Installing the "Inconsolata" font as the default console font - or any other font

Question

I really detest the few fonts the console provides by default. I would like to install the Inconsolata font and use that as the default console font.

I'm using Raspbian and would like the font to be used in the console when I boot up. Can anyone provide any help on how I would achieve this?

EDIT: as I can't find much on the Inconsolata font, I'd accept any answer on how to install different fonts for the systems console.

Answer 1

I believe Inconsolata is intended as a font for a terminal in a desktop environment, not on the console. You MIGHT be able to use a utility to convert Inconsolata to the console terminal font format, in which case the converted file would get copied to /usr/share/consolefonts -- see Use or convert .ttf font for console use in FreeBSD for some ideas.

As Bex suggested, when you run

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

you will come to a screen where you can choose from among the different fonts that are already installed.

You didn't mention what about the default fonts you "detest" -- maybe they look bad because of your monitor. They DO appear quite different, and some are better if you are using a composite monitor vs. HDMI, for example, so you might experiment to see if a different one works better. You might also adjust the brightness and/or contrast of your monitor after changing the fonts.

Have a look here for some additional suggestions: How do I increase the terminal font size?

Answer 2

Try running the sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup command. That should give you a font configuration wizard.

Answer 3

Partial solution, which needs research on your part: you'll need to do a two-step process using otf2bdf and bdf2psf. Install both:

sudo apt-get install otf2bdf bdf2psf

Download the Inconsolata OpenType file, and then create a Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format (BDF) bitmap file:

otf2bdf [options] Inconsolata.otc …

Then convert from BDF to PSF:

bdf2psf [options] file.bdf …

Notes:

1. Both programs have slightly confusing options, so I leave the choice of bitmap size to you.
2. otf2bdf seems to create a proportional font from Inconsolata; you will have to use options to fix this.
3. The files in /usr/share/consolefonts/ have a very specific naming convention (not least, they have been compressed with gzip). I don't know if it's acceptable to just dump properly-named font files in there and console-setup will find them, or if there's a control file you need to edit to say what's available.
4. Inconsolata lacks box-drawing characters, which are typically assumed to be in console fonts, so if you run curses-based programmes, the results may be unusual.