How to get more Fonts on Ubuntu

If you're one of those types that gets captured by details, your first reaction to opening a web page on Ubuntu was probably that of your breath being taken away by how well fonts are rendered (unless you're used to Mac, in which case you would have noticed little difference).

One of the reasons that the difference is so striking isn't just the clarity of the fonts... they're actually different fonts!

You can get a number of fonts by installing them from Ubuntu Software Center (USC), others most be copied from another computer or purchased.

Note: Check out So I installed Ubuntu... Now what? for a one-shot command that will get you the most common fonts as well as perform several other common (and important) tasks for a freshly installed Ubuntu.

Installing the Free Fonts from USC

Search for fonts in Ubuntu Software Center, then click show ### technical items.

You can peruse the description of the fonts and then install the ones you like.

You can also narrow your search by searching something like latin fonts - for fonts that work in English, Spanish, Fresh, German, etc - or by specific written script language such as korean fonts or japanese fonts.

Installing from the commandline

First enable the Ubuntu Partner Software

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"

You can get a list of installable fonts by searching for packages beginning with fonts- and xfonts-. They used to be listed as ttf-, but those packages now just point to the appropriate fonts- package.

apt-cache search fonts | grep '^fonts-'
apt-cache search fonts | grep '^xfonts-'

And let's say you wanted to install all of the Latin fonts, you would do it like so:

# The Microsoft fonts (you'll need to agree to the license)
sudo apt-get install -y \
  ttf-mscorefonts-installer

# All the other Latin fonts (except a few)
sudo apt-get install -y \
  ttf-xfree86-nonfree \
  fonts-liberation \
  fonts-opensymbol \
  fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console \
  fonts-larabie-deco \
  fonts-larabie-straight \
  fonts-larabie-uncommon \
  fonts-beteckna \
  fonts-cmu \
  fonts-dustin \
  fonts-larabie-deco \
  fonts-larabie-straight \
  fonts-beteckna \
  fonts-liberation \
  fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console \
  fonts-sil-gentium \
  fonts-sil-gentium-basic \
  fonts-opensymbol \
  fonts-breip \
  fonts-johnsmith-induni \
  fonts-junicode \
  fonts-jura \
  fonts-konatu \
  fonts-levien-museum \
  fonts-levien-typoscript \
  fonts-lindenhill \
  fonts-linex \
  fonts-linuxlibertine \
  fonts-okolaks \
  fonts-ocr-a \
  fonts-oldstandard \
  fonts-opendin \
  fonts-pecita \
  fonts-play \
  fonts-prociono \
  fonts-rufscript \
  fonts-tomsontalks \
  fonts-vollkorn \
  fonts-yanone-kaffeesatz \
  fonts-inconsolata \
  fonts-comfortaa \
  fonts-cantarell \
  fonts-droid \
  fonts-ecolier-court \
  fonts-ecolier-lignes-court \
  fonts-century-catalogue \
  fonts-f500 \
  fonts-fanwood \
  xfonts-nexus \
  xfonts-terminus \
  xfonts-terminus-dos \
  xfonts-terminus-oblique \
  xfonts-x3270-misc \
  xfonts-tipa \
  xfonts-unifont

# Font's that I'm pretty sure are only for Terminal
sudo apt-get install -y \
  xfonts-traditional \
  xfonts-base \
  xfonts-scalable \
  xfonts-100dpi \
  xfonts-100dpi-transcoded \
  xfonts-75dpi \
  xfonts-75dpi-transcoded \
  xfonts-biznet-100dpi \
  xfonts-biznet-75dpi \
  xfonts-biznet-base \

Note: If you're asked a question about switching your xterm fonts, you will probably want to answer no.

Installing fonts from your Mac

You'll need to have fondu, which can convert from .dfont to .tff installed.

sudo apt-get install -y fondu

On your Mac your fonts are located in /System/Library/Fonts/.

For .ttf fonts such as Thonburi.ttf and ThonburiBold.ttf, you should create a single folder with the lowercase name of the font such as thonburi/, then copy the matching fonts into that folder by hand and then move that folder to /usr/share/fonts/truetype/.

For .dfont fonts such as Helvetica.dfont you must use fondu to convert the font to .ttf.

Here's a some bash that will do that for you:

# go to the folder where the fonts are
pushd /path/to/fonts
# Example: pushd /media/UNTITLED/

ls | while read FONT
do
  if [ ! -n "`echo ${FONT} | grep '\.dfont'`" ]
  then
    # only handle .dfont files
    continue
  fi

  # copy the font into a folder of the same name (lowercase, minus .dfont)
  FOLDER=`basename ${FONT,,} .dfont`
  mkdir -p ${FOLDER}
  rsync -a ${FONT} ./${FOLDER}/
  pushd ${FOLDER}
  fondu -show ${FONT}
  popd

  # move that folder to the system fonts directory
  sudo mv ${FOLDER}/ /usr/share/fonts/truetype/
done

References

• http://code.google.com/p/googlefontdirectory/
• http://grasshopperpebbles.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-convert-mac-dfont-files-into-ttf-using-fondu/

Full list of fonts

The Latin Fonts

fonts-cmu - sets the computer modern unicode fonts

fonts-dustin - Various TrueType fonts from dustismo.com
fonts-larabie-deco - Decorative fonts from www.larabiefonts.com
fonts-larabie-straight - Straight fonts from www.larabiefonts.com
fonts-beteckna - geometric Futura-like sans-serif TrueType font
fonts-liberation - Fonts with the same metrics as Times, Arial and Courier
fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console - Ubuntu Font Family Linux console fonts, sans-serif monospace
fonts-sil-gentium - extended Unicode Latin font ("a typeface for the nations")
fonts-sil-gentium-basic - smart Unicode font families (Basic and Book Basic) based on Gentium
fonts-opensymbol - OpenSymbol TrueType font
fonts-breip - Informal handwriting font
fonts-johnsmith-induni - OTF fonts with exhaustive set of Roman characters
fonts-junicode - Unicode font for medievalists (Latin, IPA and Runic)
fonts-jura - monospaced, sans-serif font
fonts-konatu - TrueType Font originally for BeOS
fonts-levien-museum - metal Centaur fonts revival family
fonts-levien-typoscript - classic ATF Typo Script revival font
fonts-lindenhill - Regular and italic serif font
fonts-linex - Fonts suitable for education and institutional use
fonts-linuxlibertine - Linux Libertine family of fonts
fonts-okolaks - decorative, sans serif font
fonts-ocr-a - ANSI font readable by the computers of the 1960s
fonts-oldstandard - smart font with wide range of Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters
fonts-opendin - Open DIN font
fonts-pecita - OpenType hand-written font whose letters are connected
fonts-play - minimalistic sans serif typeface
fonts-prociono - font similar to the one used for the Debian logo
fonts-rufscript - handwriting-based font for Latin characters
fonts-tomsontalks - comic lettering font
fonts-vollkorn - serif body text type
fonts-yanone-kaffeesatz - Font in four weights
fonts-inconsolata - monospace font for pretty code listings and for the terminal
fonts-comfortaa - stylish, modern true type font
fonts-cantarell - sans serif font family designed for on-screen readability
fonts-droid - handheld device font with extensive style and language support
fonts-ecolier-court - cursive roman font with small descenders
fonts-ecolier-lignes-court - cursive roman font (with réglure Seyès and small descenders)
fonts-century-catalogue - century-style font revival
fonts-f500 - Wipeout 3 Font
fonts-fanwood - font similar to the Fairfield font
xfonts-nexus - Nexus font for X
xfonts-terminus - Fixed-width fonts for fast reading
xfonts-terminus-dos - Fixed-width fonts for DOS encodings
xfonts-terminus-oblique - Oblique version of the Terminus font
xfonts-x3270-misc - Font files for the x3270(1) IBM 3270 emulator
xfonts-tipa - X11 PostScript Type 1 font for the Phonetic Alphabet
xfonts-traditional - Traditional fixed-width fonts for X

xfonts-base - standard fonts for X
xfonts-scalable - scalable fonts for X
xfonts-100dpi - 100 dpi fonts for X
xfonts-100dpi-transcoded - 100 dpi fonts for X (transcoded from ISO 10646-1)
xfonts-75dpi - 75 dpi fonts for X
xfonts-75dpi-transcoded - 75 dpi fonts for X (transcoded from ISO 10646-1)
xfonts-biznet-100dpi - 100 dpi BIZNET ISO-8859-2 fonts for X servers
xfonts-biznet-75dpi - 75 dpi BIZNET ISO-8859-2 fonts for X servers
xfonts-biznet-base - Standard BIZNET ISO-8859-2 fonts for X servers
xfonts-unifont - PCF (bitmap) version of the GNU Unifont

Special Purpose

fonts-larabie-uncommon - Special decorative fonts from www.larabiefonts.com
xfonts-mathml - Type1 Symbol font for MathML
fonts-oflb-asana-math - extended smart Unicode Math font
fonts-oflb-euterpe - unicode musical font
fonts-mplus - M+ sans serif fonts with different weights
fonts-stix - Scientific and Technical Information eXchange fonts
fonts-sil-andika - extended smart Unicode Latin/Greek font family for literacy
fonts-sil-doulos - smart Unicode font for Latin and Cyrillic scripts
fonts-sil-galatia - font family for Latin-1 and Greek (polytonic support)
xfonts-intl-phonetic - International fonts for X -- Phonetic Alphabet
xfonts-encodings - Encodings for X.Org fonts
xfonts-kapl - APL fonts for A+ development

Cyrillic, Greek, Korean, Japanese, and other Multi-Lingual Script Fonts

Greek

fonts-mgopen - Magenta MgOpen TrueType fonts
fonts-gfs-artemisia - greek font (Times Greek-like)
fonts-gfs-baskerville - ancient Greek font revival
fonts-gfs-bodoni-classic - smart greek typeface revival
fonts-gfs-complutum - ancient Greek font revival from the University of Alcalá, Spain
fonts-gfs-didot - greek font family (Didot revival)
fonts-gfs-didot-classic - greek font family (Classic Didot revival)
fonts-gfs-gazis - ancient Greek font (Byzantine cursive hand style)
fonts-gfs-neohellenic - new Greek font family with matching Latin
fonts-gfs-olga - ancient Greek oblique font revival (companion to GFS Didot)
fonts-gfs-porson - Greek font (Porson revival)
fonts-gfs-solomos - ancient Greek oblique font
fonts-gfs-theokritos - decorative Greek font

Arabic

fonts-arabeyes - Arabeyes GPL TrueType Arabic fonts
fonts-kacst - KACST free TrueType Arabic fonts
fonts-kacst-one - TrueType font designed for Arabic language
fonts-sil-scheherazade - smart Unicode font for Arabic
fonts-hosny-amiri - Arabic Naskh style typographically oriented font
fonts-hosny-thabit - fixed width OpenType Arabic fonts
xfonts-intl-arabic - International fonts for X -- Arabic

Japanese

fonts-dejima-mincho - antique-looking Japanese TrueType Mincho font
fonts-takao-gothic - Japanese TrueType font set, Takao Gothic Fonts
fonts-takao-mincho - Japanese TrueType font set, Takao Mincho Fonts
fonts-takao-pgothic - Japanese TrueType font set, Takao P Gothic Fonts
fonts-ipafont-gothic - Japanese OpenType font set, IPA Gothic font
fonts-ipafont-mincho - Japanese OpenType font set, IPA Mincho font
fonts-vlgothic - Japanese TrueType font from Vine Linux
fonts-ipafont-nonfree-jisx0208 - Japanese TrueType font, IPAfont (JISX0208)
fonts-ipafont-nonfree-uigothic - Japanese TrueType font, IPAfont UI Gothic
fonts-mikachan - handwritten Japanese Truetype font
fonts-aoyagi-kouzan-t - Brush-style Japanese font
fonts-aoyagi-soseki - Brush-style Japanese font, Aoyagi-Soseki
fonts-hanazono - Japanese TrueType mincho font by KAGE system and FontForge
fonts-horai-umefont - Japanese TrueType font, Ume-font
fonts-ipaexfont - Japanese OpenType font, IPAexFont (IPAexGothic/Mincho)
fonts-ipaexfont-gothic - Japanese OpenType font, IPAexFont (IPAexGothic)
fonts-ipaexfont-mincho - Japanese OpenType font, IPAexFont (IPAexMincho)
fonts-ipafont - Japanese OpenType font set, IPAfont
fonts-ipamj-mincho - Japanese OpenType font, IPAmj Mincho font
fonts-kouzan-mouhitsu - Brush-style Japanese font, Kouzan-Mouhitsu
fonts-misaki - Japanese Gothic and Mincho font from "Misaki" bitmap font
fonts-monapo - Japanese TrueType font, Monapo
fonts-motoya-l-cedar - Japanese Truetype font, Motoya L Cedar
fonts-motoya-l-maruberi - Japanese Truetype font, Motoya L Maruberi
fonts-kiloji - Japanese Truetype font like longhand made by "kilo"
fonts-sawarabi-gothic - gothic font for Japanese
fonts-sawarabi-mincho - Japanese mincho font - Sawarabi Mincho font
fonts-takao - Japanese TrueType font set, Takao Fonts
fonts-umeplus - Japanese TrueType gothic fonts, based on Umefont and M+Font
fonts-yozvox-yozfont - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font
fonts-yozvox-yozfont-antique - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font (antique kana)
fonts-yozvox-yozfont-cute - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font (cute kana)
fonts-yozvox-yozfont-edu - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font (educational cana)
fonts-yozvox-yozfont-new-kana - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font (new kana)
fonts-yozvox-yozfont-standard-kana - Japanese proportional Handwriting OpenType font (standard kana)
xfonts-intl-japanese - International fonts for X -- Japanese
xfonts-intl-japanese-big - International fonts for X -- Japanese big
xfonts-jisx0213 - JIS X 0213 Japanese Kanji bitmap fonts for X
xfonts-kaname - Kaname Cho 12 dot Japanese Kanji, Latin 1 fonts for X11
xfonts-kappa20 - X11 Kappa 20dot Fonts (ISO-8859-1..4/9/10/13..16, Japanese) with bold
xfonts-mplus - M+ bitmap 10/12 dot Latin/Japanese fonts for X11
xfonts-shinonome - Various 12,14,16 dot Japanese Kanji, iso8859-1 fonts for X11
xfonts-naga10 - 10x10 dot Japanese and ISO-8859-1 naga10 fonts
xfonts-ayu - Gothic 18/20 dot Japanese and ISO-8859-1 X11 bitmap fonts

Chinese

fonts-arphic-bkai00mp - "AR PL KaitiM Big5" Chinese TrueType font by Arphic Technology
fonts-arphic-bsmi00lp - "AR PL Mingti2L Big5" Chinese TrueType font by Arphic Technology
fonts-arphic-gbsn00lp - "AR PL SungtiL GB" Chinese TrueType font by Arphic Technology
fonts-arphic-gkai00mp - "AR PL KaitiM GB" Chinese TrueType font by Arphic Technology
fonts-arphic-ukai - "AR PL UKai" Chinese Unicode TrueType font collection Kaiti style
fonts-arphic-uming - "AR PL UMing" Chinese Unicode TrueType font collection Mingti style
fonts-cns11643-kai - Chinese TrueType font, TW-Kai (non-free)
fonts-cns11643-sung - Chinese TrueType font, TW-Sung (non-free)
xfonts-intl-chinese - International fonts for X -- Chinese
xfonts-intl-chinese-big - International fonts for X -- Chinese big

Korean

fonts-nanum - Nanum Korean fonts
fonts-nanum-coding - Nanum Coding fixed width Korean TrueType font
fonts-nanum-extra - Additional Nanum Korean fonts
fonts-unfonts-core - Un series Korean TrueType fonts
fonts-baekmuk - Baekmuk series Korean fonts
fonts-nanum-eco - Nanum Eco Korean font
fonts-nanum-gothic-light - Nanum Gothic Light Korean font
fonts-unfonts-extra - Un series Korean TrueType fonts (extra)
xfonts-baekmuk - Baekmuk Korean fonts for X

Thai

fonts-tibetan-machine - font for Tibetan, Dzongkha and Ladakhi (OpenType Unicode)
fonts-thai-tlwg - Thai fonts maintained by TLWG (meta package)
fonts-tlwg-garuda - Thai Garuda font
fonts-tlwg-kinnari - Thai Kinnari font
fonts-tlwg-loma - Thai Loma font
fonts-tlwg-mono - Thai TlwgMono font
fonts-tlwg-norasi - Thai Norasi font
fonts-tlwg-purisa - Thai Purisa font
fonts-tlwg-sawasdee - Thai Sawasdee font
fonts-tlwg-typewriter - Thai TlwgTypewriter font
fonts-tlwg-typist - Thai TlwgTypist font
fonts-tlwg-typo - Thai TlwgTypo font
fonts-tlwg-umpush - Thai Umpush font
fonts-tlwg-waree - Thai Waree font
xfonts-thai - Collection of Thai fonts for X (metapackage)
xfonts-thai-etl - Thai etl fonts for X
xfonts-thai-manop - Dr.Manop Wongsaisuwan's bitmap fonts for X
xfonts-thai-nectec - Thai fixed fonts for X from Nectec
xfonts-thai-poonlap - Poonlap Veerathanabutr bitmap fonts for X
xfonts-thai-vor - Voradesh Yenbut bitmap fonts for X

Misc Unsorted

fonts-dzongkha - TrueType fonts for Dzongkha language
fonts-farsiweb - free TrueType fonts for Persian language
fonts-khmeros - KhmerOS Unicode fonts for the Khmer language of Cambodia
fonts-khmeros-core - KhmerOS Unicode fonts for the Khmer language of Cambodia
fonts-lao - TrueType font for Lao language
fonts-manchufont - Smart OpenType font for Manchu script
fonts-nafees - nafees free OpenType Urdu fonts
fonts-sil-abyssinica - smart Unicode font for Ethiopian and Erythrean scripts (Amharic et al.)
fonts-sil-ezra - smart Unicode font for Hebrew
fonts-sil-padauk - smart Unicode font for languages in Myanmar
fonts-bpg-georgian - BPG Georgian fonts
fonts-cwtex-docs - TrueType Font from cwTeX - example documents
fonts-cwtex-fs - TrueType Font from cwTeX - FangSong
fonts-cwtex-heib - TrueType Font from cwTeX - HeiBold
fonts-cwtex-kai - TrueType Font from cwTeX - Kai
fonts-cwtex-ming - TrueType Font from cwTeX - Ming
fonts-cwtex-yen - TrueType Font from cwTeX - Yen
fonts-evertype-conakry - smart Graphite font for N'Ko
fonts-freefarsi - FreeFarsi TrueType Persian fonts
fonts-gubbi - Gubbi Kannada font
fonts-kanjistrokeorders - font to view stroke order diagrams for Kanji, Kana and etc
fonts-komatuna - modified Konatu and M+fonts, Komatuna
fonts-lg-aboriginal - unicode fonts for North-American Aboriginal languages
fonts-lklug-sinhala - Unicode Sinhala font by Lanka Linux User Group
fonts-mph-2b-damase - font with character ranges from Unicode 4.1
fonts-navilu - Handwriting font for Kannada
fonts-pagul - Free TrueType font for the Sourashtra language
fonts-senamirmir-washra - collection of unicode fonts for the Ethiopic script
fonts-sil-charis - smart Unicode font family for Roman or Cyrillic-based writing systems
fonts-sil-dai-banna - smart Unicode font for Dai Banna (Xishuangbanna Dai)
fonts-sil-nuosusil - Unicode font for Yi (a script used in southwestern China)
fonts-sil-sophia-nubian - smart Unicode font family for Nubian languages using Coptic
fonts-sil-zaghawa-beria - font for Zaghawa Beria (script used in western Sudan and eastern Chad)
fonts-sipa-arundina - Thai DejaVu-compatible fonts
fonts-ukij-uyghur - fonts for Uyghur language
fonts-unikurdweb - Unikurd Web free Kurdish font
fonts-uralic - Truetype fonts for Cyrillic-based Uralic languages


xfonts-bitmap-mule - fonts of BITMAP-MULE for X
xfonts-a12k12 - 12-dot Kanji & ASCII fonts for X
xfonts-efont-unicode - /efont/ Unicode fonts for X which cover various scripts
xfonts-efont-unicode-ib - /efont/ Unicode fonts for X (italic and bold)
xfonts-intl-asian - International fonts for X -- Asian
xfonts-intl-european - International fonts for X -- European
xfonts-jmk - James M. Knoble's character-cell fonts for X
xfonts-marumoji - Roundish fonts (marumoji fonts) for X
xfonts-wqy - WenQuanYi Bitmap Song CJK font for X

Misc Cyrillic

xfonts-bolkhov-75dpi - 75 dpi Unicode Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-cp1251-75dpi - 75 dpi CP1251 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-cp1251-misc - Character-cell CP1251 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-isocyr-75dpi - 75 dpi ISO 8859-5 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-isocyr-misc - Character-cell ISO-8859-5 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-koi8r-75dpi - 75 dpi KOI8-R encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-koi8r-misc - Character-cell KOI8-R encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-koi8u-75dpi - 75 dpi KOI8-U encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-koi8u-misc - Character-cell KOI8-U encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-bolkhov-misc - Character-cell Unicode Cyrillic fonts for X (Cyr-RFX collection)
xfonts-cronyx-100dpi - 100 dpi Unicode Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-75dpi - 75 dpi Unicode Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-cp1251-100dpi - 100 dpi CP1251 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-cp1251-75dpi - 75 dpi CP1251 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-cp1251-misc - Character-cell CP1251 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-isocyr-100dpi - 100 dpi ISO 8859-5 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-isocyr-75dpi - 75 dpi ISO 8859-5 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-isocyr-misc - Character-cell ISO-8859-5 encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8r-100dpi - 100 dpi KOI8-R encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8r-75dpi - 75 dpi KOI8-R encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8r-misc - Character-cell KOI8-R encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8u-100dpi - 100 dpi KOI8-U encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8u-75dpi - 75 dpi KOI8-U encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-koi8u-misc - Character-cell KOI8-U encoded Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cronyx-misc - Character-cell Unicode Cyrillic fonts for X (Cronyx collection)
xfonts-cyrillic - Cyrillic fonts for X

By AJ ONeal


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