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My system was upgraded from 18.10 to 19.04, then to 19.10 and finally to 20.04. I have been using it for more than 15 months as my primary computer. This is a typical default Ubuntu installation with some extra manual "apt install"s.

I noticed that there are a lot of fonts and font variations (mostly Asian) that I haven't installed explicitly. Selecting a font in an application (e.g. in LibreOffice) is cumbersome because of the long font drop-down list box. Also, I think that having so many unneeded fonts will make applications slower and is a waste of system resources.

I would like to remove most of the seemingly unnecessary fonts from my system. However, I am not sure which ones are necessary for proper system and core applications operation. Are there any pointers on how to decide on this?

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2 Answers 2

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These are the fonts I purge from a new installation. Clearly, the list is not suitable for all users:

sudo apt purge \
fonts-beng-extra \
fonts-beng \
fonts-deva-extra \
fonts-deva \
fonts-gargi \
fonts-gubbi \
fonts-gujr-extra \
fonts-gujr \
fonts-guru-extra \
fonts-guru \
fonts-indic \
fonts-kacst-one \
fonts-kacst \
fonts-kalapi \
fonts-khmeros-core \
fonts-knda \
fonts-lao \
fonts-lklug-sinhala \
fonts-lohit-beng-assamese \
fonts-lohit-beng-bengali \
fonts-lohit-deva \
fonts-lohit-gujr \
fonts-lohit-guru \
fonts-lohit-knda \
fonts-lohit-mlym \
fonts-lohit-orya \
fonts-lohit-taml-classical \
fonts-lohit-taml \
fonts-lohit-telu \
fonts-mlym \
fonts-nakula \
fonts-navilu \
fonts-noto-cjk \
fonts-orya-extra \
fonts-orya \
fonts-pagul \
fonts-sahadeva \
fonts-samyak-deva \
fonts-samyak-gujr \
fonts-samyak-mlym \
fonts-samyak-taml \
fonts-sarai \
fonts-sil-abyssinica \
fonts-sil-padauk \
fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi \
fonts-smc-chilanka \
fonts-smc-dyuthi \
fonts-smc-karumbi \
fonts-smc-keraleeyam \
fonts-smc-manjari \
fonts-smc-meera \
fonts-smc-rachana \
fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans \
fonts-smc-suruma \
fonts-smc-uroob \
fonts-smc \
fonts-taml \
fonts-telu-extra \
fonts-telu \
fonts-thai-tlwg \
fonts-tibetan-machine \
fonts-tlwg-garuda-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-garuda \
fonts-tlwg-kinnari-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-kinnari \
fonts-tlwg-laksaman-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-laksaman \
fonts-tlwg-loma-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-loma \
fonts-tlwg-mono-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-mono \
fonts-tlwg-norasi-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-norasi \
fonts-tlwg-purisa-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-purisa \
fonts-tlwg-sawasdee-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-sawasdee \
fonts-tlwg-typewriter-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-typewriter \
fonts-tlwg-typist-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-typist \
fonts-tlwg-typo-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-typo \
fonts-tlwg-umpush-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-umpush \
fonts-tlwg-waree-ttf \
fonts-tlwg-waree \
fonts-yrsa-rasa

Note that the list includes fonts-noto-cjk.

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  • 1
    Thanks @DK Bose for the list. I will accept this as the correct answer, but any comments on your suggested action are also highly welcome.
    – FedKad
    May 13, 2020 at 16:35
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    I removed all the fonts you listed from my system (some of them were not installed BTW). There seems no problem. Removing the clutter from the font lists is rather relieving. Thanks again. In my comment I didn't mean your comments that you had removed, but any potential comments from other users about deleting these fonts.
    – FedKad
    May 13, 2020 at 18:05
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    After removing these fonts, I have seen that there as some fonts with some strange names. I inspected these with font-manager and I saw that there are nothing special about them. Their names are C059, D050000L, P052, and Z003.
    – FedKad
    May 16, 2020 at 13:14
  • What do you see with apt list --installed | grep -i fonts? Do they show up there? But see github.com/ArtifexSoftware/urw-base35-fonts/tree/master/fonts.
    – DK Bose
    May 16, 2020 at 13:44
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    @FedonKadifeli Okay, I checked on Kubuntu 20.04 and it's there with [installed,automatic]. I can't figure what package pulled it in as a dependency. Plus, it's there in the manifests of several *buntu 20.04 isos. I'm not going to remove from my system (for now).
    – DK Bose
    May 17, 2020 at 9:24
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If you try to remove a font package that is required for another package, you will be asked whether it is ok to remove that package too.

I use the Synaptic package manager for wholesale font removal. In the settings menu, 'Ask to confirm changes that also affect other packages' is checked, 'Consider recommended packages as dependencies' is unchecked.

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