Ubuntu Regular font is thinner

This one fully deserves a “OMG Ubuntu”, but meant more like “what on earth are you doing, Ubuntu?”. The font Ubuntu Regular has become thinner and therefore is much more difficult to read, apparently all in an effort to look “modern”. If it ain’t broke…

Here’s what I would have done: kept Ubuntu Regular as it was and called the new one something else. Oh, let me see, how does Ubuntu Regular Modern sound? But no, that’s too logical. It’s much easier to just re-use the same name, confuse everyone and upset people with poor eyesight like yours truly.

Linux Mint 22 is based on Ubuntu Noble, meaning that the new, thinner font is shipped but retains the old name. The original font is now packaged as fonts-ubuntu-classic. Now, normally one would assume that it is as easy as removing the default fonts-ubuntu and then installing the classic one, but it does not quite look right. Even Clement reckons that it is a bad idea to do so; reason unknown. I’m guessing he meant that the classic font doesn’t quite look the way it did in Mint 21.

Anyhow, having upgraded my box to 22 this past weekend, I thought I would stick with it and see how it goes with the new, thinner-looking font. I imagined that I would eventually get used to it the way I got used to it on my laptop. Funny, I did not even notice the difference on my laptop before and I’m wondering if this is because my desktop screen is bigger and therefore the difference is more noticeable?

I’ve tried it for a few days now and I can’t stop noticing how I need to concentrate on the text to make out what is says. Trying to read plain text, e.g. file and folder names, feels like an eye-test which checks what words and letters you can make out from a distance. This does not suit me at all and I don’t think that I can ever get used to this, certainly not on my desktop monitor.

I eventually gave up and installed Inter which looks much better and is so much more legible.