Fonts: Difference between revisions
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NixOS handles fonts like it handles many different parts of the system: they are not in an environment unless explicitly marked to be part of it. This guide covers the installation, configuration and troubleshooting of fonts. | |||
== Installing fonts on NixOS == | == Installing fonts on NixOS == | ||
Line 5: | Line 7: | ||
Despite looking like normal packages, simply adding these font packages to your <code>environment.systemPackages</code> won't make the fonts accessible to applications. To achieve that, put these packages in the <code>[https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&show=fonts.packages&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=fonts.packages fonts.packages]</code> NixOS options list instead. | Despite looking like normal packages, simply adding these font packages to your <code>environment.systemPackages</code> won't make the fonts accessible to applications. To achieve that, put these packages in the <code>[https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&show=fonts.packages&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=fonts.packages fonts.packages]</code> NixOS options list instead. | ||
'' | ''For example:'' | ||
For example: | |||
<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | ||
Line 24: | Line 24: | ||
Be aware that sometimes font names and packages name differ and there is no universal convention in NixOS. See [https://discourse.nixos.org/t/guidelines-on-packaging-fonts/7683/2 Guidelines for font packaging] | Be aware that sometimes font names and packages name differ and there is no universal convention in NixOS. See [https://discourse.nixos.org/t/guidelines-on-packaging-fonts/7683/2 Guidelines for font packaging] | ||
=== Installing specific | |||
=== Shorthands for fonts === | |||
* <code>fonts.enableDefaultPackages</code>: when set to <code>true</code>, causes some "basic" fonts to be installed for reasonable Unicode coverage. Set to <code>true</code> if you are unsure about what languages you might end up reading. | |||
* <code>fonts.enableGhostscriptFonts</code>: affects the <code>ghostscript</code> package. Ghostscript packages some URW fonts for the standard PostScript typefaces. If <code>true</code>, these fonts will be visible to GUI applications. You could set it to <code>true</code> if you want these fonts, but <code>gyre-fonts</code> (part of <code>fonts.enableDefaultPackages</code>) might be higher-quality depending on your judgement. | |||
=== Installing specific nerdfonts === | |||
Before Nixpkgs commit [https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/de4dbc58fdeb84694d47d6c3f7b9f04a57cc4231 de4dbc5] that provides individual Nerd Fonts packages under the name <code>nerd-fonts</code>, the <code>nerdfonts</code> package, which contains all fonts from the [https://www.nerdfonts.com/ nerdfonts] repository was quite large and contained a large number of fonts which took some time to install. If you only need a selection of fonts from the package, you can overwrite the font selection on Stable 20.09 like so: | |||
<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | ||
Line 33: | Line 39: | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
This will cause NixOS to download only the [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/FiraCode Fira Code] and [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/DroidSansMono Droid Sans Mono] fonts from [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts nerd-fonts] instead of the whole package. | This will cause NixOS to download only the [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/FiraCode Fira Code] and [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/DroidSansMono Droid Sans Mono] fonts from [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts nerd-fonts] instead of the whole package. The relevant names can be found by looking at the file name for your relevant font on the [https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases official release page] assets. | ||
For configurations using later versions of Nixpkgs, individual Nerd Fonts packages can be installed like so:<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | |||
fonts.packages = with pkgs; [ | |||
nerd-fonts.fira-code | |||
nerd-fonts.droid-sans-mono | |||
]; | |||
</syntaxhighlight> | |||
=== Let Fontconfig know the fonts within your Nix profile === | |||
Nix inserts its user profile path into <code>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</code>, which Fontconfig by default doesn't look in. This cause graphical applications like KDE Plasma not able to recognize the fonts installed via <code>nix-env</code> or <code>nix profile</code>. | |||
To solve this, add the file <code>100-nix.conf</code> to your Fontconfig user configuration directory (usually <code>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fontconfig/conf.d</code>): | |||
<syntaxhighlight lang="xml"> | |||
<?xml version="1.0"?> | |||
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd"> | |||
<fontconfig> | |||
<!-- NIX_PROFILE is the path to your Nix profile. See Nix Reference Manual for details. --> | |||
<dir>NIX_PROFILE/lib/X11/fonts</dir> | |||
<dir>NIX_PROFILE/share/fonts</dir> | |||
</fontconfig> | |||
</syntaxhighlight> | |||
and run <code>fc-cache</code>. | |||
Alternatively, [https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/options.xhtml#opt-fonts.fontconfig.enable enable Fontconfig configuration] in your Home Manager configuration. | |||
=== Imperative installation of user fonts === | === Imperative installation of user fonts === | ||
This is useful for quick font experiments. | This is useful for quick font experiments. | ||
Example: Install <code>SourceCodePro-Regular</code>. | ''Example'': Install <code>SourceCodePro-Regular</code>. | ||
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">font=$(nix-build --no-out-link '<nixpkgs>' -A source-code-pro)/share/fonts/opentype/SourceCodePro-Regular.otf | <syntaxhighlight lang="bash">font=$(nix-build --no-out-link '<nixpkgs>' -A source-code-pro)/share/fonts/opentype/SourceCodePro-Regular.otf | ||
cp $font ~/.local/share/fonts | cp $font ~/.local/share/fonts | ||
Line 46: | Line 76: | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
== Configuring fonts == | |||
The nixos key [https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=unstable&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=fonts.fontconfig <code>fonts.fontconfig</code>] (click to see the full list!) handles the fontconfig options. Some options are nicely wrapped in nix; there's always <code>localConf</code> to go straight to the XML. | |||
=== Set multiple fonts for different languages === | === Set multiple fonts for different languages === | ||
If you want to use other languages alongside English, you may want to set appropriate fonts for each language in your whole OS. For example, a Persian speaker might want to use the [https://rastikerdar.github.io/vazirmatn/ Vazirmatn] font for Persian texts | If you want to use other languages alongside English, you may want to set appropriate fonts for each language in your whole OS. For example, a Persian speaker might want to use the [https://rastikerdar.github.io/vazirmatn/ Vazirmatn] font for Persian texts, but [https://design.ubuntu.com/font/ Ubuntu] and Liberation Serif fonts for English texts. Just put these lines into your <code>configuration.nix</code>: | ||
<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | ||
#----=[ Fonts ]=----# | |||
fonts = { | fonts = { | ||
enableDefaultPackages = true; | enableDefaultPackages = true; | ||
packages = with pkgs; [ | packages = with pkgs; [ | ||
ubuntu_font_family | ubuntu_font_family | ||
liberation_ttf | |||
# Persian Font | # Persian Font | ||
vazir-fonts | vazir-fonts | ||
Line 62: | Line 96: | ||
fontconfig = { | fontconfig = { | ||
defaultFonts = { | defaultFonts = { | ||
serif = [ " | serif = [ "Liberation Serif" "Vazirmatn" ]; | ||
sansSerif = [ " | sansSerif = [ "Ubuntu" "Vazirmatn" ]; | ||
monospace = [ "Ubuntu" ]; | monospace = [ "Ubuntu Mono" ]; | ||
}; | }; | ||
}; | }; | ||
}; | }; | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
NB: | |||
* This actually just sets the font fallback order so that fontconfig tries using the English font first, then falls back to another font if the character set is not covered. You ''usually'' want to write the English font ''before'' the other-language font, because the other-language font might cover Latin characters too, preventing the English font from showing up. | |||
* <code>defaultFonts</code> translates to <code><prefer></code> in the actual fontconfig file. See https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-23.11/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix for how NixOS does it, and the links below for how fontconfig interpret it. | |||
* Vazirmatn is actually a "sans-serif" font; using it for <code>serif</code> is not a good visual match. You might need not one, but two (or if you count monospace, three!) font packages for a language. | |||
=== Use custom font substitutions === | === Use custom font substitutions === | ||
Line 75: | Line 114: | ||
For example, Okular may show in the ''Document Properties'' dialog that it has substituted DejaVu Sans Mono (a sans-serif font) in place of "NewCenturySchlbk". <code>fc-match NewCenturySchlbk</code> would display similiar info. | For example, Okular may show in the ''Document Properties'' dialog that it has substituted DejaVu Sans Mono (a sans-serif font) in place of "NewCenturySchlbk". <code>fc-match NewCenturySchlbk</code> would display similiar info. | ||
Adding this to your <code>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</code> should prompt it to use the nicer serif | Adding this to your <code>/etc/nixos/configuration.nix</code> should prompt it to use the more similar (and nicer) serif ''Schola'' font instead: | ||
<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | ||
Line 94: | Line 133: | ||
For more information and examples on the xml configuration language: | For more information and examples on the xml configuration language: | ||
* https:// | * https://www.mankier.com/5/fonts-conf | ||
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration | * https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration | ||
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration/Examples | * https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration/Examples | ||
For a list of suitable replacement fonts: | |||
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Metric-compatible_fonts | |||
== Troubleshooting == | == Troubleshooting == | ||
Line 145: | Line 187: | ||
==== Another Method: Create symlink to system fonts at <code>$HOME/.local/share/fonts</code> ==== | ==== Another Method: Create symlink to system fonts at <code>$HOME/.local/share/fonts</code> ==== | ||
<blockquote>'''Note:''' this method doesn't work for some flatpak applications (for example, steam)! | <blockquote>'''Note:''' this method doesn't work for some flatpak applications (for example, steam)! | ||
Error: <syntaxhighlight lang="console"> | Error: <syntaxhighlight lang="console"> | ||
$ flatpak | $ flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam | ||
bwrap: Can't make symlink at /home/username/.local/share/fonts: File exists | bwrap: Can't make symlink at /home/username/.local/share/fonts: File exists | ||
</syntaxhighlight></blockquote>Create a symlink in <code>XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts</code> pointing to <code>/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts</code>, e. g. | </syntaxhighlight></blockquote>Create a symlink in <code>XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts</code> pointing to <code>/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts</code>, e. g. | ||
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> | ||
ln -s /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts ~/.local/share/fonts | mkdir $HOME/.local/share/fonts && ln -s /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts ~/.local/share/fonts/ | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
Now you have two options. | Now you have two options. | ||
Line 164: | Line 206: | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
And, because <code>~/.local/share/fonts</code> is linked to <code>/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts</code>, which in turn is linked to content in <code>/nix/store</code>. | And, because <code>~/.local/share/fonts</code> is linked to <code>/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts</code>, which in turn is linked to content in <code>/nix/store</code>. You need to grant flatpak applications access to the <code>/nix/store</code> directory, so that they can load fonts correctly. You may need to reboot for this to fully take effect. | ||
You need to grant flatpak applications access to the <code>/nix/store</code> directory, | |||
so that they can load fonts correctly. | |||
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> | <syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> | ||
flatpak --user override --filesystem=/nix/store:ro | flatpak --user override --filesystem=/nix/store:ro | ||
flatpak --user override --filesystem=/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts:ro | |||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
Line 217: | Line 258: | ||
]; | ]; | ||
}; | }; | ||
</syntaxhighlight> | |||
=== Noto Color Emoji doesn't render on Firefox === | |||
Enable <code>useEmbeddedBitmaps</code> in your NixOs configuration. | |||
<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> | |||
fonts.fontconfig.useEmbeddedBitmaps = true; | |||
</syntaxhighlight> | </syntaxhighlight> | ||
Line 222: | Line 271: | ||
[[Category:Configuration]] | [[Category:Configuration]] | ||
[[Category:Desktop]] | [[Category:Desktop]] | ||
[[Category:Fonts]] |
Latest revision as of 16:20, 19 December 2024
NixOS handles fonts like it handles many different parts of the system: they are not in an environment unless explicitly marked to be part of it. This guide covers the installation, configuration and troubleshooting of fonts.
Installing fonts on NixOS
NixOS has many font packages available, and you can easily search for your favourites on the NixOS packages site.
Despite looking like normal packages, simply adding these font packages to your environment.systemPackages
won't make the fonts accessible to applications. To achieve that, put these packages in the fonts.packages
NixOS options list instead.
For example:
fonts.packages = with pkgs; [
noto-fonts
noto-fonts-cjk
noto-fonts-emoji
liberation_ttf
fira-code
fira-code-symbols
mplus-outline-fonts.githubRelease
dina-font
proggyfonts
];
Be aware that sometimes font names and packages name differ and there is no universal convention in NixOS. See Guidelines for font packaging
Shorthands for fonts
fonts.enableDefaultPackages
: when set totrue
, causes some "basic" fonts to be installed for reasonable Unicode coverage. Set totrue
if you are unsure about what languages you might end up reading.fonts.enableGhostscriptFonts
: affects theghostscript
package. Ghostscript packages some URW fonts for the standard PostScript typefaces. Iftrue
, these fonts will be visible to GUI applications. You could set it totrue
if you want these fonts, butgyre-fonts
(part offonts.enableDefaultPackages
) might be higher-quality depending on your judgement.
Installing specific nerdfonts
Before Nixpkgs commit de4dbc5 that provides individual Nerd Fonts packages under the name nerd-fonts
, the nerdfonts
package, which contains all fonts from the nerdfonts repository was quite large and contained a large number of fonts which took some time to install. If you only need a selection of fonts from the package, you can overwrite the font selection on Stable 20.09 like so:
fonts.packages = with pkgs; [
(nerdfonts.override { fonts = [ "FiraCode" "DroidSansMono" ]; })
];
This will cause NixOS to download only the Fira Code and Droid Sans Mono fonts from nerd-fonts instead of the whole package. The relevant names can be found by looking at the file name for your relevant font on the official release page assets.
For configurations using later versions of Nixpkgs, individual Nerd Fonts packages can be installed like so:
fonts.packages = with pkgs; [
nerd-fonts.fira-code
nerd-fonts.droid-sans-mono
];
Let Fontconfig know the fonts within your Nix profile
Nix inserts its user profile path into $XDG_DATA_DIRS
, which Fontconfig by default doesn't look in. This cause graphical applications like KDE Plasma not able to recognize the fonts installed via nix-env
or nix profile
.
To solve this, add the file 100-nix.conf
to your Fontconfig user configuration directory (usually $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fontconfig/conf.d
):
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!-- NIX_PROFILE is the path to your Nix profile. See Nix Reference Manual for details. -->
<dir>NIX_PROFILE/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
<dir>NIX_PROFILE/share/fonts</dir>
</fontconfig>
and run fc-cache
.
Alternatively, enable Fontconfig configuration in your Home Manager configuration.
Imperative installation of user fonts
This is useful for quick font experiments.
Example: Install SourceCodePro-Regular
.
font=$(nix-build --no-out-link '<nixpkgs>' -A source-code-pro)/share/fonts/opentype/SourceCodePro-Regular.otf
cp $font ~/.local/share/fonts
fc-cache
# Verify that the font has been installed
fc-list -v | grep -i source
Configuring fonts
The nixos key fonts.fontconfig
(click to see the full list!) handles the fontconfig options. Some options are nicely wrapped in nix; there's always localConf
to go straight to the XML.
Set multiple fonts for different languages
If you want to use other languages alongside English, you may want to set appropriate fonts for each language in your whole OS. For example, a Persian speaker might want to use the Vazirmatn font for Persian texts, but Ubuntu and Liberation Serif fonts for English texts. Just put these lines into your configuration.nix
:
#----=[ Fonts ]=----#
fonts = {
enableDefaultPackages = true;
packages = with pkgs; [
ubuntu_font_family
liberation_ttf
# Persian Font
vazir-fonts
];
fontconfig = {
defaultFonts = {
serif = [ "Liberation Serif" "Vazirmatn" ];
sansSerif = [ "Ubuntu" "Vazirmatn" ];
monospace = [ "Ubuntu Mono" ];
};
};
};
NB:
- This actually just sets the font fallback order so that fontconfig tries using the English font first, then falls back to another font if the character set is not covered. You usually want to write the English font before the other-language font, because the other-language font might cover Latin characters too, preventing the English font from showing up.
defaultFonts
translates to<prefer>
in the actual fontconfig file. See https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-23.11/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix for how NixOS does it, and the links below for how fontconfig interpret it.- Vazirmatn is actually a "sans-serif" font; using it for
serif
is not a good visual match. You might need not one, but two (or if you count monospace, three!) font packages for a language.
Use custom font substitutions
Sometimes, documents may appear to have bad kerning or hard-to-read letter spacing, due to a bad substitution.
For example, Okular may show in the Document Properties dialog that it has substituted DejaVu Sans Mono (a sans-serif font) in place of "NewCenturySchlbk". fc-match NewCenturySchlbk
would display similiar info.
Adding this to your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
should prompt it to use the more similar (and nicer) serif Schola font instead:
fonts = {
packages = with pkgs; [ gyre-fonts ];
fontconfig = {
localConf = ''
<!-- use a less horrible font substition for pdfs such as https://www.bkent.net/Doc/mdarchiv.pdf -->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family"><string>NewCenturySchlbk</string></test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign" binding="same"><string>TeX Gyre Schola</string></edit>
</match>
'';
};
};
For more information and examples on the xml configuration language:
- https://www.mankier.com/5/fonts-conf
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration
- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration/Examples
For a list of suitable replacement fonts:
Troubleshooting
What font names can be used in fonts.fontconfig.defaultFonts.monospace
?
Those that fontconfig will understand. This can be queried from a font file using fc-query
.
$ cd /nix/var/nix/profiles/system/sw/share/X11/fonts
$ fc-query DejaVuSans.ttf | grep '^\s\+family:' | cut -d'"' -f2
Note that you may need to set fonts.fontDir.enable = true;
for that X11/fonts directory to exist.
Adding personal fonts to ~/.fonts
doesn't work
The ~/.fonts
directory is being deprecated upstream[1]. It already doesn't work in NixOS.
The new preferred location is in $XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts
, which for most users will resolve to ~/.local/share/fonts
[2]
Flatpak applications can't find system fonts
First, enable fontDir
in your NixOS configuration:
fonts.fontDir.enable = true;
Create fonts directory $HOME/.local/share/fonts
and copy system fonts with option -L, --dereference
.
mkdir $HOME/.local/share/fonts && cp -L /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts/* $HOME/.local/share/fonts/
Note: There is no need to grant flatpak applications access to $HOME/.local/share/fonts
.
Instead, if you do that, some applications (for example, steam) won't work.
Internals: How it works?
Flatpak applications run in sandboxes. When you start a flatpak application, flatpak builds a rootfs for it with bubblewrap.
With
findmnt --task {PID of flatpak app}
, you can explore the details of its rootfs.By default, flatpak mounts
$HOME/.local/share/fonts
to/run/host/user-fonts
in rootfs of an flatpak application.{ "target": "/run/host/user-fonts", "source": "/dev/disk/by-uuid/b2e1e6b5-738b-410b-b736-6d5c3dbbe31f[/home/username/.local/share/fonts]", "fstype": "ext4", "options": "ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime" }Then flatpak application can read fonts from that to display contents correctly.
Note: this method doesn't work for some flatpak applications (for example, steam)! Error:
$ flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam bwrap: Can't make symlink at /home/username/.local/share/fonts: File exists
Create a symlink in XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts
pointing to /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts
, e. g.
mkdir $HOME/.local/share/fonts && ln -s /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts ~/.local/share/fonts/
Now you have two options.
Option 1: allow the Flatpaks to access the font folder and /nix/store
By using the Flatpak CLI or the Flatseal Flatpak make the following directory available to all Flatpaks $HOME/.local/share/fonts
and $HOME/.icons
the appropriate commands for this are:
flatpak --user override --filesystem=$HOME/.local/share/fonts:ro
flatpak --user override --filesystem=$HOME/.icons:ro
And, because ~/.local/share/fonts
is linked to /run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts
, which in turn is linked to content in /nix/store
. You need to grant flatpak applications access to the /nix/store
directory, so that they can load fonts correctly. You may need to reboot for this to fully take effect.
flatpak --user override --filesystem=/nix/store:ro
flatpak --user override --filesystem=/run/current-system/sw/share/X11/fonts:ro
Option 2: allow the Flatpaks to access the WHOLE filesystem
Allow them access the WHOLE filesystem of yours: All system files
in Flatseal or equivalently filesystem=host
available to your application, the command for this is:
flatpak --user override --filesystem=host
It is important to keep in mind that some flatpak apps may refuse to launch if given certain permissions, such as the Steam flatpak.
Using bindfs for font support
system.fsPackages = [ pkgs.bindfs ];
fileSystems = let
mkRoSymBind = path: {
device = path;
fsType = "fuse.bindfs";
options = [ "ro" "resolve-symlinks" "x-gvfs-hide" ];
};
aggregatedIcons = pkgs.buildEnv {
name = "system-icons";
paths = with pkgs; [
#libsForQt5.breeze-qt5 # for plasma
gnome.gnome-themes-extra
];
pathsToLink = [ "/share/icons" ];
};
aggregatedFonts = pkgs.buildEnv {
name = "system-fonts";
paths = config.fonts.packages;
pathsToLink = [ "/share/fonts" ];
};
in {
"/usr/share/icons" = mkRoSymBind "${aggregatedIcons}/share/icons";
"/usr/local/share/fonts" = mkRoSymBind "${aggregatedFonts}/share/fonts";
};
fonts = {
fontDir.enable = true;
packages = with pkgs; [
noto-fonts
noto-fonts-emoji
noto-fonts-cjk
];
};
Noto Color Emoji doesn't render on Firefox
Enable useEmbeddedBitmaps
in your NixOs configuration.
fonts.fontconfig.useEmbeddedBitmaps = true;