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When trying to set the default font in terminal. There are two 'monospace' fonts that interested me: 1. Ubuntu Mono 2. Monospace. I found Ubuntu Mono in /usr/share/fonts, but I couldn't find the other font 'Monospace' anywhere.

Where can I find it? I'd like to set it as my default font in other linux systems as well.

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2 Answers 2

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David Seibert, I cam looking for the 'Monospace' font for exactly the same purpose: patching it for vim-powerline.

Petronilla is correct in stating that there is no explicit font called 'Monospace' which is why it is not in the list of fonts returned by

find /usr/share/fonts -iname '*monospace*'

You can poke around in /etc/fonts/fonts.conf or the various configs in /etc/fonts/conf.d/ but it will be very hard to figure out which font is exactly aliased to 'Monospace'. Easiest thing to do is

fc-match monospace

which on my 12.04 Ubuntu machine returns

DroidSansMono.ttf: "Droid Sans Mono" "Regular"

So now the mystery is solved :)

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    on mine it shows: DejaVuSansMono.ttf: "DejaVu Sans Mono" "Book" I can't remember if this came with the DejaVu Sans font package, or it was changed it via some tool. Hopefully someone can solve this mystery for us!
    – prusswan
    Apr 23, 2013 at 7:20
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    Same here: Monospace is aliased to DejaVu Sans Mono and I don't remember installing any separate package. I am on Ubuntu 12.04. I can also confirm that the two look the same to my eye.
    – HRJ
    May 4, 2013 at 13:25
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    This should be the accepted answer
    – jesjimher
    Aug 27, 2015 at 12:56
  • For those who don't know, fc-match selects a font based on the normal font-config rules. I assume that "monospace" is simply aliased to Canonical's pick for a good default monospace font, much the way the alternative system works for programs.
    – jpaugh
    Jan 24, 2018 at 17:16
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There is no Monospace font. The Monospace that is listed in Terminal is in reality Ubuntu Monospace. In Terminal it is simply referenced as Monospace. You can compare the fonts at http://font.ubuntu.com/.

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  • Yeah, when I was trying different fonts, setting 'Ubuntu Mono, size:13' and 'Monospace, size:13' looked different, even though the text scaling factor is the same. Weird.
    – Aby James
    Mar 22, 2012 at 18:24
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    I think you must be right that "Monospace" is a nickname for something, but it isn't Ubuntu Mono (look at the 'g', for example). I'm also looking for the font file so I can patch it for vim powerline.
    – user106148
    Nov 7, 2012 at 8:50
  • monospace is probably not a nickname for anything, but an alias (which can be changed from one release to the next). See freakabcd's answer (and this comment) for details.
    – jpaugh
    Jan 24, 2018 at 17:18
  • In Ubuntu 19.04, "Monospace" is the same as "DejaVu Sans Mono". I have confirmed this by switching between them in the Terminal and verifying there is no change.
    – curran
    Aug 27, 2019 at 7:19

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