Howto change Desktop fonts

Out of the box both GNOME and KDE applications are configured with the default Desktop Fonts of something like Sans 10 which looks ridiculously tiny and small on a 1440x900 LCD panel.
Here is how to fix it:

GNOME

• Start GNOME Configuration Editor with Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor
• Drill down to desktop > gnome > interface
• Change font_name attribute to Sans 14.
• Set monospace_font_name attribute to Monospace 14.

KDE

• Start KDE Control Center with kcontrol.
• Go to Appearance & Themes > Fonts category.
• Set Desktop fonts to Sans 14.