Change default Korean font to ttf-nanum

I am Korean Locoterm owner bundo
I will be very pleased to see them improved

I am Korean Locoterm owner bundo
I'll be very pleased if the above points were improved

Default korean fonts on Ubuntu need to be replaced seriously I think. Many Korean font designers and linux related developers have dedicated for applying better korean fonts for linux users, not ms-windows user. So, now all the time and effort they put into developing the font-work there is finally paying off.
I believe that Korean language is not a minor language, and these fonts will be so much helpful for korean ubuntu and other distros linux users in this universe.

Thanks for your help to make Ubuntu better by filing this bug report.

As regards Korean fonts, I wonder if you noticed bug 715742 and bug 716872, both of which were fixed in Natty. Do those changes make a difference to the suggested changes in this report?

#715742 dealt with 29-language-selector-ko-kr.conf which was included in language-selector package. As reported by @jincreator, the file was obsolete and it is properly removed.
#726872 was about Guseul font (included in ttf-alee package). However, reference to this font should now be removed from 69-language-selector-ko-kr.conf because this is a kind of "fantasy font" inappropriate for ordinary use. #726872 also touched upon monospace font issues affecting Korean. This problem can now be satisfactorily resolved thanks to ttf-nanum-coding which is a good quality Korean monospace font.

(further improvements to these suggested patches are currently being discussed in the ubuntu-ko mailing list and will shortly be uploaded here)

Attached herewith are the following files with in-line comments.

30-cjk-aliases.conf (in language-selector)
40-nonlatin.conf (in fontconfig)
65-nonlatin.conf (in fontconfig)
69-language-selector-ko-kr.conf (in language-selector)

The lengthy comments I added are only for discussion purpose and should be removed if and when these proposed changes are committed as fixes.

69-language-selector-ko-kr.conf is tidied up (reflecting the discussion in the Korean Ubuntu Users Mailing list).

Java font configuration should also be modified if and when ttf-nanum becomes the default Korean font.

 /etc/java-6-openjdk/fontconfig.properties should perhaps be changed as shown in the attached file.

It appears that Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) also adopts Nanum font for Korean typeface. http://x86osx.com/bbs/data/freeboard/1308944167/nanumgothic.jpg

ubuntu-desktop depends on fonts-nanum now.

language-selector has been switched a while ago, too:

$ grep ^fn:ko /usr/share/language-selector/data/pkg_depends
fn:ko::fonts-nanum
fn:ko::fonts-nanum-coding
fn:ko::fonts-nanum-extra
fn:ko::ttf-alee

Wonderful news!

30-cjk-aliases.conf (which is now included in language-selector-common) should be updated (replaced) as per "Modified configuration files" provided here as "Bug attachments".

65-nonlatin.conf (which is now included in fontconfig-conf) should also be updated as proposed here.

Even if these changes are not made, as long as users have not installed ttf-unfonts, they will have fonts-nanum as their default Korean font, which is perhaps ok. But if these changes are not made, when users install ttf-unfonts as 'additional' fonts, they will have they 'preferred font' changed into ttf-unfonts, which will be an unpleasant, unintended surprise for quite a few users.

Hi Keechang,
I have prepared your proposed changes to 30-cjk-aliases.conf and 65-nonlatin.conf for uploading.

fonts-nanum already ships its own fontconfig snippet in /etc/fonts/conf.d/90-fonts-nanum.conf. Why is it also necessary to modify fontconfig itself?

90-fonts-nanum.conf and 30-cjk-aliases.conf, for example, have somewhat different instructions. One can, of course, remove altogether the lines concerning Korean fonts from 30-cjk-aliases.conf and then it would be ok with 90-fonts-nanum.conf alone. With the current instructions contained in 30-cjk-aliases.conf, however, ttf-unfont will be regarded as the preferred font for certain missing fonts.

This bug was fixed in the package fontconfig - 2.8.0-3ubuntu3

---------------
fontconfig (2.8.0-3ubuntu3) precise; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/01_fonts_nanum.patch:
    Changes due to Korean migration to fonts-nanum (LP: #792471).
 -- Gunnar Hjalmarsson <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:57:12 +0100

I uploaded a new fontconfig with this typo fixed.

Thanks for your fast update, Pitt!

which ubuntu (and debian) releases do have the new font as the default?

This bug was fixed in the package openjdk-6 - 6b24-1.11.1-3ubuntu1

---------------
openjdk-6 (6b24-1.11.1-3ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * Regenerate the control file.

openjdk-6 (6b24-1.11.1-3) unstable; urgency=low

  * Use NanumMyeongjo as the preferred korean font. LP: #792471.
    Closes: #655167.
  * Fix java path in jexec for multiarch builds.
  * Fix crash in java.net.NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces() when
    ifr_ifindex exceeds 255. LP: #925218. S7078386.
  * Remove javaws and pluginappletviewer alternatives on upgrade from
    squeeze. Closes: #660604.
  * Use IPAfont as the preferred japanesse font. Closes: #646054.
  * Build using gcj on alpha and armel. Closes: #655750.
  * Drop build dependency on libxp-dev. Closes: #623667.

openjdk-6 (6b24-1.11.1-2ubuntu2) precise; urgency=low

  * Make sure that the nss.cfg doesn't mention any library path.
    LP: #939361, #939419.
  * Disable the accessibility wrapper, doesn't work yet. LP: #935296.
  * ARM: Inline math functions, where asm instructions exist (taken from
    the trunk).
 -- Matthias Klose <email address hidden> Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:45:54 +0100