Re: Fonts changed after X upgrade in unstable

[Nate Eldredge <nge@cs.hmc.edu>]

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006, Florian Kulzer wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 17:21:10 -0700, Nate Eldredge wrote:
> > The other day I upgraded my unstable to get the new X.org packages.  Most
> > everything seems okay except that the fonts in many applications are
> > different.  Let's take gaim as an example.  The font used throughout
> > (buddy list, for example) is much smaller than the one I had before, and I
> > don't like it.
>
> Are you sure that it is really a different font, i.e. a different
> typeface, or could it be the same font scaled down in size?

That is possible.  I can't tell for sure but it might be the same font.

> > Any suggestions on how to investigate further?  General tips or references
> > about how fonts in Debian are managed would be helpful as well.  I've
> > always had the impression that this is a very complicated system which
> > works in large part by black magic, so any enlightenment would be much
> > appreciated.
>
> Your problem might be due to changes in your X server's resolution
> settings, which influence the size of the fonts on the screen. You can
> check this from an X terminal with the command
>
> xdpyinfo | grep resolution
>
> Just post the output here if you can't judge yourself if the setting
> makes sense. (I have a 15 inch screen and my resolution is set to 86x84
> dots per inch.)

Thanks for the suggestion, I wasn't aware that such a setting existed. 
It looks like mine is set to 75x75 dpi.  The screen is about a 14" LCD 
which is 1024x768 pixels.  That does seem too low; by my calculations the 
screen should be 1280 pixels diagonally, so it should be more like 90 dpi.

How would I adjust this?  I don't see anything that seems to set screen 
dpi in either my old or new X server config files, so I don't know what 
the old value was or how it got changed.

Also, would this necessarily affect fonts across the board?  Because in 
some applications, e.g. xterm, the fonts still look exactly the same as 
before.

Thanks!

--
Nate Eldredge
nge@cs.hmc.edu