Change Font?

There is no easy way to do this, but...

1. open Terminal.app
2. type: "open /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj"
3. type (in terminal again): "chown `whoami` TextStyles.plist"
4. in opened folder find file: "TextStyles.plist"
5. replace all occurences of "HelveticaNueve" with "LucidaGrande" (font in iTunes 10)
6. save
7. restart iTunes

Open that file in any text editor (TextMate, Coda, SublimeText2) and use "search and replace" - it's just an XML file inside.

The file mentioned can be changed in TextEdit, but you will be unable to save it because it is owned by root. To first change file ownership to yourself, follow these Terminal instructions:

cd /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/

cat English.lproj/TextStyles.plist

sudo chown $USER English.lproj

sudo chown $USER English.lproj/TextStyles.plist

cp English.lproj/TextStyles.plist English.lproj/TextStyles.orig

Quit iTunes

Now edit the file:

open -a TextEdit.app English.lproj/TextStyles.plist

Change every occurrence of "HelveticaNeue" to "LucidaGrande"

Save the file.

Launch iTunes

I’m afraid that will change all instances of HelveticaNeue-Medium to LucidaGrande-Medium, which does not exist.

I didn't have much time to tweak TextStyles.plist so to make iTunes 11 look as close to previous versions as possible - for the most part I just substituted all HelveticaNeue strings with LucidaGrande, keeping in mind that there is only LucidaGrande and LucidaGrande-Bold typefaces available in the system. Here is my version: http://cl.ly/LKgu (Please note this version is only applicable if your system language is English. Also please remember this is not a regular modification - you are making it at your own risk. Do backup your original TextStyles.plist).

Here is how iTunes fonts look with this modified plist:

In case you are going to edit your own TextStyles.plist, and so to save you some time, here is a few keys:

- LCD fonts (top middle window with current track name/artist ect) - look up for strings with "LCD" (like LCDTextLarge)

- Navigation bar fonts (where you chose betwen views in music section or between departments in itunes store) - strings containing "nav bar"

- Most fonts in main window related to album/artist/track information whether in albums or any other view - strings containing "item grid"

- Sidebar items fonts - "playlists outline small font" and "playlists outline small font (selected)" strings

Has anyone figured out how to adjust the size of the search field font? It appears to be Helvetica 14 and is super hard to read on my Thunderbolt display.

Thanks a LOT for this! My iTunes now looks WAY better - and more mac-like, actually.

:-)

Yeah! iTunes now looks like a Mac app again! Great post!

And everything is much more readable! As far as I remember, Lucida Grande was designed especially for screen use but Helvetica - despite being a great font - not, at least not in the first place.

Thank you so much Alfuken and Andrew!! Now I can use iTunes without cringing! 🙂

THANK YOU Gnarlodius. I can't believe Apple has switched over to such a cheap looking font - and worse, won't easily let you change it. Your solution worked great.

And lambertd, obviously you can then change every instance of LucidaGrande-Medium to LucidaGrande. Not that difficult to figure out. 😝

As an extra step, I did the following:

Change every occurrence of "<integer>12</integer>" to "<integer>11</integer>"

Change every occurrence of "<integer>13</integer>" to "<integer>12</integer>"

This will make the font sizes reasonable and not kindergarten looking.

Wicked. Really helps!

Helvetica looks great on mobile, but Lucida rules for desktop and is just WAY better for legibility of these long playlists.

Is there a way to change the font size in the itunes store?

Thank you

Gina

Great tips. I was able to make the fonts smaller. Thanks. But how do you reduce the top and bottom padding on the sidebar items? Too much space between entries.

Also, how do you get rid of those grotesque rotating billboards in iTunes Store?