Make your Arch fonts beautiful easily! This is what I do when I install Arch Linux to improve the fonts.
You may consider the following settings to improve your fonts for system-wide usage without installing a patched font library packages (eg. Infinality):
Install some fonts, for example:
sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu ttf-liberation noto-fonts
Enable font presets by creating symbolic links:
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
The above will disable embedded bitmap for all fonts, enable sub-pixel RGB rendering, and enable the LCD filter which is designed to reduce colour fringing when subpixel rendering is used.
Enable FreeType subpixel hinting mode by editing:
/etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh
Uncomment the desired mode at the end:
export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=40"
For font consistency, all applications should be set to use the serif, sans-serif, and monospace aliases, which are mapped to particular fonts by fontconfig.
Create /etc/fonts/local.conf with following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match>
<edit mode="prepend" name="family">
<string>Noto Sans</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>serif</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Noto Serif</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Noto Sans</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>monospace</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Noto Mono</string>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
Set your font settings to match above in your DE system settings.
If you want to use infinality you should try https://github.com/pdeljanov/infinality-remix
TL;DR
yay -S freetype2-infinality-remix fontconfig-infinality-remix cairo-infinality-remix
Enable font presets by creating symbolic links:
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
To be sure, inside /etc/fonts/local.conf add with following
change Favourite for your selected font (i.e Source Sans Pro, Droid Sans, Droid Serif, etc):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="autohint">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
<const>lcddefault</const>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match>
<edit mode="prepend" name="family">
<string>Favourite Sans</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>serif</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Favourite Serif</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Favourite Sans</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>monospace</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same">
<string>Favourite Mono</string>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
The following fonts are recommended and should be installed for a good experience:
- Caladea (
ttf-caladea) - Carlito (
ttf-carlito) - DejaVu (
ttf-dejavu) - Impallari Cantora (
aur/ttf-impallari-cantora) - Liberation (
ttf-liberation) - Noto (
noto-fonts) - Open Sans (
ttf-opensans) - Overpass (
otf-overpass) - Roboto (
ttf-roboto) - TeX Gyre (
tex-gyre-fonts) - Ubuntu (
ttf-ubuntu-font-family) - Courier Prime (
aur/ttf-courier-prime) - Gelasio (
aur/ttf-gelasio-ib) - Merriweather (
aur/ttf-merriweather) - Source Sans Pro (
aur/ttf-source-sans-pro-ibx) - Signika (
aur/ttf-signika)
To improve the fonts in Arch we first need to add some additional fonts. Add the following to the terminal:
sudo pacman -S ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-inconsolata ttf-ubuntu-font-family ttf-dejavu ttf-freefont ttf-linux-libertine ttf-liberation
yay -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-vista-fonts ttf-monaco ttf-qurancomplex-fonts
Next we will disable bitmat fonts, which are used as a fallback.
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d
Now we need to add the Infinality repo to our pacman.conf file. To do this, open the file with gedit (or whatever text editor your using):
sudo vim /etc/pacman.conf
Add the following to your pacman.conf to use the infinality repo:
[infinality-bundle]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://bohoomil.com/repo/$arch
[infinality-bundle-multilib]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://bohoomil.com/repo/multilib/$arch
[infinality-bundle-fonts]
SigLevel = Never
Server = http://bohoomil.com/repo/fonts
Then uncomment the multilib on pacman configuration to download and install 32 bit package on 64 bit systems
[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
Install the bundle:
sudo pacman -Syy infinality-bundle infinality-bundle-multilib # all question answer yes
Finally, reboot your system.
I have been reinstalling arch testing with different setups and this guide "although described as outdated' helps a lot. It is basically what I use after every install.
as @xandora mentioned already the font "Noto Mono" does not exist and needs to be replaced with something like "Noto Sans Mono".
Anyway thanks again for the guide