--- title: 'Ubuntu font: what the glyph!' description: Having read some of the comments and bugs I thought it might be useful to add some clarification on a couple of terms. What we have released so far is only the regular weight of the font. Fonts – in general – come in many weights from ultra-light to ultra-bold. The fact that regular is […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-font-what-the-glyph --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") 8 July 2010 # Ubuntu font: what the glyph! [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) --- Share the article Having read some of the comments and bugs I thought it might be useful to add some clarification on a couple of terms. What we have released so far is only the regular weight of the font. Fonts – in general – come in many weights from ultra-light to ultra-bold. The fact that regular is the only weight that is complete so far, means that when you look at items that are set to be bold in the Ubuntu Beta font your computer is guessing at how best to display the font bold. Bold is coming as are other weights and variants such as monospace, italics, etc. Monospace is primarily used in the terminal and in applications such as xchat. The regular which is available now, is not going to work as well as the monospace if you use it in the terminal or in xchat etc. This regular weight is fully hinted and kerned for Latin, Greek and Cyrillic so there is still plenty to try out. Hinting is the process of telling your computer what to do with the individual pixels that make up a glyph. [Wikipedia has a detailed explanation (of course)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting). Kerning is the process of defining how much space there should be between individual glyphs (characters). [And here is the wikipedia information on kerning](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning) . For those of you who know all this – excellent! For those of you who don’t – I do hope this helps! [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. In submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Notice](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy/contact) and [Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### What designers should know about semiotics](https://canonical.com/blog/what-designers-should-know-about-semiotics) What happens when you look at an apple? When you see it, you perceive the apple and assign meaning to it based on your language, experience, and personal preferences – such as... [Sophie Carroll](https://canonical.com/blog/author/sophiecarroll) 15 October 2026 [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Template: Streamlining open source design contributions](https://canonical.com/blog/template-streamlining-open-source-design-contributions) As designers working at Canonical, we’re always thinking about open source. We believe that encouraging more designers to contribute to open source benefits everyone, from the... [Nina Rojc](https://canonical.com/blog/author/ninarojc) 16 June 2026 [### Decoding design: How design and engineering thrive together in open source](https://canonical.com/blog/decoding-design-how-design-and-engineering-thrive-together-in-open-source) Open source thrives on engineering-driven processes. Fast feedback loops, terminal tools, Git workflows: they’re the lifeblood of how we build software in the open. But for... [Miguel Divo](https://canonical.com/blog/author/mdivo) 22 May 2026