10 jak 8 ) . Na szczescie pomoc znalazlem na forum Debiana , tymczasem sam art dostepny jest tutaj […]

    Pingback by Wyjeeeeezdzaaam ! =] « Outta Control !— August 2, 2007 #

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  8. […] 6 , 10 jak 8 ) . Na szczescie pomoc znalazlem na forum Debiana , tymczasem sam art dostepny jest tutaj […]

    Pingback by Wiesci » Blog Archive » Wyjeeeeezdzaaam ! =]— August 2, 2007 #

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  9. Thanks for your HowTo (with the link).
    Worked like a charm in my Xubunto Gusty Gibbon 7.10

    Once again, thanks!

    Comment by euux— January 12, 2008 #

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  10. Acually on my 7.10 ubuntu with xfce installed, the fonts path looks like (X11 folder is inside fonts folder):

    FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled”
    FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi”

    Also, when you re copying above, pay attention to quotes as wordpress sometimes change them to something strange

    Comment by michuw— March 31, 2008 #

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  11. […] based fonts were large and small. I couldn’t figure this out and finally found a solution on XUbuntu’s blog post. I will reiterate it here for my future reference and maybe help someone else with this same […]

    Pingback by Gentoo: xfce4 fonts not sized correctly « Jeremy’s Blog— August 2, 2008 #

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  12. […] gtk based fonts were large and small. I couldn’t figure this out and finally found a solution on XUbuntu’s blog post. I will reiterate it here for my future reference and maybe help someone else with this same […]

    Pingback by Gentoo: xfce4 fonts not sized correctly | Jeremy's Weblog— April 20, 2009 #

    Reply

  13. Thanks very much for this post. I had the very same problem in an Xubuntu 8.04 Guest VM after upgrading from VirtualBox 3.1.6 to 3.2.4. The only step I found necessary was to edit ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb

    Comment by Stuart Rackham— June 8, 2010 #

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