GNOME 48 Switches Over To "Adwaita Sans" As Default Font

Written by Michael Larabel in GNOME on 31 January 2025 at 12:45 PM EST. 30 Comments
GNOME
As another last minute change for GNOME 48 ahead of its feature freeze this weekend, the default font of the GNOME desktop has changed.

After a decade and a half of using Cantarell as the default font, GNOME 48 shifts over to using Adwaita Sans by default.

GNOME Adwaita Fonts


This merge today to gsettings-desktop-schemas switches over to using Adwaita Fonts by default. For those preferring Cantarell or another font, you still are free to modify the font used by GNOME to your desire -- this is just about what's found by default with upstream GNOME.

GNOME Adwaita Fonts merge request


Adwaita Fonts is a variation of the Inter font for Adwaita Sans. Adwaita Sans is hosted via this GNOME repository, including the TTF files for those wanting to try it out on your own. GNOME designers had previously been considering the use of Inter as their default interface font for the past nine months.

Tomorrow marks the UI, feature, and API/ABI freeze for GNOME 48 along with the GNOME 48 Beta release in the coming days. GNOME 48.0 stable should be out around 15 March.
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