Cerebro: Uses serif font on Manjaro

[fonorobert]

Running Manjaro (Arch based), installed cerebro from AUR from cerebro-git.
cerebro works correctly in every other regard but it seems to default to a serif font instead of either the sans font seen in screenshots or the system default font (also sans). see screenshot:

I'd be happy to help investigate if someone can give me pointers on where to start.

[maximbaz]

I may be wrong, but I think this is what is used to determine the font.

By the way, consider trying out fonts-meta-extended-lt, I'm very happy with these fonts.

[dar5hak]

Related: On elementary OS, everything uses the Ubuntu font, except Cerebro Settings, which uses serif.

[Razzile]

I think the cause of this may be this line https://github.com/KELiON/cerebro/blob/d994e0b62ecc5d8af17e42efbac48642098ce047/app/main/plugins/core/cerebro/settings/Settings/styles.css#L6

Helvetica Neue isn't available on anything except macOS afaik (without downloading it separately)

[dar5hak]

Thanks @Razzile! If #195 is merged, it should solve the issue I pointed out, which is admittedly different from what @fonorobert was saying. My bad.

Speaking of which, @fonorobert, can you tell us what is the default system font on Manjaro? Is it the same for all editions of Manjaro?

[kuzzmi]

@dar5hak Using Manjaro i3 edition (I guess it uses the same font family as in official distros) and the default font is Noto Sans

[fonorobert]

Sorry @dar5hak for not responding. In the gnome and cinnamon editions the default font is Cantarell.

[jalopezsuarez]

I have the same problem in Debian8. The solution is put:
>> dark.css :root { /* Main fonts and colors */ --main-background-color: rgba(62, 65, 67, 1); --main-font: sans-serif; --main-font-color: white;
sans-serif instead system to get Arial style font, because system get a serif font like Time News Roman.

[maximbaz]

UPDATE: you probably have to only define the system alias using the trick below.

---

Since you are unhappy with the font that system chooses for sans-serif, have you guys considered adjusting your system configuration for default font? It will make _all_ your apps nicer.

If there is no UI to do this, it's a matter of a relatively simple fontconfig configuration:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer><family>Noto Sans</family></prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>system</family>
    <prefer><family>Noto Sans</family></prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

Put this in ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/30-better-fonts.conf and run $ fc-cache -f; sudo fc-cache -f.

[jalopezsuarez]

Ok... thanks for the solution. I was working around your proposal and found a solution for Debian8.

I found the way to check the problem, we need to check what font is associated with system default font family, as you put in the CSS in Cerebro app (css file: main-font: system;)

Next command will give you information what fonts is associated with system family:

fc-match --verbose system

Then create or edit your user fontconfig configuration file ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf, and add system alias:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
    <family>system</family>
    <prefer><family>DejaVu Sans</family></prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

After that reload default system fonts:

fc-cache -f; sudo fc-cache -f

Solved! Thanks

[maximbaz]

Yeah, actually you are right, you might have to define the alias for system font too. I'll adjust my snippet above.