Font size difference between Windows and Linux

Module Design
1

Hi all,

I’m having an issue with difference in font size between windows and Linux, using the “Europa Full Map” module. The module designer has set a “Factors” label which is a text label added to the bottom of each counter. The font that has been chosen for this label is “Sans Serif” size 24. Here’s a screen shot of the relevant part of the prototype definition:

image

On the designers screen (he is using Windows), this makes the text label fit the space on the counter like this:

image

However on my system, which runs Linux, the text appears in a noticeably larger font, and overflows the available space on the counter, like this:

image

Is there anything that I can do to make sure that I’m using exactly the same font and font size as the designer? I suspect that between the two systems, “Sans Serif” is a font class and the actual font being picked on each system is different. Can we force the use of a specific (truetype or other) font?

2

To answer my own question:

Create a file called ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Include this:

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<alias>
    <family>Sans Serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Roboto</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Roboto</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
</fontconfig>

Now I’m not sure if “Roboto” is the correct font but it seems to fit better and be closer to the font in use on Windows. I guess that Windows might use Arial but that’s a Microsoft font and not free. Roboto is by Google and is free.

2 Likes
3

I guess the Sans Serif font used is set by your theme - depending on the GUI you use. For GNOME, you can probably also set it via gnome-tweaks.

Free (as in beer and speech) alternatives to Arial (which is free - as in beer - to use and installs with sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer) are

  • Liberation Sans (same metric as Arial) - apt install fonts-liberation
  • OpenSans - apt install texlive-fonts-extra
  • Noto (newer version of Roboto) - apt install fonts-noto
  • Arimo (same metric as Arial) apt install fonts-croscore
  • … and countless others

Note that you may be able to do a per-application setting with something like

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="pattern">
    <test name="prgname" compare="eq">
      <string>java</string>
    </test>
    <test name="family" compare="contains">
      <string>Sans Serif</string>
    </test>
    <edit mode="assign" name="family" binding="same">
      <string>Liberation Sans</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

or similar. Or you could do

FONTCONFIG_FILE=~/.config/fonts/vassal.conf vassal ...

where ~/.config/fonts/vassal.conf contains a copy of the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf and your edits.

Yours,
Christian