From Fedora Project Wiki


Default To Noto Fonts

Summary

Changing the default fonts for various languages to Noto Fonts as much as possible, to make consistency on the text rendering.

Owner


Current status

  • Targeted release: Fedora Linux 36
  • Last updated: 2021-12-20
  • FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
  • Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
  • Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Currently we use DejaVu fonts for English and some languages as the default font and other fonts for languages not covered by them. this situation causes inconsistent text rendering on applications and desktops, particularly when mixing different character sets.

This change aims to provide better experience and consistent text rendering across more languages by replacing DejaVu with Noto.

The following packages will be installed by default to replace DejaVu's coverage:

  • google-noto-sans-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-mono-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-arabic-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-cherokee-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-thaana-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-hebrew-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-rashi-hebrew-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-math-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-armenian-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-armenian-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-canadian-aboriginal-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-georgian-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-georgian-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-sans-lao-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-lao-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-gurmukhi-vf-fonts
  • google-noto-serif-sinhala-vf-fonts

Feedback

Benefit to Fedora

We would get better text rendering on applications and desktops. also this change will save about 6MB on the fresh install.

$ rpm -qlv dejavu-sans-fonts dejavu-serif-fonts dejavu-sans-mono-fonts | awk 'BEGIN{a=0}{a+=$5}END{print a}'
10789272
$ rpm -qlv google-noto-sans-vf-fonts google-noto-serif-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-mono-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-arabic-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-cherokee-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-thaana-vf-fonts google-noto
-sans-hebrew-vf-fonts google-noto-rashi-hebrew-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-math-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-armenian-vf-f
onts google-noto-serif-armenian-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-canadian-aboriginal-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-georgian-vf-f
onts google-noto-serif-georgian-vf-fonts google-noto-sans-lao-vf-fonts google-noto-serif-lao-vf-fonts google-noto-serif-gurmukhi-vf-fonts google-noto-serif-sinhala-vf-fonts | awk 'BEGIN{a=0}{a+=$5}END{print a}'
4753340

Scope

  • Proposal owners:
    • Update google-noto-fonts and dejavu-fonts to change the priority for fontconfig config.
    • Update langpacks to update the dependency.
    • Update comps to make Noto fonts default.
    • Update lorax templates related to DejaVu.
    • Update fontconfig to change the order of fonts in the builtin config.
  • Other developers:
    • Packagers who owns packages implicitly expects DejaVu is installed by default will needs to update the dependency for them.
  • Policies and guidelines: N/A (not needed for this Change)
  • Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
  • Alignment with Objectives:

Upgrade/compatibility impact

The migration will be done by updating langpacks. after upgrading and rebooting, the default font will be Noto instead of DejaVu.


How To Test

This change can be simply tested by fc-match command like fc-match sans:lang=<your langauge>, fc-match serif:lang=<your language> and fc-match monospace:lang=<your language>. you can check the expected result from the table.

User Experience

Users will see the default font is changed to Noto by this change except for some languages which has much better quality of fonts.

Dependencies

Only dejavu-fonts, langpacks, and fontconfig are required to update. other packages which explicitly has a dependency to dejavu-fonts are basicaly optional to update.

Contingency Plan

  • Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
  • Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
  • Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), Yes/No


Documentation

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release Notes