Remove non-latin fonts from Ubuntu

 Posted by:   Posted on:   Updated on:  2017-12-25T20:45:48Z

How to uninstall non-Latin alphabet fonts on Ubuntu and unclutter the font list box in all applications

The default Ubuntu installation comes with a lot of fonts. This is a good thing. Many of the latin have good support for Extended character sets. But no matter what locale and/or installation language you choose, Ubuntu will install by default some non-latin fonts for Japanese, Thai, Ethiopian, Myanmar, Lao, Tibetan, Korean, Punjabi, Sinhala, Arabic and Khmer languages.

I don't know whether these fonts are ever needed by the operating system (i.e. for the language choosing settings or for displaying some web pages) but as a latin alphabet user I don't need them and I didn't like the fact that they were cluttering my font selection dialog without being of any use to me. So I decided to uninstall them.

The list below is tested on Ubuntu 16.04. I managed to free about 100 MB by removing these fonts. And now, my font selection box (in LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, etc.) is filled with latin only fonts that I can use. You can see in the screenshot below how it looks before and after removing the unneeded fonts.

Remove non-latin fonts from Ubuntu
To remove these fonts you need to know in what packages are they located. The following command contains probably all of them (Ubuntu 16.04). Copy and paste this into a terminal and hit Enter to remove the fonts. You need to enter your password.
sudo apt purge fonts-kacst fonts-kacst-one \
fonts-khmeros-core fonts-lklug-sinhala \
fonts-lohit-guru fonts-guru fonts-nanum \
fonts-noto-cjk fonts-takao-pgothic \
fonts-tibetan-machine fonts-guru-extra \
fonts-lao fonts-sil-padauk fonts-sil-abyssinica \
fonts-tlwg-* && sudo apt autoremove
If you want them back, use this command:
sudo apt update && \
sudo apt install fonts-kacst fonts-kacst-one \
fonts-khmeros-core fonts-lklug-sinhala \
fonts-lohit-guru fonts-guru fonts-nanum \
fonts-noto-cjk fonts-takao-pgothic \
fonts-tibetan-machine fonts-guru-extra \
fonts-lao fonts-sil-padauk fonts-sil-abyssinica \
fonts-tlwg-*
That's all you had to do. There are a lot of good looking latin fonts in Ubuntu, and most of them seem to have extended Unicode character sets. You can now choose anything from the font list box.

7 comments :

  1. Works flawlessly and does all the job. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. In Ubuntu 18.04 they added even more non-western fonts useless to westerners:
    fonts-beng
    fonts-beng-extra
    fonts-deva
    fonts-deva-extra
    fonts-gubbi
    fonts-gujr
    fonts-gujr-extra
    fonts-kalapi
    fonts-knda
    fonts-lohit-beng-assamese
    fonts-lohit-beng-bengali
    fonts-lohit-deva
    fonts-lohit-gujr
    fonts-lohit-knda
    fonts-lohit-mlym
    fonts-lohit-orya
    fonts-lohit-taml
    fonts-lohit-taml-classical
    fonts-lohit-telu
    fonts-noto-color-emoji
    fonts-noto-hinted
    fonts-noto-mono
    fonts-orya
    fonts-orya-extra
    fonts-pagul
    fonts-sahadeva
    fonts-samyak-deva
    fonts-samyak-gujr
    fonts-samyak-mlym
    fonts-samyak-taml
    fonts-sarai
    fonts-smc
    fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi
    fonts-smc-chilanka
    fonts-smc-dyuthi
    fonts-smc-karumbi
    fonts-smc-keraleeyam
    fonts-smc-manjari
    fonts-smc-meera
    fonts-smc-rachana
    fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans
    fonts-smc-suruma
    fonts-smc-uroob
    fonts-taml
    fonts-telu
    fonts-telu-extra

    ReplyDelete
  3. resulting removal command for 18.04:

    sudo apt purge fonts-kacst fonts-kacst-one fonts-khmeros-core fonts-lklug-sinhala fonts-lohit-guru fonts-guru fonts-nanum fonts-noto-cjk fonts-takao-pgothic fonts-tibetan-machine fonts-guru-extra fonts-lao fonts-sil-padauk fonts-sil-abyssinica fonts-tlwg-* fonts-beng fonts-beng-extra fonts-deva fonts-deva-extra fonts-gubbi fonts-gujr fonts-gujr-extra fonts-kalapi fonts-knda fonts-lohit-* fonts-noto-* fonts-orya* fonts-pagul fonts-sahadeva fonts-samyak-* fonts-sarai fonts-smc fonts-smc-* fonts-taml fonts-telu fonts-telu-extra && sudo apt autoremove

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you! You saved me lot of frustration! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you. This post is a terrific time saver!

    ReplyDelete

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