Table of Contents

<--   Back

fontconfig: Font Fallbacks on Linux

Font Fallbacks ?

Font fallbacks is when font does not have the glyph it will search on other fonts in order of a list, lets say you have list of fonts:

Inter, Noto Sans JP

Font Inter does not have any Japanese glyph and it will use the Noto Sans JP.

On Linux

To do it on Linux you can use fontconfig, the config file is on ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf.

Example

Here some example to have font fallbacks on JetBrains Mono that fallback to Symbols Nerd Font:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
      <family>JetBrains Mono</family>
      <prefer>
          <family>Symbols Nerd Font</family>
      </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

You can also have multiple fonts:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
      <family>Font 1</family>
      <prefer>
          <family>Font 2</family>
          <family>Font 3</family>
      </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>
Open GitHub Discussions