Changing KDE font settings without KDE?

[hotdog]

I've installed Amarok (a KDE application) and it's working OK, but I haven't been able to get it to use sensible font sizes. The application itself allows you to change some of the fonts it uses, but the menus, toolbars and so on apparently use the global KDE font settings and they're HUGE. Is there any way to change these without installing all of KDE and its many dependencies? Installing an entire desktop environment that I won't use just to change the fonts for one application is something I'd prefer to avoid if at all possible. Disk space is at a premium on my EeePC.

I have kde-filesystem, kde-settings, kdelibs-common and kdelibs3 currently installed (presumably as dependencies of Amarok).

[Hlingler]

Take a look through your home folder for:
> sub-folder ~/.amarok and any files in it (or sub-folders) named amarokrc
> sub-folder ~/.kde/share/config/ for amarokrc

Look through the file(s) for font settings. Or, the setting might be in some other file in folder ~/.kde/share/config/

V

[hotdog]

The only font settings within the .kde directory tree are in .kde/share/config/amarokrc, and they're the ones I've already changed within Amarok's own appearance settings. I think what's needed might be to add additional font settings to .kde/share/config/kdeglobals or something but I don't know how to do it, not being familiar with KDE's config file system.

For what it's worth, here's amarokrc:

[BrowserBar]
CurrentPane=CollectionBrowser
Width=371

[Collection]
DatabaseEngine=0

[Collection Browser]
Category1=2
Category2=1
Category3=64
Database AFT Version=2
Database Devices Version=1
Database Persistent Tables Version=19
Database Podcast Tables Version=2
Database Stats Version=12
Database Version=35
FlatColumnWidths=
ShowDivider=true
ViewMode=0

[Collection Folders]
-1=./media/_data/old_dmz/music,./media/_data/old_dmz/music_classical,./media/_data/old_dmz/music_more

[Filebrowser]
Dir History=
Location[$e]=file://$HOME/
Separate Directories=false
Show Preview=false
Show hidden files=false
Sort by=Name
Sort case insensitively=true
Sort directories first=true
Sort reversed=false
View Style=Simple

[Fonts]
Context Browser Font=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
Player Widget Font=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
Playlist Window Font=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
Use Custom Fonts=true

[General]
First 1.4 Run=false
First Run=false
HiddenOnExit=false
Timeout=20

[General Options]
External Browser=default browser
Playlist Window Pos=253,61
Playlist Window Size=1120,700
Version=1.4.10

[HTML Settings]
AutomaticDetectionLanguage=0

[Notification Messages]
hideOnCloseInfo=false

[OSD]
Osd Font=Arial,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0

[Playback]
Sound System=xine-engine

[PlaylistBrowser]
Dynamic Random Previous Count=5
Dynamic Random Remove Played=true
Dynamic Random Upcoming Count=15
Dynamic Suggest Previous Count=5
Dynamic Suggest Remove Played=true
Dynamic Suggest Upcoming Count=15
InfoPane Height=200
Podcast Folder Open=true
Podcast Interval=14400000
Sorting=0

[PlaylistColumnsLayout]
ColumnNames=Filename,Title,Artist,AlbumArtist,Composer,Year,Album,DiscNumber,Track,BPM,Genre,Comment,Directory,Type,Length,Bitrate,SampleRate,Score,Rating,PlayCount,LastPlayed,Mood,Filesize
ColumnOrder=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22
ColumnWidths=0,219,109,0,0,100,109,0,0,0,0,0,87,0,80,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
ColumnsVersion=1
SortAscending=true
SortColumn=200

[ScriptManager]
General category open=false
Lyrics category open=false
Running Scripts=
Score category open=false
Transcode category open=false

[Hlingler]

I have many dozens of files in .kde/share/config/, and I was hoping you'd be able to narrow down the list of possibilities by omission. Here's what I have in .kde/share/config/kdeglobals:

~]$ cat .kde/share/config/kdeglobals|grep -i -C3  font
alternateBackground=238,246,255
background=220,220,220
buttonBackground=228,228,228
font=Arial,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
menuFont=Arial,12,-1,5,75,0,0,0,0,0
selectBackground=10,95,137
taskbarFont=Arial,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
toolBarFont=Arial,10,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
widgetStyle=default

[Global Shortcuts]
--
file=true
fish=false
floppy=true
fonts=true
ftp=false
home=true
imap=false
--
[WM]
activeBackground=10,95,137
activeBlend=10,95,137
activeFont=Engraver,12,-1,5,25,0,0,0,0,0
activeTitleBtnBg=192,192,192
alternateBackground=invalid
frame=220,220,220
~]$

HTH,
V

[hotdog]

Thanks, that got me on the right track. Between the font entries in my amarokrc, the ones in your kdeglobals and a bit of googling to find example kdeglobals (to find the necessary section headings) I was able to work out what I had to do.

Basically I added a [General] section with fixed, font, menuFont, taskbarFont and toolBarFont entries and a [WM] section with an activeFont entry (all previously missing). By copying the font values from my amarokrc file I then ended up with consistent fonts everywhere

My new kdeglobals:

[$Version]
update_info=kded.upd:kde3.0

[General]
fixed=Monospace,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
font=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
menuFont=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
taskbarFont=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
toolBarFont=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0

[KKeyDialog Settings]
Dialog Size=840,660

[Paths]
Trash[$e]=$HOME/Desktop/Trash/

[WM]
activeFont=Sans Serif,5,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0

Yes, that's right, 5 pt fonts... They're perfect for the 1024x600 8.9" screen on my EeePC.

[hotdog]

Hmmmmm... now I just need to work out how to pull off the same trick with Skype. It's a Qt based app (but not KDE) so it'll be somewhere in .qt...

[hotdog]

Hmmmmm... now I just need to work out how to pull off the same trick with Skype. It's a Qt based app (but not KDE) so it'll be somewhere in .qt...

Ah, solved my own problem with this one. I just needed to run qtconfig-qt4 from a terminal to change the Qt4 default font settings.