font.system

Documentation
- Reference manual
- Packages
  - XPCE
    - Classes
      - class font
        
        Class variables
        
        font.scale
        
        font.system_fonts
        
        font.pango_families
        
        font.no_font

font.system_fonts: chain

Define the font aliases. The user interface does not name fonts by their family, style and size, but by an alias that describes their role: normal for most text, label for labels, tt for the text of editors and terminals, etc. This setting defines the font of each alias as a list of Alias := Font. The built-in value is

[ normal    := font(sans, normal, 12),
  bold      := font(sans, bold,   12),
  italic    := font(sans, italic, 12),
  label     := font(sans, bold,   12),
  small     := font(sans, normal, 10),
  large     := font(sans, normal, 14),
  boldlarge := font(sans, bold,   14),
  huge      := font(sans, normal, 18),
  boldhuge  := font(sans, bold,   18),
  tt        := font(mono, normal, 14),
  boldtt    := font(mono, bold,   14),
  itt       := font(mono, italic, 14),
  bitt      := font(mono, italic, 14, bold)
]

A font is font(Family, Style, Points) or font(Family, Style, Points, Weight). The families sans, serif and mono are generic: font.pango_families decides which installed font they use. Style is one of normal, bold, italic or oblique. An alias that you leave out keeps its built-in font, so you only need to list the aliases you want to change. For example, to use a larger font for editors and terminals:

font.system_fonts: [ tt := font(mono, normal, 16) ]

To show labels in a normal rather than a bold font, without changing bold text, use

font.system_fonts: [ label := font(sans, normal, 12) ]

Use font.scale to make all text larger or smaller. Note that changing an alias changes all text that uses it, while a setting such as editor.font changes only the font of one kind of object. The value may also define new aliases, which applications can use as fonts. The name fixed is an old name for tt. It always uses the font of tt.

The Text tab of the preferences editor, which is Settings/Edit GUI preferences in the IDE, shows each alias with its family, style and size, followed by a sample text in this font. Changes apply immediately. When saved, the Defaults file holds all aliases. If Same size for related fonts is on, which is the default, changing the size of an alias also changes the size of the aliases that have the same family and size and only differ by style or weight. For example, changing tt to 16 points also changes boldtt, itt and bitt.

See also: class theme_font