Customizing Specific Components of the Desktop

This section describes how to customize specific components of the desktop individually.

4.3.1. To Customize the Desktop Background

The desktop themes do not affect the desktop background. Therefore to modify the desktop background to complement your desktop, you must customize the desktop background separately using the Desktop Background preference tool. To start the Desktop Background preference tool,choose Applications ▸ Desktop Preferences ▸ Desktop Background.

4.3.2. To Customize Desktop Background Objects

The size of the icons that are displayed on the desktop background is controlled by the Nautilus file manager. To change the size of the icons, perform the following steps:

  1. Start the file manager.
  2. Choose Edit ▸ Preferences.
  3. Select the Views tabbed section.
  4. In the Icon View Defaults group, select the zoom level that you require in the Default zoom level drop-down list.

4.3.3. To Customize Fonts

This section describes how to customize the font settings for the desktop and frequently-used applications.

If you have difficulty with the default font type and font size that is used on the desktop and desktop background, you can customize the font settings to suit your needs.

You can specify individual font settings for the following desktop components and applications:

  • Entire desktop excluding the desktop background
  • Desktop background only
  • Terminal
  • gedit text editor
  • Nautilus file manager

4.3.3.1. To Customize the Desktop Fonts

The Font preference tool allows you to specify the default fonts for the desktop.

To start the Font preference tool, choose Applications ▸ Desktop Preferences ▸ Font. The Font Preferences dialog contains the following options:

Application font

Click on this button to select a default font to use for the text that is displayed on the desktop, including the text displayed on the windows and dialogs associated with GNOME-compliant applications and applets.

If you use the Theme preference tool to select a theme that modifies the application font, the theme setting overrides the font that you select using the Font preference tool.

Desktop font

Click on this button to select a font to use for the text that is displayed on the desktop background only.

If you use large fonts, you may need to change the size of panes in applications that use panes such as, Nautilus file manager and Yelp.

4.3.3.2. To Customize the Terminal Font

By default, the Terminal application uses the default font settings that are specified in the Font preference tool to display the text in the Terminal window components such as the titlebar, toolbar, menubar, and application dialogs. However, Terminal uses fixed-width fonts to display the contents of the Terminal window, that is the text that is displayed at the command line.

To change the font settings for the contents of the Terminal window, start the Terminal application, then choose Edit ▸ Current Profile. In the General tabbed section, specify a font for the window contents as follows:

  1. Deselect the Use the same font as other applications option.
  2. Click on the font selector button to select the font type and font size to use for the contents of the Terminal window.

4.3.3.3. To Customize the gedit Text Editor Font

By default, the gedit application uses the default font settings that are specified in the Font preference tool to display the text in the gedit window components such as the menubar, toolbar, and application dialogs. However, you can customize the font that gedit uses to display the text editor window contents. To customize the font settings for the gedit window contents, perform the following steps:

  1. In the gedit application, choose Edit ▸ Preferences.

  2. In the Preferences dialog, select the Fonts & Colors category.

  3. Perform one of the following steps:

    • To use the default application font that is specified in the Font preference tool, select the Use default theme font option.
    • To specify a font, deselect the Use default theme font option, then click on the Font used by the editor button to display the font selector dialog.

4.3.3.4. To Customize the Nautilus File Manager Font

By default, the Nautilus file manager uses the default font settings that are specified in the Font preference tool to display the text in the file manager window. However, you can further customize the font that is used in the file manager view pane. To customize the font that is used in the view pane, click on the View menu in the file manager, then select one of the following menu items:

  • To enlarge the text, select Zoom In.
  • To reduce the text, select Zoom Out.
  • To reset the text to the default font setting, select Normal Size.