There are a number of Linux Distributions that are delivered with the Gnome desktop. Examples are Ubuntu, gOS or the non-Linux operating system FreeBSD.

This article illustrates how to customize the font settings of your Gnome desktop to fit your needs.

Customize the Appearance

Depending on the resolution of your display, the utilized display technology and the intended use-case you may want to customize the font settings of the Gnome desktop. This will result in better readable fonts and you will be able to display more information on the same screen comparted with the default settings.

If fonts are too small for your presentation of the Gnome desktop you are also able to increase the size of fonts.

Open the Dialog

To modify the appearance of fonts you have open the appropriate dialog from the main menu: main menu / system / Appearance.

Customize Font Settings

The following screenshot illustrates the current font settings.  (Please note, that settings in our example may vary from your local ones.)

When trying to customize the settings of your system, you should start with modifying the font sizes. This should generally be sufficient. If you are willing to change font families, then you should be careful. This could lead to a disfigured appearance of your desktop.

At the bottom of this dialog you will find some options to influence the rendering of fonts. The default settings should represent the optimum. But under certain conditions you could be required to change the default rendering options to increase the readability.

Resolution of Displays

If you are running displays with a non-standard resolution,  you can increase increase the readability of fonts by changing the internal value how many dots per inch (dpi) should be utilized to render fonts.

To modify the internal resolution (in dpi) you have to click the button labeled with ‘Details…’ at the bottom of the previous window. You will get the following dialog:

At the topmost position this dialog contains an value that represents the display resolution. Increasing this value will result in larger fonts and vice-versa.

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