How can I specify a more appropriate font substitution?

Question

A particular PDF I have uses a non-embedded font named "TimesNRMT" that is not installed on my system. Instead of substituting the font with a similar one such as Times New Roman, Document Viewer is inappropriately choosing to use some sans-serif font, which makes the text nearly unreadable:

How can I override this choice of font substitution?

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 15 '17 at 07:01

20

Create a rule in your .fonts.conf file. If it's not in your home folder, create it. Here's a full example of a .fonts.conf file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

  <match target="pattern">
    <test name="family" qual="any" >
      <string>TimesNRMT</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
      <string>Times New Roman</string>
    </edit>
  </match>

</fontconfig>

If you already have the file, just paste in the part enclosed by the match tags.

If you're using Font Manager the file is in a different place(~/.config/font-manager/local.conf).

edited Jul 15 '17 at 07:01

Anwar

76,649

answered Jun 02 '11 at 16:21

mhmhmhmh

1,588

Are you recommending that I just disregard the giant *DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE* warning at the top? – ændrük Jun 02 '11 at 19:32
1

Not really, I've done similar substitutions in my local .fonts.conf. I'm editing my answer. Silly of me to think it's obvious which file I was talking about. Sorry. – mhmhmhmh Jun 02 '11 at 19:51
Thanks, this is just what I needed. I chose to use alias to keep it simple. ~/fonts.conf. – ændrük Jun 08 '11 at 14:52
2

In the latest versions of Ubuntu, you can also do this through the GUI if you are using font-manager. In the Font Manager app there's a button in the bottom left for font preferences, and this brings up a menu which has "Alias Editor". You can edit font aliases in there. This gets written out to ~/.config/font-manager/conf.d/XX-aliases.conf. – ovolve Aug 05 '16 at 17:45

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 03 '11 at 20:46

4

Maybe you’ll need to install MS Core Fonts.

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

answered Jun 03 '11 at 20:46

fitojb

2,188

1

A better option would be to install Red Hat's Liberation fonts, which are near equivalents of popular Microsoft fonts, and substitute them as susggested by miloshadzic. – BZ1 Jun 06 '11 at 11:49
2

Better to use the real thing, as ‘near equivalents’ don't cut it in publishing. – scruss Feb 27 '15 at 12:14

How can I specify a more appropriate font substitution?

2 Answers2

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