How can I compare font families in Linux?
 

I am migrating from another system, which had wider fonts, and am getting a lot of eye strain in Linux, which has narrower fonts.

I can increase font size. But I can't independently increase font thickness. I think I need to find bolder font families. I'm wondering how to compare various readability fonts side-by-side.

I'm using Cinnamon on Fedora, and can use the Font Selection app to choose bold and semibold fonts for the main interface, but that doesn't help with Firefox, where I'll still need to distinguish regular text from bolder text, Thunderbird, for the same reason, LibreOffice, or Calibre's Ebook Viewer.

I experimented with using shadow and blur effects in Firefox, they helped some, but I don't think they'd help everywhere.

I have trouble with bright lights, so I'm using an Eizo monitor with a low minimum brightness. I can't switch to a higher resolution monitor.

Usually distributions of linux will have different font packages in their repos that you can install. Install a font that is to your liking.

Example:
https://0x0.st/HyWi.png

But how can I *compare* the fonts, and find out which ones I can read without trouble?

If I just install more fonts, I have to sort through more fonts, and have a harder time trying to find which ones I can read without trouble, and which ones support the scripts I need to read and/or write.

P.S. Also, I have to use a lot of accessibility fixes in Firefox. In theory, I could comment out my font choices and search for font suggestions online, but I'd have more trouble reading search results and sites while doing that.

P.P.S. I installed Font Manager. I managed to turn off its animation, so I'm going through fonts and turning off ones which don't support enough of the orthographies I need. I haven't yet seen any which are bolder than the rest... I alsio can't shopw the supported orthographies at the same time I organize fonts into collections, so I have to go back and forth, back and forth, to organize them.

first of all you need to check the system you used before. What kind of font was set?
What was the resolution? Probably you can apply the same settings on your new environment.
I guess you know the tool xfontsel already.
Also you might find it useful: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/X_L...nt_Description

There's a tool called Opcion that enables you so see a sample of any font on you computer, even if uninstalled.

A monospaced font like Dejavu Sans Mono may be easier, or a incised-style one like Fontin.

This site will enable you to search for something like semi-bold, semi-expanded, sans or serif, etc: https://fonts2u.com/category.html#ext

I'm using the same computer, and same monitor, and started with the same fonts. For me, 20 point Andika was good and readable in one system, too faint in some others, and too thin in my current system. I'm trying Roboto Slab. It sometimes looks good and solid, sometimes not. It might be a hinting issue. Unfortunately some of the scripts I use don't seem to have good and solid readability fonts.

I'm not sure how to get Firefox and Thunderbird to use semi-bold for regular text, extra-bold for bolder text, etc. And synthetic bolds where necessary.

KDE Plasma 5 "System Settings" allows you to view all available fonts.

Fonts & Font Management.

You may use your selection as system fonts and set firefox to "use system fonts".

Just one more comment: when the font you specified does not exist (not installed?) the system will automatically use another one, which is somehow similar to the original, but obviously not identical. So you need to check if Andika was really used (and was not replaced with something else) on the old host and if the exact same font is available on the new one.

I've installed the same fonts, and same font files, on both partitions.

They don't have the same font rendering in each system. Or sometimes in different versions of each system. Or in Firefox and Thunderbird, with hardware accel enabled or disabled. Or sometimes in different *office builds, because one calculates an italic version for headers and the other defaults to another font with an italic version.

This points to an "embolden" setting for fontconfig.

https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxquesti...s_it_possible/

These are current Firefox and Thunderbird bugs involving hardware accel and font rendering.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist...st_id=16780438