Linux and Fonts (Help)

BlackfoxKitsune · June 2009

Hi i've been all over the linux website trying to find how i can ADD fonts that i download interdependently of any OS.

On windows for adding new fonts you can simply down load them and then paste the opend zip files into the font folder, in Linux i can't do that, so how do i add new fonts, i'm not talking about things like times new roman, i mean things you can down load like the elven fonts from gray company and plant like fonts you can find on google. its driving me nuts most of the fonts i have on linux look rubbish, and the ones I want to download and add are so i can do my design pics with the font styles i need, which at the moment since switching i can not do.. Someone PLEASE help.

atreyu · June 2009

BlackfoxKitsune wrote:

Hi i've been all over the linux website trying to find how i can ADD fonts that i download interdependently of any OS.
On windows for adding new fonts you can simply down load them and then paste the opend zip files into the font folder, in Linux i can't do that, so how do i add new fonts, i'm not talking about things like times new roman, i mean things you can down load like the elven fonts from gray company and plant like fonts you can find on google. its driving me nuts most of the fonts i have on linux look rubbish, and the ones I want to download and add are so i can do my design pics with the font styles i need, which at the moment since switching i can not do.. Someone PLEASE help.

Can you give some specific details? Your Linux distro / release and a link to some example font would be helpful.

In case you meant the Quenyan font, I've used it before, too (in Windows only). But i've installed other truetype fonts in Linux before, so I just gave it a whirl - and it worked. Here's what I did. Open up a terminal, su up to root [su -] and do:

cd /tmp
wget www.grey-company.org/Language/Files/quenya16.zip
unzip -d /usr/share/fonts/quenya /tmp/quenya16.zip
cd /usr/share/fonts/quenya
mv QUENYA.TTF quenya.ttf
chmod 0644 *.ttf
ttmkfdir > fonts.scale
mkfontdir
[edit /etc/X11/fs/config and add /usr/share/fonts/quenya to the "catalogue" stanza]
fc-cache
chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/quenya
xset fp rehash
service xfs restart

I'll try to attach an image that shows the same font being used in Windows Wordpad and LInux Gedit (GNOME Text Editor)

atreyu · June 2009

Forgot to give credit - I got those instructions from website. Scroll down to the section titled Linux Font Installation.

ludovic.ferre · June 2009

BlackfoxKitsune wrote:

Hi i've been all over the linux website trying to find how i can ADD fonts that i download interdependently of any OS.
On windows for adding new fonts you can simply down load them and then paste the opend zip files into the font folder, in Linux i can't do that, so how do i add new fonts, i'm not talking about things like times new roman, i mean things you can down load like the elven fonts from gray company and plant like fonts you can find on google. its driving me nuts most of the fonts i have on linux look rubbish, and the ones I want to download and add are so i can do my design pics with the font styles i need, which at the moment since switching i can not do.. Someone PLEASE help.

If you are using Ubuntu then you can check some of the ttf packages in the main repository. You can see the font packages available by opening the console and typing "apt-get install ttf-" and press <tab> to expend the ttf-* packages available.

Now I can see that you want to install the fonts you already downloaded, so to do that the best option is to see how ttf package maintainer do it.

To do that I switched from the console to firefox and typed ttf in the search box, then I switched from my default search provider to the built-in "Ubuntu Package Search".

Hit enter, and there you have many font packages. I picked one that I have installed and used, called ttf-dustin. Then I browsed to the '

'. And there we have it. Right up the top:/etc/defoma/hints/ttf-dustin.hints.

With the file location and naming convention we can now install fonts without having to tamper the X11 configuration etc.

BlackfoxKitsune · June 2009

I am using Linux's Ubuntu 8.04.2
the font types i was and am still trying to install are

scroll down to The Quenya Font.

I am also a total newbie to linux :dry: so a lot of things make no sense to me at the moment.

I Kind of need a step by step guide for dumb dumbs :unsure:

ludovic.ferre · June 2009

Hi Annabella,

I downloaded the abaddon fonts from the link you provided and did the following to get them to work on my Ubuntu 9.04 system:

Create a file (under my home directory) named ttf-abaddon.hints with the following content:

category truetype
begin /usr/share/fonts/truetype/abaddon/abaddon.ttf
  Family = Abaddon
  FontName = Abaddon
  Encoding = Unicode
  Location = English
  Charset = ISO8859-1
  GeneralFamily = SansSerif
  Weight = Medium
  Width = Variable
  Shape = Upright
  Foundry = Abaddon
  Priority = 20
end

From the command line (on Gnome menu click Applications > Accessories > Terminal) I entered the following:

sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/truetype/abaddon
sudo cp abaddon.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/abaddon/
sudo cp ttf-abaddon.hints /etc/defoma/hints/

The first command will prompt you for your password (I take it you are administraotr of the box).

Then I opened Abiword and selected the font menu, moved all the way up (pressing the Home key) and there it was.

I guess it'll be very hard to make it any simpler, albeit I'm not 100% sure that the hint file is properly filled (my guess).

Linux and Fonts (Help)

Comments