How do I change the font DPI settings?

Question

I installed Oneiric on a clean system, and found that the font tab is gone from the Appearance settings. This is a problem, because by default the text in Ubuntu is too large.

I changed the text from normal to small in the Universal Access settings, but then it was way too small.

I also tried it this way, but it doesn't appear to have any effect.

How can I get back the fine control and change my DPI from 96 to 90?

Since Ubuntu 14.04 there is a setting for the Screen DPI Scaling: http://askubuntu.com/a/462023/294881 — user294881, Jun 19 '14 at 08:07
@BartVanHeukelom: Please explain, why do you want to change the FONT DPI and not the whole SCREEN DPI? as @user294881 said, this is possible now in System Settings->"Displays"->"Scale for menu and title bars" Screenshot — rubo77, Jun 19 '14 at 18:42

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 11 '11 at 14:03

22

Gnome Tweak Tool

This is a common issue on the forums - the move to gnome3 has dumped many of the customisation features that were available in gnome2.

One GUI tool that exists in Software Center is gnome-tweak-tool - its a partial solution to allow you to customise some aspects of fonts.

The "Text scaling factor" is the option you are interested in - its unfortunate that it is a sliding bar so you will not be able to enter the actual DPI value. Click on the sliding bar and use the left/right arrow keys to decrease/increase the font size. enter image description here

dconf-editor

Using dconf-editor which is available in the dconf-tools package allows you to set the "Text Scaling Factor" numerically i.e. changing the default value by fractions of numbers (1.2, 0.9 etc) changes the overall screen font size:

enter image description here

Universal Access

If you just want to adjust the text size universally without need detail you can do this from the universal access tool:

enter image description here

edited Oct 11 '11 at 14:03

Jorge Castro

71,754

answered Sep 05 '11 at 05:53

fossfreedom

172,746

This doesn't change the DPI, does it? It looks like it just adjusts font sizes to compensate. – ændrük Feb 10 '12 at 14:35
Its the closest that I found - I haven't found anything closer to the old gnome-2 functionality.... unless you know of something? - doesnt appear to be anything in precise either :( – fossfreedom Feb 10 '12 at 14:55
Appendix: Nowadays one can use Ubuntu Tweak. – Bart van Heukelom Jul 04 '12 at 15:01
Where in Ubuntu Tweak is that setting? – Olathe Jun 12 '13 at 02:12
You can also adjust individual fonts with gnome-tweak-tool; notably you'll want to increase window title font which is unaffected by Text scaling factor. – Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin Nov 17 '13 at 05:10
This is not the best answer anymore. see @user294881 s Answer below – rubo77 Jun 19 '14 at 09:01
@rubo77 - they are two separate questions - one for the FONT DPI - and the other is for the SCREEN DPI. – fossfreedom Jun 19 '14 at 09:31
1

But what for should you change the FONT DPI? this only causes a lot of problems, see: Why are all HTML form elements huge with a system-wide font-scale factor 2.0? - so I guess, 99,9% of all users want to change the SCREEN DPI – rubo77 Jun 19 '14 at 09:33
@rubo77 - if you want to discuss pop into the general chat-room - not via comments – fossfreedom Jun 19 '14 at 09:34
Thank you! This actually helped me on setting GDM's DPI! (login to the GDM account via sudo or su > export $(dbus-launch) > GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set) – Xerz May 30 '16 at 20:13

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 17 '11 at 10:40

8

If the key text-scaling-factor is missing from gconf-editor, check alternatively:

 gsettings list-schemas | grep org.gnome.desktop.interface
 gsettings list-keys org.gnome.desktop.interface
 gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor
 gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor 0.9

(replace 0.9 with the desired value).

answered Oct 17 '11 at 10:40

user28234

91

3

Too bad it's changing only scale factor. Not dpi – Yuriy Voziy Oct 27 '11 at 17:41
1

Why downvote? the first answer also doing the same thing – Anwar Jun 11 '12 at 06:03
According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI#GNOME , “scaling-factor only allows whole numbers to be set. 1 = 100%, 2 = 200%, etc...” – Denilson Sá Maia Jan 31 '16 at 10:26

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

7

Just open gconf-editor , navigate to the key /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/dpi and adjust to values you need.

enter image description here

edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

Community

1

answered Sep 03 '11 at 13:37

Takkat

142,284

2

gconf-editor is applicable to gnome shell only. If you want to change DPI for unity shell, use dconf-editor . (It comes with dconf-tools) The procedure is same as detailed above. – AIB Oct 14 '11 at 13:35

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:04

2

Did you try setting DisplaySize in xorg.conf?

I added to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d a file with the size in mm, let's see how it works:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "myMonitor"
  DisplaySize 223 125
EndSection

edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:04

Zanna

70,465

answered Aug 09 '12 at 15:33

piotr5

88
1
8

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:48

1

There is a new option Scale for menu and title bars in System Settings > Displays in Ubuntu 14.04 as described in this Ask Ubuntu answer, to set system-wide scaling factor.

edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:48

Zanna

70,465

answered Jun 19 '14 at 08:09

user294881

31
1
5

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:03

0

On Pop!_ OS (which also uses GNOME shell) I had to set scale to 200% for HiDPI to work. This may be equivalent on other systems. I've got a 24 inch monitor set to 3840x2160 and it system wide font-rendering was blurry (not HiDPI or Retina like) unless scale was 200%.

edited Sep 03 '20 at 15:03

Zanna

70,465

answered Aug 29 '20 at 01:00

urubuz

101

How do I change the font DPI settings?

6 Answers6

Gnome Tweak Tool

dconf-editor

Universal Access

Linked

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