Change base font for all graphics objects

Question

How can I change the base font style for all graphics objects, including the ones generated using plotting functions?

I would like to change this a single time and have it affect all graphics generated from there on (i.e. not specify the font on a plot by plot basis).

Say, I'd like to use 16 point Helvetica for everything by default.

---

My original thought was SetOptions[Graphics, BaseStyle -> {...}], but this will be overridden on graphics created using the various plotting functions (e.g. Plot).

My second try was changing the BaseStyle in the GraphicsBoxOptions of the notebook, but this didn't have an effect.

Answer 1

To begin with your observation

SetOptions[Graphics, BaseStyle->{FontFamily -> "Helvetica"}]

doesn't work with Plot -- which seems unintuitive.

The styling for graphics is controlled by the Graphics style in the core.nb stylesheet.

We see here that font type and size etc. is explicitly specified so this seems to be taking precedence. For example having a local Graphics style in a private stylesheet with

Cell[StyleData["Graphics"],
 GraphicsBoxOptions->{BaseStyle->Directive[FontFamily->"Helvetica",RGBColor[1,0,0],FontSize->16]}]

has no effect. This is analogous to evaluating SetOptions as above.

So if you want to change the base font for all graphics what you need to do is override those specified font styles in the core.nb stylesheet. For example add this to your private stylesheet or to the stylesheet you regularly use.

Cell[StyleData["Graphics"],
 FontFamily->"Helvetica",
 FontSize->16,
 FontWeight->"Plain",
 FontColor->RGBColor[1,0,0]]

and you will see it has immediate effect (the pic below is the same cells as the screen grab above. No addition evaluation has taken place. After adding the new Graphics style the fonts automatically change):

Answer 2

While Mike's answer is of course very nice and useful I'd like to add a very simple Kernel-only idea: Just put all the relevant SetOptions statements into your init.m startup file. This is easily done, once, e.g., like:

Export[
 FindFile[
  "init.m"], (StringJoin[
   "Map[SetOptions[#, BaseStyle \[Rule] {FontFamily->\"Helvetica\", \
FontColor->Red, FontSize->16}]&,\n{",
   ExportString[
    Riffle[#, ","] &@
     ToExpression@
      Quiet@Select[
        Select[Names[
          "System`*"], ! StringMatchQ[#, "*Box*" | "$*"] &], ! 
          FreeQ[Options[Symbol[#]][[All, 1]], BaseStyle] &], "List"], 
   "}];\n"]
  ), "Text", CharacterEncoding -> "ASCII"]

This produces (check by FilePrint@FindFile["init.m"] ) :

Map[SetOptions[#, BaseStyle -> {FontFamily->"Helvetica", FontColor->Red, FontSize->16}]&,
{ActionMenu
,
AdjacencyGraph
,
AngularGauge
,
Animate
,
Animator
,
ArrayPlot
,
BarChart
,
BarChart3D
,
BodePlot
,
BooleanGraph
,
BubbleChart
,
BubbleChart3D
,
BulletGauge
,
ButterflyGraph
,
Button
,
ButtonBar
,
CancelButton
,
CandlestickChart
,
CayleyGraph
,
Checkbox
,
CheckboxBar
,
CirculantGraph
,
ClockGauge
,
ColorSetter
,
ColorSlider
,
Column
,
CommunityGraphPlot
,
CompleteGraph
,
CompleteKaryTree
,
ContourPlot
,
ContourPlot3D
,
ControllerManipulate
,
CycleGraph
,
DateListLogPlot
,
DateListPlot
,
DeBruijnGraph
,
DefaultButton
,
DensityHistogram
,
DensityPlot
,
DirectedGraph
,
DiscretePlot
,
DiscretePlot3D
,
DistributionChart
,
Dynamic
,
DynamicModule
,
DynamicNamespace
,
DynamicWrapper
,
FileNameSetter
,
FlipView
,
Framed
,
Graph
,
GraphComplement
,
GraphDifference
,
GraphDisjointUnion
,
Graphics
,
Graphics3D
,
GraphicsArray
,
GraphicsColumn
,
GraphicsGrid
,
GraphicsRow
,
GraphIntersection
,
GraphPlot
,
GraphPlot3D
,
GraphPower
,
GraphUnion
,
Grid
,
GridGraph
,
HararyGraph
,
HighlightGraph
,
Histogram
,
Histogram3D
,
HorizontalGauge
,
HypercubeGraph
,
Hyperlink
,
ImageHistogram
,
IncidenceGraph
,
InputField
,
Inset
,
InteractiveTradingChart
,
Interpretation
,
Item
,
KagiChart
,
KaryTree
,
KirchhoffGraph
,
KnightTourGraph
,
Labeled
,
LabeledSlider
,
LayeredGraphPlot
,
LineBreakChart
,
LineGraph
,
LineIntegralConvolutionPlot
,
ListAnimate
,
ListContourPlot
,
ListContourPlot3D
,
ListCurvePathPlot
,
ListDensityPlot
,
ListLineIntegralConvolutionPlot
,
ListLinePlot
,
ListLogLinearPlot
,
ListLogLogPlot
,
ListLogPlot
,
ListPicker
,
ListPlot
,
ListPlot3D
,
ListPointPlot3D
,
ListPolarPlot
,
ListStreamDensityPlot
,
ListStreamPlot
,
ListSurfacePlot3D
,
ListVectorDensityPlot
,
ListVectorPlot
,
ListVectorPlot3D
,
Locator
,
LocatorPane
,
LogLinearPlot
,
LogLogPlot
,
LogPlot
,
Manipulate
,
MatrixPlot
,
MenuView
,
MorphologicalGraph
,
Mouseover
,
NeighborhoodGraph
,
NicholsPlot
,
NyquistPlot
,
Opener
,
OpenerView
,
Overlay
,
PairedBarChart
,
PairedHistogram
,
PairedSmoothHistogram
,
Pane
,
Panel
,
PaneSelector
,
ParametricPlot
,
ParametricPlot3D
,
PasteButton
,
PathGraph
,
Periodogram
,
PetersenGraph
,
PieChart
,
PieChart3D
,
Plot
,
Plot3D
,
PointFigureChart
,
PolarPlot
,
Polygon
,
PopupMenu
,
PopupView
,
ProbabilityPlot
,
ProbabilityScalePlot
,
ProgressIndicator
,
QuantilePlot
,
RadioButton
,
RadioButtonBar
,
RandomGraph
,
RectangleChart
,
RectangleChart3D
,
RegionPlot
,
RegionPlot3D
,
ReliefPlot
,
RenkoChart
,
ReverseGraph
,
RevolutionPlot3D
,
RootLocusPlot
,
Rotate
,
Row
,
SectorChart
,
SectorChart3D
,
Setter
,
SetterBar
,
SimpleGraph
,
SingularValuePlot
,
Slider
,
Slider2D
,
SlideView
,
SmoothDensityHistogram
,
SmoothHistogram
,
SmoothHistogram3D
,
Spectrogram
,
SphericalPlot3D
,
StarGraph
,
StreamDensityPlot
,
StreamPlot
,
Subgraph
,
TabView
,
Text
,
ThermometerGauge
,
Toggler
,
TogglerBar
,
Tooltip
,
TradingChart
,
TreeForm
,
TreeGraph
,
TreePlot
,
Trigger
,
TuranGraph
,
UndirectedGraph
,
VectorDensityPlot
,
VectorPlot
,
VectorPlot3D
,
VerticalGauge
,
VerticalSlider
,
WaveletImagePlot
,
WaveletListPlot
,
WaveletMatrixPlot
,
WaveletScalogram
,
WeightedAdjacencyGraph
,
WheelGraph}];

Answer 3

Just an oversized comment on the answer by Rolf Mertig.

The solution proposed there works but produces some errors. I think this is related to changing the default BaseStyle value for functions that don't take one.

With the following code I change both the default BaseStyle and the LabelStyle without errors. I simply take out the functions that produce an error compared to the answer by Rolf.

functionsThatDoNotAllowDefaultLabelStyle = {"ArrayPlot3D", 
   "AstroGraphics", "AxisObject", "BioSequencePlot", "BuckyballGraph",
    "Canvas", "ComplexArrayPlot", "ConcaveHullMesh", 
   "ConvexHullRegion", "CSGRegion", "CSGRegionTree", 
   "CumulativeFeatureImpactPlot", "DominatorTreeGraph", 
   "DualPlanarGraph", "ExpressionTree", "FeatureImpactPlot", 
   "FeatureValueDependencyPlot", "FeatureValueImpactPlot", 
   "FileSystemTree", "FindIsomorphicSubgraph", "GeoGraphPlot", 
   "GeoGraphValuePlot", "GradientFittedMesh", "GraphJoin", 
   "GraphProduct", "GraphSum", "GraphTree", "ImageVectorscopePlot", 
   "ImageWaveformPlot", "LayeredGraphPlot3D", "ListLinePlot3D", 
   "ListStreamPlot3D", "ListVectorDisplacementPlot", 
   "ListVectorDisplacementPlot3D", "NestTree", "ParallelAxisPlot", 
   "PointValuePlot", "RadialAxisPlot", "RandomTree", 
   "ReconstructionMesh", "RegionDilation", "RegionErosion", 
   "RootTree", "RulesTree", "StreamPlot3D", "TernaryListPlot", 
   "TorusGraph", "Tree", "UnlabeledTree", "VectorDisplacementPlot", 
   "VectorDisplacementPlot3D", "VertexInComponentGraph", 
   "VertexOutComponentGraph", "ArrayPlot3D", "AstroGraphics", 
   "AxisObject", "BioSequencePlot", "BuckyballGraph", "Canvas", 
   "ComplexArrayPlot", "ConcaveHullMesh", "ConvexHullRegion", 
   "CSGRegion", "CSGRegionTree", "CumulativeFeatureImpactPlot", 
   "DominatorTreeGraph", "DualPlanarGraph", "ExpressionTree", 
   "FeatureImpactPlot", "FeatureValueDependencyPlot", 
   "FeatureValueImpactPlot", "FileSystemTree", 
   "FindIsomorphicSubgraph", "GeoGraphPlot", "GeoGraphValuePlot", 
   "GradientFittedMesh", "GraphJoin", "GraphProduct", "GraphSum", 
   "GraphTree", "ImageVectorscopePlot", "ImageWaveformPlot", 
   "LayeredGraphPlot3D", "ListLinePlot3D", "ListStreamPlot3D", 
   "ListVectorDisplacementPlot", "ListVectorDisplacementPlot3D", 
   "NestTree", "ParallelAxisPlot", "PointValuePlot", "RadialAxisPlot",
    "RandomTree", "ReconstructionMesh", "RegionDilation", 
   "RegionErosion", "RootTree", "RulesTree", "StreamPlot3D", 
   "TernaryListPlot", "TorusGraph", "Tree", "UnlabeledTree", 
   "VectorDisplacementPlot", "VectorDisplacementPlot3D", 
   "VertexInComponentGraph", "VertexOutComponentGraph"};
functionsThatDoNotAllowDefaultBaseStyle = {"ArrayPlot3D", 
   "AstroGraphics", "AxisObject", "BioSequencePlot", "BuckyballGraph",
    "Canvas", "ComplexArrayPlot", "ConcaveHullMesh", 
   "ConvexHullRegion", "CSGRegion", "CSGRegionTree", 
   "CumulativeFeatureImpactPlot", "DominatorTreeGraph", 
   "DualPlanarGraph", "ExpressionTree", "FeatureImpactPlot", 
   "FeatureValueDependencyPlot", "FeatureValueImpactPlot", 
   "FileSystemTree", "FindIsomorphicSubgraph", "GeodesicPolyhedron", 
   "GeoGraphPlot", "GeoGraphValuePlot", "GradientFittedMesh", 
   "GraphJoin", "GraphProduct", "GraphSum", "GraphTree", 
   "ImageVectorscopePlot", "ImageWaveformPlot", "LayeredGraphPlot3D", 
   "ListLinePlot3D", "ListStreamPlot3D", "ListVectorDisplacementPlot",
    "ListVectorDisplacementPlot3D", "NestTree", "ParallelAxisPlot", 
   "PointValuePlot", "RadialAxisPlot", "RandomTree", 
   "ReconstructionMesh", "RegionDilation", "RegionErosion", 
   "RootTree", "RulesTree", "StreamPlot3D", "TernaryListPlot", 
   "TorusGraph", "Tree", "UnlabeledTree", "VectorDisplacementPlot", 
   "VectorDisplacementPlot3D", "VertexInComponentGraph", 
   "VertexOutComponentGraph"};

functionsPossiblyTakingDefaultLabelStyle = Select[
   Select[Names["System`*"], ! StringMatchQ[#, "*Box*" | "$*"] &],
   ! FreeQ[Options[Symbol[#]][[All, 1]], LabelStyle] &];

functionsTakingDefaultBaseStyle = Complement[
   Select[
    Select[Names["System`*"], ! StringMatchQ[#, "*Box*" | "$*"] &], ! 
      FreeQ[Options[Symbol[#]][[All, 1]], BaseStyle] &]
   , functionsThatDoNotAllowDefaultBaseStyle];

fnt = "16";
functionsTakingDefaultLabelStyle = 
  Complement[functionsPossiblyTakingDefaultLabelStyle, 
   functionsThatDoNotAllowDefaultLabelStyle];
initializationCommandDefaultStyles = 
  StringJoin[(StringJoin[
     "Map[SetOptions[#, LabelStyle \[Rule] \
{FontColor->Black,FontSize->" <> ToString[fnt] <> "}]&,\n{", 
     ExportString[
      Riffle[#, ","] &@
       ToExpression@Quiet@functionsTakingDefaultLabelStyle, "List"], 
     "}];\n"])
   , "\n",
   StringJoin[
    "Map[SetOptions[#, BaseStyle \[Rule] \
{FontColor->Black,FontSize->" <> ToString[fnt] <> "}]&,\n{", 
    ExportString[
     Riffle[#, ","] &@ToExpression@functionsTakingDefaultBaseStyle, 
     "List"], "}];\n"]
   ];
Export[FindFile["init.m"], initializationCommandDefaultStyles, "Text",
  CharacterEncoding -> "ASCII"]

Get[$UserBaseDirectory <> "/Kernel/init.m"]

Answer 4

According to my investigation, Changing the "GraphicsAxes" and/or "Graphics3DAxes" style helps. By adding the (e.g.) FontColor->GrayLevel[1], you can change the ticks color into White (i.e. GrayLevel[1]).

I agree that Wolfram doesn't give a full table of all the styles, options as well as what values we can take. I by far discovered the following information by try and error.

• FontColor: Changing the FontColor of axes, labels, etc like I said before. E.g. FontColor->RGBColor[r,g,b].
• FontFamily: Changing the font family obviously. E.g. FontFamily->"Helvetica".
• FontSize: Changing the font size. E.g. FontSize->16.
• FontWeight: Changing how thick a charater is. E.g. FontWeight->"Plain".

I also find there is a tutorial talking about this, even though I think is far from comprehensiveness.

The above information I believe will help you. As long as you define the styles in your private stylesheet.nb, press Ctrl+S and Ctrl+Shift+E to save and activate them.

By the way, I find that 2D Graphics and 3D Graphics behave differently to the activation of the new style setting. 2D Graphics changes simultaneously with the activating movement (i.e. Ctrl+Shift+E), while 3D doesn't. The latter only changes after you rerun the input code. That's quite annoying considering that it's already hard for us to know whether a style setting syntax works or not. Pay attention to that!