# Making the font bold or italic in Makie.jl

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** makie\
**Created:** [November 26, 2021, 1:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089 "2021-11-26T01:13:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mmkim1210](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mmkim1210/32/29084_2.png) [@mmkim1210](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mmkim1210)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 1:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/1 "2021-11-26T01:13:25Z")

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How can you make your font either bold or italic in Makie?

I do not want the Latex font, just good old bold or italic “Arial” font.

Thank you.

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 7:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/2 "2021-11-26T07:34:51Z")

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Just `font = "Arial bold"` for example. Or you can pass a path to a font file if you don’t have it installed in one of the system typical folders. You don’t have to spell the name out exactly for more complex font names.

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**Author:** ![mmkim1210](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mmkim1210/32/29084_2.png) [@mmkim1210](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mmkim1210)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 9:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/3 "2021-11-26T09:29:52Z")

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Thanks @jules for prompt response. `font = "Arial bold"` for some reason does not seem to work. I’ve tried with multiple other fonds and they all do not work. Would passing a path to a font file the best work around this?

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 10:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/4 "2021-11-26T10:15:07Z")

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Where are those font files located on your system? Maybe this PR would help because I just realized that a common font folder on Windows was missing from the places where we look by default [https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/pull/62](https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/pull/62)

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2021, 10:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/5 "2021-11-26T10:16:10Z")

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And passing a path can be a good option if you bundle a specific font in a repository and you want your plots to work on someone else’s system, who might not have it installed.

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**Author:** ![mmkim1210](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mmkim1210/32/29084_2.png) [@mmkim1210](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mmkim1210)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 2:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/6 "2021-11-27T02:20:21Z")

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I see… thank you for the info. I actually use macOS, and I still haven’t been able to figure this out.

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**Author:** ![aramirezreyes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aramirezreyes/32/42573_2.png) [@aramirezreyes](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aramirezreyes)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 6:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/7 "2021-11-27T06:38:03Z")

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In my system the path to arial bold is: `/System/Library/Fonts/SupplementalArial Bold.ttf/` I wonder why it is not working in Makie. I am not in my computer now so I cannot try but you could try that path.

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 8:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/8 "2021-11-27T08:37:50Z")

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Can you post the path where on your system Arial is located? Could be that it’s not included in the default path list in FreeTypeAbstraction [https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/blob/master/src/findfonts.jl#L4-L6](https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/blob/master/src/findfonts.jl#L4-L6)

`/System/Library/Fonts/` is also not in there, maybe it should be added

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmkim1210](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mmkim1210/32/29084_2.png) [@mmkim1210](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mmkim1210)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/9 "2021-11-27T08:46:11Z")

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Yeah that seems like it. Arial font is located here: `"/System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial Bold Italic.ttf"`

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2021, 9:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/10 "2021-11-27T09:58:13Z")

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Aha seems like a new Catalina thing, we can add the new folder

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**Author:** ![jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/11 "2021-11-28T19:23:40Z")

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[https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/pull/63](https://github.com/JuliaGraphics/FreeTypeAbstraction.jl/pull/63) latest FreeTypeAbstraction should pick up your Arial, can you update and check?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmkim1210](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mmkim1210/32/29084_2.png) [@mmkim1210](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mmkim1210)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/making-the-font-bold-or-italic-in-makie-jl/72089/12 "2021-11-28T20:53:46Z")

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yeah it works now!