6

I'm trying to come up with a solid font stack that incorporates fonts typically found on an ubuntu install.

font-family=serif looks great, but for obvious reasons, this isn't appropriate for other operating systems.

What font does "serif" resolve to in the default install? I'm on firefox 6. Edit->Preferences->Content->Fonts & Colors/Advanced...->Serif is set to "serif" so it seems like it's using whatever ubuntu defines as the "serif" font. How can I tell what that is?

I'm on 11.04 (from a fresh install)

Thanks

3 Answers 3

6

The list is system dependent. To the get the list on your computer use fc-match and specify a font name to match against. The -s option gives a sorted list.

Here's the output from a 12.04 TLS Server listing serif, sans-serif, and monospace font styles to be thorough:

user@server:~$ fc-match -s serif
DejaVuSerif.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Book"
DejaVuSerif-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Bold"
n021003l.pfb: "Nimbus Roman No9 L" "Regular"
DejaVuSans.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Book"
DejaVuSansMono.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Book"
s050000l.pfb: "Standard Symbols L" "Regular"
DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Bold"
DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Bold"

user@server:~$ fc-match -s sans-serif
DejaVuSans.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Book"
DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Bold"
n019003l.pfb: "Nimbus Sans L" "Regular"
DejaVuSansMono.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Book"
DejaVuSerif.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Book"
s050000l.pfb: "Standard Symbols L" "Regular"
DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Bold"
DejaVuSerif-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Bold"

user@server:~$ fc-match -s mono
DejaVuSansMono.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Book"
DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Bold"
n022003l.pfb: "Nimbus Mono L" "Regular"
DejaVuSans.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Book"
DejaVuSerif.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Book"
s050000l.pfb: "Standard Symbols L" "Regular"
DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Sans" "Bold"
DejaVuSerif-Bold.ttf: "DejaVu Serif" "Bold"
2

On my 11.04 system with firefox 6.0 and on my 11.10 beta system with firefox 7.0, the only serif font I see used is this one:

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSerif.ttf

This comes from the ttf-dejavu package, which appears to be installed by default on 11.04 and 11.10:

Description: Metapackage to pull in ttf-dejavu-core and ttf-dejavu-extra DejaVu provides an expanded version of the Vera font family aiming for quality and broader Unicode coverage while retaining the original Vera style. DejaVu currently works towards conformance with the Multilingual European Standards (MES-1 and MES-2) for Unicode coverage. The DejaVu fonts provide serif, sans and monospaced variants.
.
Use this package if you want all DejaVu variants. . DejaVu fonts are intended for use on low-resolution devices (mainly computer screens) but can be used in printing as well.

1
  • Downvoted? If there is invalid info here, please let me know.
    – belacqua
    Apr 25, 2016 at 16:42
2

I believe it will actually use the font called "Serif", which is an unbranded version of Bitstream Vera Serif. The sans-serif default I likewise understand to be "Sans", an unbranded version of Bitstream Vera Sans. (And by now you've perhaps figured out that "Monospace" is really Bitstream Vera Sans Mono . . . .)

EDIT: ttf-bitstream-vera is in universe in the latest few releases of Ubuntu. In light of this, I believe that belacqua is correct in judging the font used ultimately to be of the DejaVu family (which is a rebranded Bitstream Vera with better international character support, I believe). The font used is still Serif (the same goes for Sans and Monospace), but this links to DejaVu rather than Bitstream Vera.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .