Often the default X11 font is "fixed", which ist far to small eg. on a 1024x600 pixel monitor (netbook). Start dune in the commandline. on this netbook with the option -fn e.g. $ dune -fn lucidasanstypewriter-bold-12 This works with the Fedora 19 netbook. to search for other sized fonts you can use something like $ xlsfonts | grep lucidasanstypewriter-bold- Some systems (like debian wheezy) support something like $ dune -fn 10x20 ====================================== Why not gimp as default image editor ? ====================================== gimp is a good image editor, but it is not a good tool for commandline. When you use e.g. "gimp test.png" on the commandline, modify the image and use File->Save, it doesn't write back the file. In fact you can use File->Export instead of File->Save, but this is confusiong 8-( so the default uses a other image editor like pinta. If you need to use gimp, simply replace the image editor setting