[SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

kelloco2 · 2025-07-02 20:43:34

Hi - the recent fontconfig update from version 2.16 to -> 2.17 changed how my fonts look in the system and applications (they look worse to me). This affects everything from Firefox to programming IDEs.

Font appearance before the update (version 2.16):

Font appearance after the update (version 2.17):

Before update:

After update:

It might be a matter of getting used to it and personal preference, but the new look of the fonts definitely reduced the comfort of using my system. Rolling back to version 2.16 fixed the problem and restored the previous font appearance, but it is a workaround. I spent about 2 hours reading through the latest changes (I also restored the 10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf file to /etc/, which the new package removes, but that didn't help).

What fixed my problem and restored the previous font appearance in the system and applications was creating a file at ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf with the following content.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
    <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
      <const>hintfull</const>
    </edit>
    <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
      <const>rgb</const>
    </edit>
    <edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

I'm writing this for those who use custom desktop environments and lower resolution monitors like Full HD.

seth · 2025-07-02 21:03:32

Kinda OT, but the difference between the screenshots is the hinting (both seem to have rgb subpixel rendering and certainly antialiasing)

Hanabishi · 2025-07-02 21:09:07

There were no changes in defaults regarding that. You could prefer whatever you want, but slight hinting was the default for a very long time. So idk how anything could've changed if you never tweaked fontconfig manually.

kelloco2 · 2025-07-02 21:30:03

I don't know why this happens, but I can see empirically that the upgrade does cause a change. The only thing that comes to mind right now is that maybe fontconfig from version 2.17 no longer respects ~/.fonts.conf and the path changed to ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf? I previously just had .fonts.conf

Last edited by kelloco2 (2025-07-02 21:32:12)

seth · 2025-07-02 21:38:53

fc-conflist

Does your ~/.fonts.conf show up there w/ 2.17

Edit:
While the second pair looks drastic (like hintfull => hintnone/slight), the first pair is a bit more subtle. Maybe a change in the hint interpreter itself?

Last edited by seth (2025-07-02 21:40:03)

Hanabishi · 2025-07-02 21:44:16

Hmm, yeah, 50-user.conf has actually dropped the deprecated ~/.fonts.conf in 2.17.
Although, full hinting was never the default. It's still you who configured it. Manually or through some software. E.g. KDE settings used ~/.fonts.conf at some point in the past, now it uses the XDG one too.
I.e. nobody could know except for you.

kelloco2 · 2025-07-02 21:47:38

I have a .fonts.conf file and on version 2.17 after running fc-conflist it doesn't show up in the command output. However, on version 2.16 after running fc-conflist, .fonts.conf is visible in the output. So it really looks like from version 2.17 onwards, it only respects the ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf path. Thanks, this explains why the appearance of my fonts changed after the upgrade.

"It's still you who configured it. " @Hanabishi Yes you are right, thanks. It confused me because I didn't know that this new version stops reading this file. it looked to me like the upgrade changed something. Now I understand why it happened. Thank You for your support guys

Last edited by kelloco2 (2025-07-02 21:51:54)

Hanabishi · 2025-07-02 21:53:33

Of course. When you mentioned that, it's easy to track down the change.
~/.fonts.conf has been deprecated for the past 10 years, so the drop should have happen eventually.

kelloco2 · 2025-07-02 21:57:11

Yeah, It's probably a remnant of my configuration from back then (my oldest configurations files are ~12 years old). The world is changing rapidly and it's not easy to keep track of it all

kittykat · 2025-07-08 11:14:18

Thank you kelloco2 - I also inexplicable had font changes with this update.

In my case it was not caused by ~/fonts.conf - i never had any custom font config setup.

I did a fc-conflist diff between both packages and this is what I found, just 2 changes

- /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf: Enable sub-pixel rendering with the RGB stripes layout
+ /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/48-guessfamily.conf: Guess a generic-family for substitution

So it would seem the old pacakage enabled RGBA sub pixel pattern by default and is no longer the case.

For me restoring just this config restored the spacing issues I had after the update

  <match target="pattern">
    <edit name="rgba" mode="append"><const>rgb</const></edit>
  </match>

Arch Linux

#26 2025-07-02 20:43:34

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#27 2025-07-02 21:03:32

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#28 2025-07-02 21:09:07

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#29 2025-07-02 21:30:03

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#30 2025-07-02 21:38:53

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#31 2025-07-02 21:44:16

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#32 2025-07-02 21:47:38

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#33 2025-07-02 21:53:33

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#34 2025-07-02 21:57:11

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

#35 2025-07-08 11:14:18

Re: [SOLVED] fontconfig: Terminus font disappeared

Board footer