Fixing Fonts in Debian

Debian fonts are just plain ugly. In fact, Linux fonts in general are pretty ugly. Ubuntu has done a nice job making its fonts look nice, but unfortunately those changes don't always get passed on to other distributions. To make the fonts in Debian look nicer, create a file named .fonts.conf in your home directory with the following contents:

<?xml version='1.0'?>

<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>

<fontconfig>

 <match target="font">

  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">

   <const>rgb</const>

  </edit>

 </match>

 <match target="font">

  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">

   <bool>true</bool>

  </edit>

 </match>

 <match target="font">

  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">

   <const>hintslight</const>

  </edit>

 </match>

 <match target="font">

  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">

   <bool>true</bool>

  </edit>

 </match>

  <match target="font">

    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">

      <const>lcddefault</const>

    </edit>

  </match>

</fontconfig>

Log out then log back in to apply the changes. The fonts will then look so much nicer.