24.04 : condensed, bold and black fonts can't be used for interface and title bar

[Coeur Noir]

Hi,

fresh lunar lobster installation here,

from legacy iso image ( ubiquity installer. )

As I usually do, I tried to change the font for interface, as I much prefer « condensed » fonts rather than large, round, regular ones.

In 20.04 or 22.04 or 22.10 gnome-tweaks allowed to do that.

Today in 24.04 ( and since 23.04 ) it only changes font in gnome-shell ( top panel, activities and app's views ) but not in other app's, not in the whole interface as it used to do.

In dconf-editor I did not find entries regarding « global » interface font.

Is this intended behavior ?

Ability to change font type and size is also a matter of accessibility.

For references :
⋅ https://askubuntu.com/questions/1468338/23-04-how-change-font-in-interface-gnome-shell-window-title-bar
⋅ https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=2079313

This affects many users.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Well, there's ( at least ) one app' where expected font is applied : gimp.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Ubuntu condensed medium in gnome-tweaks for both interface and old title-bar,

and comparison Gimp / LibreOffice

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Thanks to Tamarou's observation here → https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=22678783#p22678783

it actually seems that any *condensed* type of font is excluded.

So it's still possible to change font to anything that's not a condensed one.

Is this intended ?

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

It may be related to how Ubuntu fonts are symlinked in 23.04.

Ubuntu-C.ttf leads to a ( variable, I guess ) font named Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf

The latter may not correctly include condensed variant ?

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

As a workaround,

install single file for Ubuntu Condensed Regular [ Ubuntu_Condensed_Regular.16.ttf ] as to be found in fonts.google.com through font-manager or manually,

into your $HOME/.local/share/fonts/ folder

rebuild font caches

and then beware to choose Ubuntu Condensed *Regular*
( and not any other Ubuntu Condensed *variant* )
in gnome-tweaks or dconf-editor.

This a not a fix, there is a problem with most condensed font variant installed by default in 23.04

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Yes you are right, it's not limited to condensed font variant.

And it's not limited to Ubuntu as I hit the exact same issue in Budgie 23.04 ( which does not make use of gnome-shell but does use mutter and some other gnome components. )

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

I see the issue in Debian testing with mutter 43.4. So if the issue is not present in 22.10, and if it is a mutter thing, it may have happened somewhere between mutter 43.0 and 43.4.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Samlane here https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/23-04-condensed-bold-and-black-fonts-cant-be-used-for-interface-and-title-bar/6718/2
seems to also think about Mutter as tests with another window manager ≠ mutter solves the issue.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

The other window manager is mentioned here https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/23-04-pixel-saver-no-longer-saves-pixels/6715/2

( why can't I edit my own comment ? )

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Looks like the « problem » is still present in Ubuntu 24.04,

where any condensed variant of Ubuntu font family can't be applied everywhere.

Setting this through dconf-editor

/org/gnome/desktop/interface/font-name

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Correction for #5

in dconf-editor, the font name to chose is

Ubuntu Condensed,

( yes with the , at the end )

[Coeur Noir (coeur-noir)]

Sorry for commenting again, maybe best workaround is installing older Ubuntu fonts ( taken from 20.04 ) as listed below where ubuntu_initial are now default in 24.04 and ubuntu are the older ones.

django@ASGARD:~$ ls -la /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu*

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu:
total 4084
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 avril 26 04:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 avril 26 04:43 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 356980 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-BI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 333612 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-B.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 350444 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-C.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 409608 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-LI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 415552 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-L.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 366992 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-MI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 216208 avril 26 04:27 UbuntuMono-BI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 191400 avril 26 04:27 UbuntuMono-B.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 210216 avril 26 04:27 UbuntuMono-RI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 205748 avril 26 04:27 UbuntuMono-R.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 341324 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-M.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 386440 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-RI.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 353824 avril 26 04:27 Ubuntu-R.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 36 avril 26 04:27 .uuid

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu_initial:
total 4256
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 avril 24 12:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 avril 26 04:43 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-BI.ttf -> 'Ubuntu-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-B.ttf -> 'Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-C.ttf -> 'Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 679224 mars 21 21:03 'Ubuntu-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-LI.ttf -> 'Ubuntu-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-L.ttf -> 'Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-MI.ttf -> 'Ubuntu-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 mars 21 21:03 UbuntuMono-BI.ttf -> 'UbuntuMono-Italic[wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 mars 21 21:03 UbuntuMono-B.ttf -> 'UbuntuMono[wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172196 mars 21 21:03 'UbuntuMono-Italic[wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 mars 21 21:03 UbuntuMono-RI.ttf -> 'UbuntuMono-Italic[wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 mars 21 21:03 UbuntuMono-R.ttf -> 'UbuntuMono[wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 172232 mars 21 21:03 'UbuntuMono[wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-M.ttf -> 'Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-RI.ttf -> 'Ubuntu-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-R.ttf -> 'Ubuntu[wdth,wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 738444 mars 21 20:56 'UbuntuSans-Italic[wdth,wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 186356 mars 21 20:56 'UbuntuSansMono-Italic[wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 230324 mars 21 20:56 'UbuntuSansMono[wght].ttf'
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1080900 mars 21 20:56 'UbuntuSans[wdth,wght].ttf'
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 mars 21 21:03 Ubuntu-Th.ttf ->...