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I'm currently running Ubuntu and a few other Linux distributions on my computer and since I use the TTY a lot, a good font is pretty important!

Does anyone know the name of the default console/TTY font used in Ubuntu and Debian?

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  • 1
    Which version of Ubuntu? 11.10 comes with a monospace variant of the Ubuntu font, but I'd be surprised if Debian used that one. Jan 22, 2012 at 0:03

7 Answers 7

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  • Ubuntu Mono from the Ubuntu Font Family (font.ubuntu.com) is the default GUI monospace terminal font on Ubuntu 11.10.
  • Terminus Font (terminus-font.sourceforge.net) is the default font on the Linux console (Ctrl+Alt+F1, $ /bin/setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/FOO.psf.gz)
  • GNU Unifont (unifoundry.com) is the default font for the CD bootloader menu, Grub bootloader, and alternate (text-based) installer where a software framebuffer is in use. (Unifont is full-coverage fall-back font).

Technical details

The GUI font is set, for Ubuntu, in the ubuntu-artwork package by a default setting in /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ubuntu-artwork.gschema.override. The change was made in Bug #865013 on

2011-10-04 for Ubuntu 11.10. It's possible to query the value of this setting (the user may have overridden or changed it) with:

  • $ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface monospace-font-name
    'Ubuntu Mono 13'

The configuration of the Linux Terminal consoles fonts is slightly more involved; there are a limited number of slots available for characters on the framebuffer, so the best subset is selected at package install time by the code in /var/lib/dpkg/info/console-setup.config with the result stored in /etc/default/console-setup.

As @Chen Xiao-Long notes, the console font subsets are built-up from a myriad of bitmap fonts sourced from different places; these are fully documented in /usr/share/doc/console-setup/copyright.fonts.gz. When the hinting-work in Ubuntu Mono reaches a high-enough level, then hopefully it will be possible to bitmaps exported from Ubuntu Mono instead, see Bug #724022, at least for the areas where we have coverage.

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  • Thanks a lot! It was exactly what I was looking for (especially the "Technical details" section) :D Jan 28, 2012 at 7:38
  • 1
    I was able to change the font size of my tty1-6 by configuring: /etc/default/console-setup which works well for mirroring a terminal from my laptop and a big-screen TV.
    – Aaron Hall
    Aug 1, 2015 at 20:42
  • There is over a dozen Terminus-fonts on a standard Debian install. It would be pretty helpful to know which one exactly is the default. (especially since I changed my font but now can't find it back)
    – rien333
    Dec 14, 2017 at 16:26
  • For an easy, interactive GUI-ish way to configure the TTY default font, instead of editing /etc/default/console-setup directly, use sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup.
    – MestreLion
    Apr 3, 2021 at 0:54
  • @rien333: I believe none of the Terminus fonts are the default. At least on Ubuntu 18.04+, it seems to be an 8x16 font from the Fixed familiy. You could confirm this by checking /etc/default/console-setup in a brand new (VM) install
    – MestreLion
    Apr 3, 2021 at 0:56
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That's what I found in another post:

"Ubuntu Monospace comes preinstalled with Ubuntu 11.10 and it is the default terminal font."

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    Yes, Ubuntu Mono (font.ubuntu.com) is the default GUI monospace terminal font on Ubuntu 11.10. The Linux console (Ctrl-Alt-F1, /bin/setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/FOO.psf.gz) fonts are Terminus (terminus-font.sourceforge.net)
    – sladen
    Jan 22, 2012 at 0:03
  • @bioShark: Thanks for your answer, but what sladen posted was what I was looking fow :) Jan 22, 2012 at 0:43
  • @sladen: If you repost as an answer, rather than a comment, I'll accept it. Jan 22, 2012 at 0:44
  • @sladen Great info about Terminus
    – bioShark
    Jan 22, 2012 at 3:47
  • @sladen: Actually, after looking at the source code for the package containing the fonts (console-setup), only some of the fonts are Terminus. According to my /etc/default/console-setup file, the default font is Fixed16, which is made from georgian16.bdf, unifont.bdf+h16.bdf, etl16-unicode.bdf. Do you know where those came from? Thanks! Jan 22, 2012 at 22:31
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Well, I've just figured out the correct answer for Xubuntu 14.04 in TTY (text-only mode, no X), it's this one: /usr/share/consolefonts/Uni2-Fixed16.psf.gz

I've compared the default console (CTRL-ALT-F1) with modified console (CTRL-ALT-F2), where I walked through:

for i in /usr/share/consolefonts/Uni*; do setfont "$i"; ls -l /proc/; echo -e "\nINFO: currently set font: $i"; sleep 2; clear; done

(I'd been interested in unicode fonts only)

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  • it might be also Uni3-Fixed16.psf.gz, I cannot see any difference between Uni2 and Uni3.
    – crysman
    Jul 5, 2014 at 16:17
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The default terminal font in Ubuntu (19.04, etc...) is named DejaVuSansMono and is found in:

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf
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You can try the True Type (and GNU licensed) version of Fixed Sys.

It's not perfectly equal, but it's the most faithful version I've found. Take a look and enjoy ;)

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In my ubuntu 16.04 it's "Ubuntu Mono Regular", font size 13.

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I had a problem where the fonts in every application including the Firefox browser, in my Kali, changed after I installed a file(I do not know how it changed.)

There was no perfect video/answer which showed how to reset the fonts.

1) To change the fonts throughout the system(other than the terminal) , search for the Fonts tweak tool. Here, you can change any font that you want to use.

But if you want to use a custom font, download a custom font(Ubuntu Regular preferably) Then proceed as follows Other Locations -> Computer -> usr -> share -> fonts.

Paste your custom font in the fonts folder and now you will get an option to select your custom font, in the Fonts Tweak tool.

2) If you want to reset the Terminal Font with the Default one, CONSOLAS REGULAR is the font you must download, and repeat the part 1 of this answer.

I tried a lot of fonts but nothing suits so well like this Default font.

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