No more blurry fonts in linux

05 May 2023


Ever since I saw elementary os sporting the very legible Inter font for its UI and site, I wanted to make it part of my desktop too. The only problem was any font I'd choose got a little blurry. Not any more!

Open up /etc/environment and then add the following line to the end of it.

FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="cff:no-stem-darkening=0 autofitter:no-stem-darkening=0"

This enables stem-darkening for all fonts. This just makes fonts a little bit bolder on smaller screens. This makes a heck of a difference for Inter.

Reboot your machine and enjoy beautiful fonts.

Here's a before

And an after

Happy Hacking & have a great day!