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In the actual Notes application there are menu choices for changing the font of a note. However, this doesn't change the default font for new notes. There is also no Preference.../Settings... where the default font can be changed.

Does anyone know how to change the default font of the Notes app on MacOS Sierra and/or High Sierra etc.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
6

Yes. You have to close out of the Notes application and go to the Notes app in the Applications folder. Right-click on the Notes app and select 'Show Contents" From inside the Contents folder open the Resources folder and inside this folder is a folder named en.lproj. This is for the English language. Other similar folders exist for other languages. Inside this folder is a file named DefaultFonts.plist. Edit this file. The file is locked so editing it can be tricky.This link has a full description of how to do it all. The link will fill in missing details.

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  • 1
    Why the downvote? It looks helpful to me. Of course, you'll have to copy the Notes app to somewhere in your home directory and then use that instead of the system one.
    – SilverWolf
    Oct 19, 2017 at 19:59
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    yes, why the downvote? it answers the question!
    – Natsfan
    Oct 19, 2017 at 20:02
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    Didn't put the downvote myself, but doesn't seem to work. I knew the workaround worked for the previous notes app, but doesn't seems, unfortunately, to do anything in the current one..
    – K3it4r0
    Oct 19, 2017 at 20:40
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    Any ideas for Stickies? There is no DefaultFonts file that I can see apple.stackexchange.com/questions/389532/…
    – atreeon
    Apr 26, 2020 at 10:44
0

Try this

defaults write com.apple.Notes DefaultNoteFont '<62706c69 73743030 d4010203 04050618 19582476 65727369 6f6e5824 6f626a65 63747359 24617263 68697665 72542474 6f701200 0186a0a4 07081112 55246e75 6c6cd409 0a0b0c0d 0e0f1056 4e535369 7a65584e 5366466c 61677356 4e534e61 6d655624 636c6173 73234032 00000000 00001010 80028003 5f100f4d 61726b65 7246656c 742d5468 696ed213 1415165a 24636c61 73736e61 6d655824 636c6173 73657356 4e53466f 6e74a215 17584e53 4f626a65 63745f10 0f4e534b 65796564 41726368 69766572 d11a1b54 726f6f74 80010811 1a232d32 373c424b 525b6269 72747678 8a8f9aa3 aaadb6c8 cbd00000 00000000 01010000 00000000 001c0000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00d2>'

This sets the default font to Market Felt 18 points

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  • 4
    What if I don't want Marker Felt 18 point to be my default font either ? How are the Hex codes generated ?
    – Benoît P
    Jun 27, 2019 at 14:14
  • Also curious how these hex values are generated or found. @akuhn can you comment?
    – Bryan
    Dec 9, 2019 at 18:50
  • I copied them from my old laptop and was lucky they worked on the new system.
    – akuhn
    Dec 15, 2019 at 0:17
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// commenting this answer by @akuhn

You could decode it like this:

$ echo "62706c69 73743030 d4010203 ....[cut].... 00000000 00d2" \
    | xxd -revert -plain \
    | plutil -convert xml1 -o /dev/stdout -

(replace /dev/stdout with a file name of your choice if needed)

Result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>$version</key>
    <integer>100000</integer>
    <key>$objects</key>
    <array>
        <string>$null</string>
        <dict>
            <key>NSSize</key>
            <real>18</real>
            <key>NSfFlags</key>
            <integer>16</integer>
            <key>NSName</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>2</integer>
            </dict>
            <key>$class</key>
            <dict>
                <key>CF$UID</key>
                <integer>3</integer>
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <string>MarkerFelt-Thin</string>
        <dict>
            <key>$classname</key>
            <string>NSFont</string>
            <key>$classes</key>
            <array>
                <string>NSFont</string>
                <string>NSObject</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>$archiver</key>
    <string>NSKeyedArchiver</string>
    <key>$top</key>
    <dict>
        <key>root</key>
        <dict>
            <key>CF$UID</key>
            <integer>1</integer>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>
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3
  • This is really adding to the other answers and not an answer to the question
    – mmmmmm
    Mar 24, 2021 at 21:55
  • Firstly, welcome to our site! :) Thank you for your answer, however, on it's own it's not clear what this does. Can you place take a moment to edit it to put some context around it and explain what it is you're doing and how to actually do it? Most users will just read "You could decode it like this:" and have no idea what that means or how to use the information below it. In summary, this needs to be able to stand on its own as an answer.
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Mar 25, 2021 at 1:10
  • @Monomeeth: thanks for your hint! I've linked the original answer I wanted reply to
    – Ilya Stroganov
    Mar 25, 2021 at 23:55

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