Changing the system font on GrapheneOS

Bouzenzel

matchboxbananasynergy indeed ... Maybe I will try to adapt even though it's hard ... Is there any way I can suggest that to GOS developers !

matchboxbananasynergy

Bouzenzel The OS has an issue tracker on GitHub, but it is unlikely that such a change would be made, and I will try to explain why:

Each and every change GrapheneOS makes to AOSP has to be ported to future Android versions. The more things that are added, the harder that task becomes, and the longer it takes to port to the next version (which as you can imagine, is extremely important).
The project has limited resources which it has to dedicate to privacy and security enhancements, as that is the project's goal/focus.
Such a change (in my opinion) would be a regression in what AOSP is becoming (an OS with a specific design philosophy, which does include the fonts used).

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear. Small UI/UX improvements are made, but other features have to take priority (for example, it seems that we're getting a dark mode for the AOSP contacts app, which it didn't have until now). For the project to be able to dedicate more time to things like this, it needs to be more independent. Please consider supporting the project by donating. :) - https://grapheneos.org/donate

More funds would not guarantee that features like that would ever be added, however, it would give the team more resources and flexibility to be able to focus on non-security and privacy enhancements.

Bouzenzel

matchboxbananasynergy Thank you for the illustration, maybe one way to make this workable is by adding a slider to control the amount of making the font bold, like this at least we partially satisfy our needs.

asdfasdf

Necromancy

This is somewhat relevant to security: Character confusion.
0 and O are kinda well discernable (if you have good eyes).
But I and l are really hard to discern even with good eyes.
There are lots of cases like URLs or usernames where ambiguity can be bad.

Maybe we can have the default font make these characters differences more pronounced.

missing-root

I know this is closed, but look at GNOME:

https://www.omglinux.com/gnome-may-switch-to-inter-font/

i would wait and see their result. KDE Plasma uses Noto Sans and Inter works fine here. Chinese etc. symbols are really important, no idea about that, but Inter should be a good candidate and it just looks really nice.

Poorly to my knowledge there is no rootless way on Android to test this. If anyone knows one, I would love to test. Maybe spinning up a Waydroid instance (I know how incredibly insecure that is) or BlissOS VM, or hopefully rootless Podman container or at least rootless LXD container.

vrij

I am really sad that changing system font is that difficult on Android and needs root for the most of the time, insane...
I mean, it's just a font, come on!

DeletedUser495

vrij don't be sad, be glad. Only the common fonts are used which helps with fingerprinting and doesn't add unnecessary attack surface.

https://github.com/GrapheneOS/branding-extra/issues/3

vrij

DeletedUser495 makes sense, I didn't think of this.
Still, I hope that it's at least an option; when I say this, I am not requesting GrapheneOS because I know it's highly focused on security instead of customization. I'm just generally refering to AOSP project. Many manufacturer's custom ROM implemented font change but it's never system-wide; open WhatsApp and the unpleasant Roboto is just everywhere. To be able to change the font the only method is rooting and modifying /etc/fonts, which seems pretty unreasonable to me for merely wishing to change the font.

de0u

vrij I hope that it's at least an option; when I say this, I am not requesting GrapheneOS because I know it's highly focused on security instead of customization. I'm just generally refering to AOSP project.

AOSP is in some degree of upheaval. Google switched AOSP to an internal development model in March and removed Pixel driver support from AOSP in June. In early September Google shipped Android 16 QPR1 to Pixel devices running their OS, but they have still not released QPR1 sources to AOSP.

Feel free to suggest to Google that they add font-family selection to AOSP... but I wouldn't recommend that you hold your breath while waiting for them to do it!

Overall, my hunch is that this feature is not likely to be available in GrapheneOS for at least two years, and may never be.

23Sha-ger

Technically it can be implemented, as per:

https://source.android.com/docs/automotive/hmi/car_ui/fonts

https://source.android.com/docs/core/fonts/custom-font-fallback

The question remaining is what is a "good" font. Since it must be packaged with the OS. The current fonts are what most Android users have. You can make some screen customizations with a 3d party launcher.

nat

I personally would enjoy Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, and for something more universal – Inter.
Couldn't it be implemented despite being another fingerprint factor? For example Material You can be used for fingerprinting but is set to black/white by default.

de0u

nat I personally would enjoy Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, and for something more universal – Inter. Couldn't it be implemented despite being another fingerprint factor?

I don't think the question is whether or not adding system fonts could be done, because it clearly could be done. The issue is who would do it, and test it, and maintain it. At present it doesn't seem likely to be the GrapheneOS developers.

As for fingerprinting, I suspect apps can find out which system fonts are available (which is independent of which are being used). If, hypothetically speaking, GrapheneOS were to start shipping Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, and Samsung and Sony and Google and LineageOS (etc.) were not shipping it, then the mere presence of Atkinson Hyperlegible Next on a device would be a strong signal that the device is running GrapheneOS.