How can I specify a more appropriate font substitution?

fonts pdf evince

8,422

Solution 1

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).

Solution 2

Maybe you’ll need to install MS Core Fonts.

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

8,422

Author by

RusGraf

My goal here is usually to document.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

RusGraf over 1 year

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?
RusGraf almost 13 years

Are you recommending that I just disregard the giant DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE warning at the top?
vermin almost 13 years

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.
BZ1 almost 13 years

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.
RusGraf almost 13 years

Thanks, this is just what I needed. I chose to use alias to keep it simple. ~/fonts.conf.
scruss over 9 years

Better to use the real thing, as ‘near equivalents’ don't cut it in publishing.
ovolve almost 8 years

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.