The Smorgasbord

You can download and install thousands of free windows .ttf true type fonts from the web and install and use them in Ubuntu (or any distro) Linux.

Just download the fonts you want from free online web sites and archives (listed below), if necessary - unzip them to the desktop or another directory of your choice.

Then create a directory for your new fonts where the fonts are stored on your system. This is the location in Ubuntu Linux - your Linux distribution may be similar:

$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/myfonts

Then open your terminal to install them:

$ sudo cp /home/user/Desktop/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/myfonts/

and refresh your font cache like this:
$ sudo fc-cache -f

Now open Open Office Writer or Gimp, and your fonts should be available! You can access your new true type fonts in any graphics, design, text based document application that uses fonts.

Here are some free archives to download fonts from. They will be listed as Windows true type fonts (ttf), but there are completely usable in all Linux distributions. A lot of font sites you’ll find on google are loaded with popup, ads, and garbage. I tried not to list any of those here, these are some of the best font sites I could find without “nagging” ads and crap.

Fonts 101

Abstract Fonts

1001 Free Fonts

Font Reactor

TypeNow

Font Village

EKNP Free Fonts

originally posted: 2006-05-16 09:58:47 -0400