12 mo. ago • 96%

Basic fonts

What is your "basic" list of fonts every linux desktop user should install ?

60 comments

Liberation fonts, Noto fonts, Deja Vu fonts and Nimbus fonts pretty much. Add in Cantarell too and you are set I would say. Those are the ones you should install for compatibility.

I always install Inter for UI and JetBrains Mono for terminal usage. I find they render way better than pretty much anything else.

Update: Discovered Geist and Geist Mono and they are amazing, I am going to replace Inter and JetBrains Mono from now on: github.com/vercel/geist-font

11
Comic neue, must have for all the important legal documents.

11
For me personally, it's Victor Mono and Iosevka. Victor Mono for desktop and Iosevka for VSCodium.

11
- Iosevka is so great. Not everyone likes the narrow look. I've tried other fonts a couple of times since I stumbled on it a good handfuls of years ago, but I always come back.
  
  4
  
  You can always compile your own Iosevka and adjust several pieces, I have done that selecting what I consider the best pieces a long time ago.
  
  The compiled font lives in an easy to access internal webserver that I just grab from every computer I use (=
  
  1
- I like both of those, but my terminal and coding are always in MPlus Code
  
  2
  
  Nice! That font really looked nice through the smartphone. Will try it out in VSCodium when I can. Thanks!
  
  3
- Just looked at the screenshot on the Victor Mono page and the kerning makes me want to rip my eyes out....
  
  2
  
  Why? 😄
  
  1
- Víctor Mono looks like the programmer cousin of Comic Sans ...
  
  1
This isn't specific to Linux necessarily, but the best free fonts I like the most that I always install regardless of OS are:

DejaVu (included by default in a lot of Linux distros but not in Windows)

EB Garamond (a font intended to replicate Garamond but with the Open Font License)

Inconsolata (a font intended to replicate Consolas but with the Open Font License)

Noto (also included by default on a lot of Linuxes but not on Windows)

Vollkorn
10
- Inconsolata is my ride or die font for programming.
  
  4
  
  Same, love using it for terminal and vscode
  
  5
  
  Yeah I fucking love that font. Better than Noto Mono because in Inconsolata the zeros have a cross through them and therefore it's easier to distinguish them from the letter O.
  
  The only downside is that it hasn't been updated since 2015-12-04 and thus only has "the base ASCII set and ... the Latin 1, 2, and 9 complements". So it works for most English-speaking purposes, but runs into problems if you try to use certain symbols used outside of that context, like other languages or some special characters. I don't run into it often enough to be too much of a problem, but it is there.
  
  2
Computer Modern, the font of LaTeX

9
I commonly use the following font families:

Hack

Noto

Inter

Helvetica

Montserrat

Space Grotesk

Times New Roman

Atkinson Hyperlegible

Cormorant (Garamond)

7
I use Fira Sans and Fira Mono for everything.

7
- Chad
  
  2
I always install the Noto fonts for things like emojis and asian characters, extra fonts to cover the Cyrillic alphabet, and finally OnePlus's Slate font, which I fell in love with back in the days when I rocked a OnePlus 7 Pro.

5
Just started using the Inter Display fonts and IBM Plex Mono fonts for my GNOME desktop.

https://github.com/rsms/inter

https://github.com/IBM/plex

Both are packaged in Debian.

There is even a discussion about making Inter the default font for GNOME: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gsettings-desktop-schemas/-/issues/52

5
Libertinus Serif (much nicer Times New Roman-ish serif text font. Huge amount of glyphs, open source font license, great to read on display and on print)

Lato (Sans font which imo compliments Libertinus Serif really good. More for short texts, headlines etc. I wouldn't recommend it as a UI font. Also permissive font license.)

4
Mscorefonts.

Remind me to send a link, the only way to get them seems to be from Windows, pretty stupid. Calibri, Times, Cambria, damn Comic Sans, these.

4
- If you don't want to get them from microsoft, you can purchase a license elsewhere. Microsoft allows them to be distributed freely as long as the files are not modified. That's why they are always packaged in an executable installer.
  
  5
  
  Hahah purchase a license. I dont get it, these are just ttf files that are needed for basic compatibility
  
  3
Sofia Sans, JetBrains Mono/Iosevka/Fira Code, noto-fonts-emoji if you want emoji to work, maybe Atkinson Hyperlegible if that's your thing

3
Dejavu is the right font for me for both ebglush and arabic letters.

3
Noto for desktop apps. Inter is nice too. Roboto was a long time favorite of mine too.

Iosevka for monospace. Hack and Fira Code/Mono are great as well.

3
I just left the defaults

3
These are the ones I install on every system:

ttf-caladea 20200113-3

ttf-carlito 20230509-1

ttf-fira-code 6.2-2

ttf-liberation 2.1.5-1

ttf-linux-libertine-g 20120116-7

adobe-source-sans-fonts 3.052-1

adobe-source-serif-fonts 4.005-1

noto-fonts-cjk 20230817-1

noto-fonts-extra 1:23.11.1-1

Currently trying otf-monaspace though and I quite like it.

3
I really like cascadia-code for my terminal (nerdfonts.com has the version with all the ligatures)

I don't do any graphic design or anything like that, so the fonts that come with any modern distro seem to do the trick - maybe I'd install ttf-ms-fonts for better compatibility when dealing with files across multiple operating systems.

3
inter for gnome

fira-mono for terminal

fira-code for coding

noto, liberation and dejavu for completion
3
I have Ubuntu, inter and IBM Plex installed on my kde plasma install, but somehow I keep forgetting to set any of them and just keep the noto sans that comes default with KDE. lol

3
Apple's San Francisco including New York and Mono Nerd cuz they gud >:)

3
- I like SF Pro but I use Inter because of OSL
  
  1
Verdana for normal usage and Source code pro for Terminal

3
~~Monocraft~~ JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono everywhere. Like. E V E R Y W H E R E

2
- lol after being exposed to it a bit because gitlab.com I've decided it's my best font forever <3 I've configured it everywhere a monospaced font is used including gitk and termux on my phone hahaha so cool
  
  2
i usually import all Windows fonts and some nerdfonts for terminal

2
https://terminus-font.sourceforge.net/ this has been my favorite for a while. It keeps the retro sort of look while still being actually ledgible

2
Noto/DejaVu.

1
Permanently Deleted

1
I usually use Roboto or Inter as my desktop font on gtk/gnome

1
The iA Writer fonts are quite nice, but super proprietary and not neccesary by any means

link

1
roboto because cute face

1
I always use https://luciole-vision.com/luciole-en.html to typeset documents like letters and such. I find it pleasant looking and it is supposedly easy to read for people with dyslexia.

1
Beware font fingerprinting

1
futura ❤️

recently, upon reading about its typographer's ideas about it, i'm trying avenir over frutiger

-2
- All three not just proprietary but also expensive, unless you copy them off a Mac OS install.
  
  1
  
  sadly
  
  2
  
  Torrenting my friend
  
  1

You've viewed 60 comments.