How do I change the font DPI settings?
Solution 1
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.
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:
Universal Access
If you just want to adjust the text size universally without need detail you can do this from the universal access tool:
Solution 2
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).
Solution 3
Just open gconf-editor , navigate to the key
/desktop/gnome/font_rendering/dpi
and adjust to values you need.
Solution 4
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
Solution 5
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.
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Bart van Heukelom
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Bart van Heukelom almost 2 years
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?
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somasekhar almost 13 yearsYou might be able to start the settings program "by hand".
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Takkat almost 13 yearssee also: askubuntu.com/q/45572
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user294881 about 10 yearsSince Ubuntu 14.04 there is a setting for the Screen DPI Scaling: askubuntu.com/a/462023/294881
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rubo77 about 10 years@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
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AIB over 12 yearsgconf-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.
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reen over 12 yearsToo bad it's changing only scale factor. Not dpi
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RusGraf over 12 yearsThis doesn't change the DPI, does it? It looks like it just adjusts font sizes to compensate.
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nilsonneto over 12 yearsIts 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 :(
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Anwar about 12 yearsWhy downvote? the first answer also doing the same thing
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Bart van Heukelom almost 12 yearsAppendix: Nowadays one can use Ubuntu Tweak.
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Olathe about 11 yearsWhere in Ubuntu Tweak is that setting?
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Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin over 10 yearsYou 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.
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rubo77 about 10 yearsThis is not the best answer anymore. see @user294881 s Answer below
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nilsonneto about 10 years@rubo77 - they are two separate questions - one for the FONT DPI - and the other is for the SCREEN DPI.
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rubo77 about 10 yearsBut 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
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nilsonneto about 10 years@rubo77 - if you want to discuss pop into the general chat-room - not via comments
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Denilson Sá Maia over 8 yearsAccording to wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI#GNOME , “scaling-factor only allows whole numbers to be set. 1 = 100%, 2 = 200%, etc...”
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Xerz about 8 yearsThank 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
)