I think you "have to read this :":http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7/qwidget.html#font-prop
Especially this paragraph :
bq. The current style, which is used to render the content of all standard Qt widgets, is free to choose to use the widget font, or in some cases, to ignore it (partially, or completely). In particular, certain styles like GTK style, Mac style, Windows XP, and Vista style, apply special modifications to the widget font to match the platform's native look and feel. Because of this, assigning properties to a widget's font is not guaranteed to change the appearance of the widget. Instead, you may choose to apply a styleSheet.
Also the "QFont docs":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/doc/qt-4.7/qfont.html will explain this behaviour.
In short : Qt tries to solve font issues for you that are not set by your theme/OS.