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I just installed Ubuntu on a couple new computers, and a lot of the system fonts are quite different than those of the first laptop. All are running 14.04, all are fully up to date with updates, all have default font settings. And yet, they look markedly different.

Note: I just discovered that if I login as a guest user on the problematic computer, all the fonts look exactly as I would hope. So obviously it's a user-level setting somewhere, I just can't figure out which one it is so I can reset it.

Here are the "good" fonts from the original laptop:

Nautilus enter image description here

And the Ubuntu taskbar (see time, my name) and the chrome taskbar. enter image description here

Now compare these images with the ones taken from my current PC. Look especially at the "Home" button in the top left corner, and the text of each folder and at the date/time/name located in the taskbar top right corner. These are not the same fonts, though Ubuntu claims they are. enter image description here

Ubuntu taskbar

enter image description here

For the record, both computers show the following as their font settings:

enter image description here

How can I figure out how to get these same fonts working in the new PC? I have tried:

  • resetting fonts with unity-tweak-tool
  • Using a different monitor
  • Using a different monitor cable (VGA instead of HDMI)
  • rebooting

Sorta at my wits end.

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  • I bet it's not the fonts which are different, but your monitor. Can you try and connect your desktop monitor as external display to your laptop? Probably then the fonts look the same. Maybe there are also different settings for anti-aliasing/clear-type/however-it's-called. But I am not sure if Ubuntu has that at all and how to access it.
    – Byte Commander
    Apr 7, 2015 at 23:37
  • Sorry, I did not see your edit about user specificness. Then it might not be the monitor, but I would still look rather at the display settings than the fonts. I can't imagine that they're really different.
    – Byte Commander
    Apr 7, 2015 at 23:38
  • Thanks for the idea. When I connect my laptop to the desktop monitor, everything looks fine (forgot to mention I tried that). I just added an edit at the top where I discovered that if I log in as a "Guest User" on the problematic desktop, all the fonts look normal again...so it's a user-specific setting somewhere, I just don't know what.
    – tyleha
    Apr 7, 2015 at 23:39

2 Answers 2

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Try deleting:

~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Some times font preferences are stored there and this place is not affected by tweak tools like Ubuntu and Unity tweak tools, these don't even show what is stored there.

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  • I don't even have a ~/.config/fontconfig/ folder to delete...
    – tyleha
    Apr 8, 2015 at 15:47
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So a lot of time has passed, and I still intermittently get this issue with my desktop. What I've discovered is that logging out entirely and logging back in often fixes the issue (not rebooting, though). It's definitely some user settings getting mucked with, just still not sure which ones.

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  • Still experiencing this after upgrading to 16.04. Logging out/back in resolves it each time.
    – tyleha
    Dec 31, 2017 at 18:06

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