Menu and Dialog Fonts for GTK Applications

[jpattee]

The GTK applications on the Knoppix CD, like Firefox and Gimp, do not display the correct menu, toolbar, and dialog box font size on newer terminals. There is an easy fix that takes only 308 kB total, including config files. There is practically no documentation on this and the fix is not obvious.

First install the package gtk2_engines_gtk_qt. This adds an option to the KDE Control Center. The option "GTK Styles and Fonts" will be in the "Appearance & Themes" section. The styles MUST BE ACTIVATED to change the menu and dialog font size. Click on "Use another font" to enable the apply button. Click back to "Use my KDE fonts in GTK applications". Then click the Apply button. This will create the files .gtk_qt_engine_rc and .gtkrc-2.0 in the $HOME directory.

Firefox and Gimp will now display the same menu and dialog font size as the KDE programs.

I assume that the display is okay on the dvd version since it contains both KDE and Gnome.

[csodabogar]

It doesn't work for me.
I have Knoppix 5.0.1. I updated with KPackage everything that is about gtk.
Made apt-get update then install gtk_engines_gtk_qt but nothing. It says cannot find package.
Anyone any idea?

[jpattee]

This theme engine now has a website:

http://gtk-qt.ecs.soton.ac.uk/index.php

[turbine]

Well, I did all of that and now:

Gimp still has the same crappy fonts
Gvim still has the same crappy fonts
Epiphany still has the same crappy fonts

I'm running knoppix 4.02 live dvd.

[jpattee]

The DVD has this problem also. I don't know about Knoppix 4.02 but it works for me with 5.0.1. The DVD applications affected include Eclipse, MonoDevelop, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gimp. It also affects the wxWidgets programs I am working on.

On the DVD the gtk2-engines-gtk-qt package installs and removes a lot of other packages. However, after the configuration files are created the updates don't seem to be needed. Just save the configuration files or use a persistent disk image. You do not need to remaster to save the package updates. With the configuration files available the Gnome application's menus and dialog boxes will display with the KDE font.

[jpattee]

This package has been renamed gtk_qt_engine. It now uses about 425 KB, including config files. The installation is the same as described in the original post.

[hal8000]

Thank you, works as described on Knoppix 5.1.1