Background

Last Wednesday, I upgraded Ubuntu from 12.04 LTS to 14.04 LTS.¹

Problem

As we can see from the second figure in the post in footnote 1, in Chromium, the font used for displaying the source code of a website is not monospaced.

Discussion

This is not the problem of Chromium. I can also see this problem in Firefox as well as GNOME Terminal.

• Firefox

  

• GNOME Terminal

  1. Uncheck the first checkbox, whose label means “use the system fixed width font”, between “Default” and “Monospace 12”.
  2. The letters in the terminal will look ugly.

  

When I wrote the post in footnote 1, I searched “ubuntu 14.04 monospace”, and I couldn’t find anything that helped me solve this problem.

Today, I limit the search to “past year”, and discover a post about font configurations on Linux Desktop. It is the continuation of another post, which contains two code blocks for testing “monospaced” and “Courier New” font families.²

1
2
3
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5
6

<span style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 12pt;">
#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;<br />
int main(){<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;return 0;//很顯然這是為了測試等寬字體<br />
}
</span>

1
2
3
4
5
6

<span style="font-family: courier new; font-size: 12pt;">
#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;<br />
int main(){<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;return 0;//觀察下面的代碼了解monospace是否等於Courier New<br />
}
</span>

I inspect the elements in those code blocks, and realize that it is the problem of the monospaced font family in Ubuntu 14.04.

Solution

I find fc-match at a site, but I can’t find the site. Running the command, I can identify the culprit.

$ fc-match monospace
DroidSansFallbackFull.ttf: "Droid Sans" "Regular"

Googling “ubuntu 14.04 monospace droidsansfallback”, I find a post about the way to improve the display of Chinese characters.³ Following part of the method, I inserted the word Mono after Droid Sans in the first <string> tag under the <edit> tag in the <match> tag which contains <string>monospace</string> in /etc/fonts/conf.avail/69-language-selector-zh-hk.conf.

The last part of Steve Chang’s post about using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS elegantly advices user to execute sudo fc-cache -v to update the font cache.⁴ Actually, without the -v flag, the command still works.

# fc-cache
/usr/share/fonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 8 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 4 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 82 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 1 di
rs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings/large: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc: skipping, existing cache is valid: 59 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/util: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 5 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-cns1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-gb1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-japan1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-japan2: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-korea1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/eot: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/eot/font-awesome: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 11 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/cabin: skipping, existing cache is valid: 8 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/font-awesome: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fon
ts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/freefont: skipping, existing cache is valid: 12 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/ipaexfont-gothic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/ipaexfont-mincho: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/ipafont-gothic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 2 f
onts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/ipafont-mincho: skipping, existing cache is valid: 2 f
onts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/linux-libertine: skipping, existing cache is valid: 13
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/lobster: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/lobstertwo: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/stix: skipping, existing cache is valid: 29 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/svg: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/svg/font-awesome: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype: skipping, existing cache is valid: 2 fonts, 42 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/abyssinica: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/adf: skipping, existing cache is valid: 28 fonts, 0 di
rs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/arphic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 8 fonts, 0 
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/artemisia: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/asana-math: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/comfortaa: skipping, existing cache is valid: 3 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/complutum: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu: skipping, existing cache is valid: 21 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/didot: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/droid: skipping, existing cache is valid: 18 fonts, 0 
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/font-awesome: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fon
ts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont: skipping, existing cache is valid: 12 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/gentium: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/gentium-basic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 8 fo
nts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/horai-umefont: skipping, existing cache is valid: 18 f
onts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/inconsolata: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 font
s, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/junicode: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts, 
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/kacst: skipping, existing cache is valid: 15 fonts, 0 
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/kacst-one: skipping, existing cache is valid: 2 fonts,
0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lao: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0 dir
s
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lato: skipping, existing cache is valid: 10 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation: skipping, existing cache is valid: 16 font
s, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 60 f
onts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/nanum: skipping, existing cache is valid: 6 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/neohellenic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 font
s, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/olga: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0 di
rs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/padauk: skipping, existing cache is valid: 4 fonts, 0 
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/sinhala: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/solomos: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0
dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/takao-gothic: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fon
ts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/tibetan-machine: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/tlwg: skipping, existing cache is valid: 54 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu: skipping, existing cache is valid: 21 font
s, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-indic-fonts-core: skipping, existing cache is vali
d: 17 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-khmeros-core: skipping, existing cache is valid: 2
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-liberation: skipping, existing cache is valid: 16 
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-marvosym: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fon
ts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-punjabi-fonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 
2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family: skipping, existing cache is valid:
13 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/unfonts-core: skipping, existing cache is valid: 12 fo
nts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/wqy: skipping, existing cache is valid: 5 fonts, 0 dir
s
/usr/share/fonts/type1: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 3 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 35 fonts, 0 d
irs
/usr/share/fonts/type1/mathml: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 0 dir
s
/usr/share/fonts/type1/texlive-fonts-recommended: skipping, existing cache is va
lid: 47 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/woff: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/woff/font-awesome: skipping, existing cache is valid: 1 fonts, 
0 dirs
/usr/local/share/fonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/home/owner/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/home/owner/.fonts: skipping, existing cache is valid: 29 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/lm: skipping, existing cache is valid: 72
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/lm-math: skipping, existing cache is vali
d: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/tex-gyre: skipping, existing cache is val
id: 33 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/tex-gyre-math: skipping, existing cache i
s valid: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 8 dirs
/usr/local/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/home/owner/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/home/owner/.fonts: caching, new cache contents: 29 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/lm: caching, new cache contents: 72 fonts
, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/lm-math: caching, new cache contents: 1 f
onts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/tex-gyre: caching, new cache contents: 33
fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/texmf/fonts/opentype/public/tex-gyre-math: caching, new cache content
s: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/owner/.cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/owner/.fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded

Now, fc-match returns me a fixed-width font.

$ fc-match monospace
DroidSansMono.ttf: "Droid Sans Mono" "Regular"

The following screenshots show that the above configurations can really fix the problem.

• Chromium

  

• Firefox