Advice on font size

Having struggled with the problem of getting my font sizes right in several contexts, I figured I’d pass along the essence of what I discovered. This advice applies specifically to OpenSuSE 11.3, but it probably is also applicable to other OpenSuSE versions and even to Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

There are four separate places where font sizes are set:

  1. Applications often have a setting for data within them, e.g., Firefox lets you set font sizes for web pages where the fonts are not otherwise specified. The particular way to do this depends on the application, and I can’t say anything more than that.

  2. The font size for KDE applications is set through Personal Settings / Look and Feel / Appearance / Fonts. You can also select the font itself there.

  3. The font size for GTK (Gnome) applications is set through Personal Settings / Look and Feel / Appearance / GTK Styles and Fonts. The tricky thing here is that applications don’t announce “I am a GTK application”, so you may not always know whether you’re dealing with a KDE application or with a GTK application. Examples of GTK applications are Firefox and GnuCash. Firefox tabs fall into this category.

  4. The font size for Yast and probably some other applications (I don’t know of any specifically) is set in a completely different way because the settings reside with root. To adjust them you have to log in as root and then, in a command-line window, type qtconfig. Then follow your nose.

I hope this advice is useful, and I invite additions and corrections.

Thanks for sharing what you have learned and consolidating it here. I am familiar with all but ‘4’, so I’ve learned something as well. :slight_smile:

I say the same as deano_ferrari.
I wonder why qtconfig is not accesible through yast.

Actually, if you set the font size using procedure 2, it uses qtconfig behind the scenes. You can also call qtconfig directly under your own name to the same effect, but that’s more obscure. There probably is a man page for it, but I haven’t checked that out.

On 2010-12-10 21:06, wrbbt wrote:
>
> I say the same as deano_ferrari.
> I wonder why qtconfig is not accesible through yast.

Why should it?


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

Why should it not? :wink:
I suppose that if you don’t have a good reason for doing something, you already have a good reason for not doing it. Is that right? :slight_smile:

On 2010-12-11 13:36, wrbbt wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2264579 Wrote:
>> On 2010-12-10 21:06, wrbbt wrote:
>>> I wonder why qtconfig is not accesible through yast.
>>
>> Why should it?
>>
> Why should it not? :wink:
> I suppose that if you don’t have a good reason for doing something, you
> already have a good reason for not doing it. Is that right? :slight_smile:

qtconfig is unrelated to yast. It is not a system configuration tool, but a
user configuration tool. User’s configuration tools have no place in YaST.

It just happens that the user is root.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

OK. That one looks like a good and convincing reason.
I had understood that you could use qtconfig as root. I have seen that this is not true.
Thanks, Carlos.

On 2010-12-11 15:36, wrbbt wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2264763 Wrote:

>> It just happens that the user is root.
> OK. That one looks like a good and convincing reason.
> I had understood that you could use qtconfig as root. I have seen that
> this is not true.

Of course that you can use it as root. Root not only configures the system,
it also configures himself as user.

When yast runs, it uses the configuration of the user named “root” for
things like displaying fonts. So, if you want to configure the appearance
of yast, you use the same tools you would use to configure any user - just
that this user is root.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

When I said

you could use qtconfig as root
I meant
you could use qtconfig only as root
.Sorry for the mistake. And thanks again.

On 2010-12-11 19:06, wrbbt wrote:

> When I said > you could use qtconfig as root I meant > you could use qtconfig only as root.Sorry for the mistake. And thanks again.

Ah, I see the misunderstanding. Sorry.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

For an ordinary user, the font settings for KDE apps in Personal Settings correspond to the settings in qtconfig. I would guess that the Personal Settings settings are actually implemented by a call on qtconfig. So qtconfig is in effect available via Personal Settings.

It is probably the case that if you log in as root and invoke Personal Settings, the font adjustments made there will apply to Yast, but I haven’t actually tried that. (I’m not running OpenSuSE at the moment.)

OK. Very clear. Thanks.

First my thanks to all in this thread and to pwabrahams in particular for giving a clear picture on this topic.
I have just installed 11.3 on an old (10 years) Dell PowerEdge PE 6300 server to replace 11.1.
I am using KDE Desktop and although the installation went OK and I had a working desktop on completion I have two problems:-

  1. I could hardly read the text in Firefox, Yast2, on icons or on any of the widgets in bar at bottom of screen.

  2. Firefox opens in reduced window every time. It can be expanded to full screen but the picture is still cut off and I have to scroll down to see it all. I have similar experience in Yast.

I have spent two half days reading up all the excellent info on graphics and fonts available here and thanks to this forum once I forced the 96dpi setting most of the text became ledgible. I still have a problem with the text in the icons on desktop, in the widgets and title block at the head of the page in yast2 and Firefox for example so as suggested here, I tried running qtconfig as root but the bottom of window was below the bottom of the screen and this time there were no scroll arrows to shift the image. I could see the tops of three buttons but what they did was hidden and I bet one was “save”. So before I try and change anything else I am posting this plea for help please.

In previous installations I was able to change the resolution of the graphics which I believe would help fit the windows on the screen more comfortably. I used to use something like 1240 x 1048 but in the System Settings > Computer Administration > Display the resolution is set at 832 x 624 and no higher resolutions are offered.

I cannot find out the details of the embedded graphice controller but the system information report it as ATI Mach64 GI with swrast (No 3D acceleration) version 7.8.2. I have spent several hours reading the many pages on graphics in this forum and have concluded that I should probably be using a legacy driver but have no idea how to change the driver so again am seeking help. Of course if it were possible to increase the resolution to 1240 X 1048 without recourse to changing driver that might do it.

Any and all suggestions and help would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Budgie2

In previous installations I was able to change the resolution of the graphics which I believe would help fit the windows on the screen more comfortably. I used to use something like 1240 x 1048 but in the System Settings > Computer Administration > Display the resolution is set at 832 x 624 and no higher resolutions are offered.

I cannot find out the details of the embedded graphice controller but the system information report it as ATI Mach64 GI with swrast (No 3D acceleration) version 7.8.2. I have spent several hours reading the many pages on graphics in this forum and have concluded that I should probably be using a legacy driver but have no idea how to change the driver so again am seeking help. Of course if it were possible to increase the resolution to 1240 X 1048 without recourse to changing driver that might do it.

@Budgie2: It would be a good idea to start a new thread on this, with a suitable descriptive heading to catch the attention of the people who may be able to assist here.

On 2011-01-04 20:32, Budgie2 wrote:

> I cannot find out the details of the embedded graphice controller but
> the system information report it as ATI Mach64 GI with swrast (No 3D
> acceleration) version 7.8.2. I have spent several hours reading the
> many pages on graphics in this forum and have concluded that I should
> probably be using a legacy driver but have no idea how to change the
> driver so again am seeking help. Of course if it were possible to
> increase the resolution to 1240 X 1048 without recourse to changing
> driver that might do it.

You should start a new thread with a title related to this, if you want to
attract people knowledgeable on graphic card configuration.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

I did, many thanks. I have recieved help in abundance and exactly what I needed.
Regards,
Budgie2

On 2011-01-07 22:06, Budgie2 wrote:
>
> I did, many thanks. I have recieved help in abundance and exactly what
> I needed.

Welcome :slight_smile:


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)