Word Processor Font Bloat Too Many Fonts

[EliYah]

Whether I use OpenOffice or Libre Office the font selection is bloated with hundreds of system fonts (noto and source). Is it possible to direct OpenOffice to access only fonts that are useful to wordprocessing? This should be something that Manjaro does automatically for Word Processors.

I tried to follow a solution from another topic on here (Manjaro Forums) “I have too many fonts installed on my laptop” where the guy posing it was being harassed for having a similar complaint.

One helper had a solution with a link BUT:
~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Is not a legitimate location on my system. And I suspect it may be better to point office programs to specific fonts than mess with fonts systemwide.

[cscs]

@EliYah

where the guy posing it was being harassed for having a similar complaint.

I dont see any harassment. Just the position that ‘installed fonts show - we dont see the issue’. And for what its worth … I think thats at least a valid perspective.

@EliYah

~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Is not a legitimate location on my system. And I suspect it may be better to point office programs to specific fonts than mess with fonts systemwide.

Its a valid path … if you want it, just create it.
And its not ‘system-wide’ … its a user config.

[EliYah]

@cscs

I dont see any harassment. Just the position that ‘installed fonts show - we dont see the issue’. And for what its worth … I think thats at least a valid perspective.

As a newbie I just calls it like I sees it. He asked a question and others mocked him for complaining about how much diskspace a font uses. I say the mockery is off topic.

Also as a newbie and NOT having that path (like I said) ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
My path only goes:
/home/USERNAME/.config/

What makes my word processor have to obey something (fonts.conf) I make in a folder that I also make called fontconfig?

[cscs]

@EliYah

As a newbie I just calls it like I sees it. He asked a question and others mocked him for complaining about how much diskspace a font uses.

I dont think summing the relative size and weighing the cost/benefit of 300-400mb vs the time to remove it is mocking. But perception of someone elses words on some other thread is pretty irrelevant here.

@EliYah

What makes my word processor have to obey something (fonts.conf) I make in a folder that I also make called fontconfig?

Its a standard configuration file for font rendering on the desktop.
It has syntax and standards and most everything done on your desktop will comply with that configuration.

@EliYah

My path only goes:
/home/USERNAME/.config/

Create the folder/file as needed.

[EliYah]

Okay I will give it a shot. I would post the link here but because I am a newbie I can’t.

[EliYah]

Thank you for helping a newbie. This worked.

1. Using Dolphin I navigated to /home/MyUsername/.config/
2. Because I didnt’ have a fontconfig folder I: Right clicked on the background and selected “create new folder” and named it: fontconfig
3. Clicked on my new folder and navigated to /home/MyUsername/.config/fontconfig/ and righ clicked mouse on the background and selected: “Create New Text File” and named it: fonts.conf
4. Opened my new file with “Kate” and added the code below this and then saved he file. And when I opened Open Office again it was working! THANK YOU cscs!

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <!-- Local settings -->
 <selectfont>
    <rejectfont>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/noto/Noto*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/gsfonts/*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuMathTeX*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/TTF/odo*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/mathjax2/*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/croscore/*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/adobe-source-code-pro/Source*</glob>
       <glob>/usr/share/fonts/adobe-source-han-sans/Source*</glob>
    </rejectfont>
    <acceptfont>

    </acceptfont>
 </selectfont>
</fontconfig>

[cscs]

Hurray. And, as you can see there, you can add or remove groups as desired.

Heres a little snippet to list them for you, excluding ones you already are rejecting:

find /usr/share/fonts/ -type f | grep -v -iE 'noto|gsfont|adobe-source'

[jcorporon]

I’ve used this solution and I’ve found it very helpful. I think you’ll find Manjaro and Linux in general is very flexible, allowing the user to setup their system the way they want it. And you’ve discovered that it’s pretty easy, even for a newbie!

And keep asking questions and searching for answers on the forum. There are many very knowledgeable and helpful people here.

Cheers!

[RodJ]

I’d like to add that the Softmaker FreeOffice allows you to show or hide the fonts it shows in the font list. I discovered this just recently in the settings of the new version and managed to hide all the Noto foreign language fonts, etc very easily.

I also don’t think it’s a good idea to remove the unwanted fonts completely as it wouldn’t make a great deal of difference space wise and it looks better when viewing web pages, etc if the foreign characters are at least visible.

[stargazer]

The option I chose was to install and use the font-manager. Libreoffice Writer is so MUCH nicer to use with a sane font list

font-manager created a file ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/78-Reject.conf.

When I have time I’m investigating not installing a number of fonts via pacman.conf NoExtract per: Disk size Noto fonts huge? - #4 by papajoke

[Piscatorius]

@RodJ

I’d like to add that the Softmaker FreeOffice allows you to show or hide the fonts it shows in the font list.

Without wanting to do any unauthorized advertising here, I would like to point out another advantage that SoftMaker (Free)Office has to offer: It comes including some of the often used MS fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri and Cambria. You can only use them within SoftMaker (Free)Office, since they are not installed system-wide, but even those who don’t normally use these fonts personally will inevitably run into the situation now and then where they need to edit documents that require these fonts. For LibreOffice users who want to avoid a separate installation of MS fonts, it is thus an interesting alternative of a word processing program that is worth having up your sleeve.

[EliYah]

First I want to thank everyone for their input here! This kind of help will help others who want answers.

I have to confess I have a major weakness I am a long time fan of OpenOffice. I can’t even stand to use LibreOffice. So I download OO from the AUR repository not sure why it’s not on Manjaro repositories. BUT I will check into that SoftMaker as I am always open to checking out new software.

I actually like to learn things like what cscs taught me here. But I am a “why person” I want to know why Linux and OO are going to obey me if I create a folder and a config file. And I like to learn how to make computers my servants not my masters.