GNOME Font Viewer

GNOME Font Viewer is available by default on all major Linux distributions using GNOME Shell or other GNOME based desktop environments. It allows you to view all fonts installed on your system and browse their properties. It can also be used to install system wide custom fonts.

To install a custom font using GNOME Font Viewer, right click on a “.ttf” or “.otf” file and click on “Open With Fonts” menu entry.

Click on the “Install” button on the top header bar to install the font. GNOME Font Viewer may take a few seconds to install the font and refresh the font cache, so wait for the process to finish.

Once installed, you can use system settings to select a new font or use an app like “GNOME Tweaks” to switch system wide fonts. Installed font will also be available to other system and third party apps.

You can install GNOME Font Viewer in Ubuntu using the command specified below:

GNOME Font Viewer is also available as a Flatpak package that can be installed on all major Linux distributions.

Font Manager

Font Manager, as the name suggests, is a tool for managing and installing custom fonts on Linux. You can use it to preview, enable, disable and compare system wide fonts. It features a multi-pane and tabbed layout that nicely categorizes fonts and their properties under various headings. It also provides a way to directly download fonts from Google Fonts website. Unlike GNOME Font Viewer, Font Manager allows you to directly change system wide fonts from the app itself, so you don’t need any other third party app to switch fonts. It also includes numerous options to customize look and feel of fonts and you can use it to tweak hinting and anti aliasing of fonts.

To install a new font using Font Manager, just click on the “+” (plus) icon on the top header bar.

You can install Font Manager in Ubuntu using the command specified below:

Font Manager is also available as a Flatpak package that can be installed on all major Linux distributions.

Font Finder

Font Finder is a frontend application for Google Fonts repository available online. Written in Rust and GTK3, it allows you to directly preview, browse, and install fonts from Google Fonts website. It also features some options to sort and filter results and an optional dark theme to preview fonts.

Font Finder is available as a Flatpak package. To install it in Ubuntu, use the following commands in succession:

You can install Font Finder in other other Linux distributions from its Flathub store listing available here.

Command Line Method

To install custom fonts using the command line interface, you will need to copy font files to certain directories. If you want to install fonts for all users, copy font files to the following directory (root access is required):

If you want to install fonts for current user only, use the following location instead (create folder if it doesn’t exist):

Once the font files are copied to these locations, you need to refresh system wide font cache to complete the installation. To do so, run the following command:

Alternatively, you can just reboot the system to refresh the font cache.

You can also create subdirectories in the two locations mentioned above and add fonts to these folders to neatly categorize them. Font cache will automatically pick them once you refresh it.

Conclusion

It is pretty straightforward to install custom fonts in Ubuntu and other major Linux distributions as both graphical apps and command line methods are available. Custom fonts can be used in a number of different ways and they are especially useful for artists, designers, programmers and writers.

Configuring the fonts on Arch Linux can assist you in the better display of your desktop. You can customize your font as per your preference if you are using Arch Linux. Indeed, the default fonts of Arch Linux are not that plain. But, if you want to make it more attractive and colorful, then go for the customize fonts. Programmers using the desktop environment of Arch Linux can comprehend the concept of setting variant fonts in their respective systems. Arch Linux itself is a tricky operating system, so using plan font can dull the mood.  If you are looking at the user interface of Arch Linux for the fonts, then you won’t find them vibrant and alluring. That’s why the trend of setting customize fonts is voguish among programmers. This guide covers the configuration of fonts on the desktop environment. It shares the embracive details for the desktop environment of GNOME and KDE plasma.

Fonts customization

There are two primary categories of the desktop environment, in which you can enjoy versatile fonts on Arch Linux. These two classes encompass:

• Category#1 Configuring fonts on GNOME
• Category#2 Configuring fonts on KDE

In both categories, we will opt for the approach respective to the structure of the desktop environment. The customization of fonts on GNOME may require some simple coding, But the desktop environment of KDE is solely a graphical user interface. It means you don’t need to put in some commands to customize your fonts on KDE5.

Configuring fonts on GNOME

We are discussing the desktop environment of GNOME 3 in this category. It requires the assistance of some tools to customize the desktop fonts in GNOME 3. The tool we are using is prevalent with the name of GNOME Tweak. It is conventionally a software that is the most befitting for the configuration of GNOME desktop environment 3. It constitutes enormous tweaks that feature various functions on GNOME 3. This tool is available on the official depository of Arch Linux, and you can install it from there. Input the sudo command for updating the system packages.

-S will sync the packages to check for updates, and -y here is to refresh the system. This way, the repository of the Pacman will upgrade. Now, you can conveniently install the GNOME tweak tool using sudo command and Pacman for the configuration of fonts.

Click on Y to say yes and then enter and the tool will be installed on the system. You can select the options in the settings to configure the fonts. Go to the application menu of your GNOME 3 and search for a tweak tool in the bar. Select the icon of tweak that will lead to the activities of this tool. It contains all the tweaks that you might need for your desktop environment. Go to the category of fonts. The screen will show you all the possible sectors that can undergo font changes. In the font section, you will see window title, interface, hinting, scaling factor, and antialiasing. You can select the hinting category that contains the option of full, medium, slight, and none. You can set the scaling category through plus and minus icon.

Antialiasing offers you the classes of subpixels, standard, and none. There will be options for variant fonts in front of the first four categories starting from window title and ending at monospace. Use a comparatively larger font for the interface. The changes usually get save in the UI file. That’s all, your fonts have configured on the Arch Linux successfully.

Configuring fonts on KDE

It is comparatively easy to configure the customize font on KDE5 as compare to GNOME. The desktop environment of KDE doesn’t require any tool, and you can change it from the settings. Select system settings from the search bar. The output screen will show you some chief divisions. Select the font in the section of appearance. You can promptly configure your fonts on the desktop environment of KDE5 from there. The foremost groupings are “fix window, fix general, menu, small, window title, and toolbar”.  Once you select the option of “choose” for window title, it will lead you to the window of fonts and sizes. It not only offers various fonts but also proposes the setting for writing style and effects. The segment of writing style can assist you in choosing a language other than English. The effects further have the option for a strikeout and underline. The preview represents your selected categories of the font. Click on the ok button, and you will arrive back to the former screen. Now, apply the changes and again press ok. Lastly, if you want to alter the antialiasing, then click on the preferred option. That’s all you need to do; you have configured the fonts on KDE5 effectively.

Conclusion

Configuring the fonts on your Arch Linux is a good thing. You can experience the change on your desktop, and it can positively affect your mood. Unlike the actual composition of Arch Linux, configuring fonts on it is rather easy. It doesn’t take that much time. Now, you can change the fonts on your Linux without any issue. Although GNOME 3 requires more time because of the installation of its respective tool. But, in the end, it’s worth it. If nothing more, you can at least explore the Arch system by customizing the fonts of your desktop environment. The focus of this guide is on the desktop environment of GNOME 3 and KDE5 because they are popular in the market. Almost all the programmers who use desktop environments opt for GNOME and KDE. By following this guide, you can ace in the configuration of fonts.

Installing FontForge in Linux

To install FontForge in Ubuntu, run the command below:

FontForge standalone AppImage executable and packages for other Linux distributions are available here.

There are two methods that you can use to merge any two fonts using FontForge. You can merge fonts either using FontForge GUI or you can use a custom script that can be run in a terminal. Both these methods are explained below.

Some Tips for Selecting Fonts

To ensure maximum compatibility and readability while merging two fonts, it is important that you select two fonts with similar design style. You should also avoid merging serif and sans-serif fonts unless necessary. Make sure that two fonts have the same weights. If you are using paid proprietary fonts, double check the license. Some proprietary fonts are restrictive and may not allow commercial usage of merged fonts. Open source fonts are quite permissive, but even then, make sure to check their licenses to avoid issues.

Merge Fonts Using a FontForge Script

Create a new file named “mergefonts.sh” and paste the following code in it:

The code is pretty straight forward. The “$1” argument is for your primary font while the “$2” argument is for your secondary font. Fonts are first scaled to a uniform size and then merged to generate a new font. If you do not scale them to a common size, you may get uneven text rendering from the final merged font.

To check the size of a font in “em” units, run the command below (replace “font.ttf” with name of your own font file):

You will get some output like this:

Change “ScaleToEm(1024)” lines in the script above with your desired value. You can also edit the script and put an extra “$3” argument to specify the size value from the command line.

Now to merge the two fonts, specify fonts as arguments while running “mergefonts.sh” script. The order of these arguments is important as the font specified as the second argument ($2) will be merged into the font specified as first argument ($1). The first argument should be of your main font that you intend to use in your project. Put the “mergefonts.sh” script and two fonts in a folder, launch a new terminal window from the folder and run the following command to merge the fonts:

After running the script, you will find the new merged font as “my_custom_font.ttf” in the working directory. You may see some warnings and errors in the terminal after running the command above. These errors won’t stop the merging process of the fonts. If they are simple warnings, you can ignore them. However, if there are conflicts and errors during the merging process, you may need to review them and fix them individually by manually modifying the glyphs in FontForge GUI app. It totally depends on the kind of fonts you choose for merging and you may not get any errors at all.

Note that the very first line in the script is the location of the FontForge binary as shebang. This allows you to directly run the script in the terminal without having to manually specify the FontForge command in the terminal. To check the location of FontForge binary in your system, run the command below:

Alternatively, you can run any FontForge script using the “-script” argument.

GUI Method

Launch FontForge app from application launcher and select your primary font from the file picker. Click on “Element” > “Font Info…” menu on top.

Go to the “General” tab and scale the font as per your requirement. The two fonts should be scaled to the same size to avoid issues (as explained earlier).

Next, click on “Element” > “Merge Fonts…” dropdown menu and pick your secondary font from the file picker. This font will be merged into the base font file that you opened first while launching the FontForge app. If you are presented with a dialog to choose kerning (spacing), select “No” to keep kerning from the base font file.

Finally, click on “File” > “Generate Fonts..” menu option to export your merged font.

Conclusion

FontForge is one of the most widely used, free, and open source font editing software. It includes hundreds of options to edit fonts and comes with a powerful scripting system. It is recommended that you manually review characters in the merged font after completing the merge process to ensure that the end result is according to your requirements.

Getting your favorite fonts

Before you install a font, you have to get them first. There are a number of sources for getting cool and brilliant fonts. There are tons of available source but I like Google Fonts the most. Feel free to grab all your font(s) you like from anywhere you like.

Collected all your favorite fonts? Good! Time to install them in your system!

Installing fonts

I’ll be using Thunar file manager for this purpose as it’s more advanced and offers better control over your actions. Run the following commands –

Grab all your font files (TTF/OTF files) and combine them in one place.

Select all and copy the fonts.

Now, navigate to “/home/<username>”.

Press “Ctrl + H” to enable showing hidden file(s)/folder(s).

Create a new folder “.fonts”.

Paste all the fonts into the folder.

Rebuild system font cache.

Restart your system to make sure that all the apps know about the fonts.

Ensuring font integration with the system

Font installation is complete, time to check things out. Start LibreOffice Writer.

All the fonts are installed successfully!

Enjoy!

On GNOME 3 desktop environment, you can use GNOME Tweak Tool to change the default fonts of Arch Linux. On KDE 5 plasma desktop environment, you can use the System Settings app to change the default fonts on Arch Linux.

In this article, I will show you how to customize Fonts of Arch Linux on GNOME 3 desktop environment and KDE 5 desktop environment. Let’s get started.

Customizing Fonts on GNOME 3 Desktop Environment

Like I said, you can use GNOME Tweak Tool to change the font of GNOME 3 desktop environment.

GNOME Tweak Tool may not be installed by default on your Arch Linux machine. But it is available in the official package repository of Arch Linux.

Before you install GNOME Tweak Tool, update the pacman package repository cache with the following command:

The pacman package repository cache should be updated.

Now install GNOME Tweak Tool with the following command:

Now press y and then press <Enter>.

GNOME Tweak Tool should be installed.

Now go to the Application Menu and search for GNOME Tweak Tool. You should see a Tweaks icon as marked in the screenshot below. Click on it.

GNOME Tweak Tool should start as you can see in the screenshot below.

Now go to the Fonts section and you should see the following options as you can see in the screenshot below.

From here you can change the default Window Title font, the Interface font, Document font and Monospace font.

You can also configure Antialiasing for fonts and fonts Scaling Factor for HiDPi monitors.

To change the Scaling Factor, click on the Scaling Factor text box and type in a value and press <Enter>. The changes should be applied. You can also press the + or – button to increase or decrease the Scaling Factor respectively. You can also press the <Up> or <Down> arrow keys of your keyboard or scroll the mouse wheel to change the Scaling Factor.

You can change the Hinting and Antialiasing options as marked in the screenshot below to configure the smoothness of the fonts of your Arch Linux machine.

To change Window Title font, Interface font, Document font and Monospace font, click on the buttons as marked in the screenshot below.

A fonts picker window should show up as you can see in the marked section of the screenshot below.

Select any font you want from the font picker, change the font size if you want and once you are happy, click on the Select button as marked in the screenshot below.

Your desired font should be applied.

Changed font in the File Manager UI:

Customizing Fonts on KDE 5 Plasma Desktop Environment

On KDE 5 plasma desktop environment, the fonts can be customized using the System Settings app.

From the KDE menu, search for settings, and click on the System Settings app as marked in the screenshot below.

System Settings app should be opened as you can see in the screenshot below.

Now click on the Fonts tab and you should see the following window as shown in the screenshot below.

From here you can configure many default fonts on the KDE 5 plasma desktop environment. You can also configure Anti-aliasing for smoothing fonts from here.

To change the Window title font, you can click on the Choose… button as marked in the screenshot below.

A font picker should open up as marked in the screenshot below.

From here you can choose a font from the marked section of the screenshot below.

You can also set a font style and font size from the marked section of the screenshot below.

You can also set strikeout or underline effects from the marked section of the screenshot below.

If you’re using languages other than English and it has different writing system, such as Arabic, you can change it from the marked section of the screenshot below.

You will get a preview of how your selected font will look in the preview section as marked in the screenshot below.

Once you’re satisfied, click on OK as marked in the screenshot below.

Then click on Apply, the changes should be applied.

Click on OK if you see the following dialog window.

As you can see, the Window title font is changed.

The same way you can change General, Fixed width, small, Toolbar and Menu fonts.

To change the Anti-aliasing effect, click on the Anti-aliasing dropdown menu and choose any of the options as marked in the screenshot below.

That’s how you customize fonts on Arch Linux. Thanks for reading this article.

New Ubuntu users are generally not familiar with Ubuntu default font family, so today we are going to have a look at best 20 fonts for Ubuntu which can be useful for any Ubuntu user.

Before we get started with the list of fonts I would like to recommend you to install Font Manager which will help you install and delete fonts easily. To install Font Manager on Ubuntu run command given below in Terminal.

The Font Manager will ease the process of font installation on Ubuntu. Also using this application you can manage all fonts on Ubuntu.

To install following fonts on Ubuntu just download the files from the link provided and extract them using Font Manager. That’s it you are done with font manager. See video below to see how to update fonts in Ubuntu.

1. Source Code Pro

Source Code Pro is an open-source font which was developed for Adobe Systems by Paul D. Hunt. This font can be useful in Terminal Emulator because it features commonly used programming symbols which are easily readable.

Source Code Pro

2. Hack

Hack is a free web font which can be used on Ubuntu for various purposes. It is a derivative of Bitstream and DejaVu sets that includes new shapes and adjustments to typeface.

Hack

3. DejaVu Sans Mono

DejaVu Sans Mono is a slight design update to Bitstream Vera Forms and with more style options. Its purpose is to provide a wider range of characters while maintaining a original look.

DejaVu Sans Mono

4. Fira Code

Fira Code is Monospaced font with programming ligatures and it is very good font for programming and code reading.

Fira Code

5. Roboto Mono

Roboto Mono is a monospaced font which is optimized for readability on screen across a wide variety of devices and reading environments. This font family is specially designed for reading and the writing application source code.

Roboto Mono

6.Code New Roman

Code New Roman is another font on our list which can be used in programming languages and it is licensed under the SIL Open Font License which makes it completely free to use personally and professionally. This font looks neat and clean and is comfortable to use for long time on screen.

Code New Roman

7. Bitstream Vera Sans Mono

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is a font family designed by Jim Lyles it is a True Type font with full hinting instructions, which improve its rendering quality on low resolution devices such as computer monitors.

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono

8. Open Sans

Open Sans is a sans serif font family designed by Steve Matteson and belongs to the humanist genre of sans serif typefaces, with a true italic. This font is used in some of Google’s web pages as well its print and web advertisement.

Open Sans

9. Inconsolata-g

Inconsolata-g is an open-source typeface released under the Open Font License of SIL and it is designed by Raph Levien’s. This font is nearly similar to Sans Mono fonts.

Inconsolata-g

10. Acme

Acme is a condensed display typeface designed to be used in headlines, and has a particular and groovy rhythm.  This font is carefully designed to work well on all devices.

Acme

11. Noto Mono

Noto Mono fonts belongs to the font family comprising over a hundred individual fonts, which are together designed to cover all the scripts encoded in the Unicode standard. It is developed by Google and licensed under SIL Open Font License.

Noto Mono

12. Prociono

Prociono is an opentype font designed by Barry Schwartz. The font is designed in such a way that you can use it in headlines for product documentation or for some other work.

Prociono

13. Fantasque Sans Mono

Fantasque Sans Mono font family is specially designed for programming environment which can be used in Terminal Emulator for developing software.

Fantasque Sans Mono

14. Gugi

Gugi is a Korean and Latin font designed by David Shapira. This font is easily readable on various devices and reading environments. It has neat and clean design so that it can be used for any type of work.

Gugi

15. Source Sans Pro

Source Sans Pro is first open-source typeface from Adobe family which is created by Paul D. Hunt. It is sans serif typeface and licensed under SIL Open Font license.

Source Sans Pro

16. Do Hyeon

Do Hyeon is open-source Korean and Latin font that brought us nicely crafted fonts like BM Jua and BM Hanna. This font can be used for various purposes personally and professionally.

Do Hyeon

17. Gaegu

Gaegu is another Korean and Latin font on our list which is highly readable on diffent devices and reading environments. This font is design in such a way that it can be used for any purpose especially for headlines.

Gaegu

18. PT Sans Narrow

PT Sans Narrow was developed for the project “Public Types of Russian Federation” and it is distributed under Libre license. The font family consists of 8 styles: 4 basic styles, 2 captions styles for small sizes and 2 narrows styles for economic type setting.

PT Sans Narrow

19. IBM Plex Mono

IBM Plex Mono is an open-source         project developed by IBM brand and experience team and created by Mike Abbink. The font family also includes Sans, Sans condensed, Mono and Serif which can be used for various purpose.

IBM Plex Mono

20. Jua

Jua is a Korean and Latin font which is stylish font and can be used for headlines and many other purposes. This is retro typeface inspired by brush script.

Jua

So, these are the best 20 fonts for Ubuntu as of April 2018. If you have used any of these or any other fonts then share your views for the same @UbuntuHint.

This guide shows you how to download and install fonts in Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla. There are two methods that you can use to install fonts in Ubuntu:

• Using the font manager
• Using the terminal

Before installing a font, you will need to obtain the font from an online source. There are various free sources to search for and download fonts; for example, dafont.com or 1001freedonts.com. Search for any font you would like and download the font file. The downloaded file will probably be a zipped file. After you unzip the font file, you will get two types of font files:

• OTF (OpenType Font)
• TTF (TrueType font)

OTF and TTF are the font file extensions. OTF is more advanced due to additional features.

Method 1: Install Font Using Font Manager

The simplest way to install a font on your Ubuntu system is through the font manager. If you followed the step above correctly, you have already downloaded the font file. If the font file is a zipped file, then unzip it first before proceeding. Next, right-click on any of the “font_name.ttf” or “font_name.otf” files, or simply double-click on the file. I am using the “Bebas” font, so the filenames for this font would be “Bebas.ttf” and “Bebas.otf.” A window for the font manager will open when you click on the file, as shown below:

To install the font onto your system, simply click the green install button located at the top-right corner of the screen. The font will be installed in the “~/.local/share/fonts” directory. Since the font file will be installed in the “~/.local/share/fonts” directory, this font will only be available for the user who installed it. After installation, the button will turn grey and the button text will change to “Installed,” as you can see in the following image:

To verify font installation use any text document application or launch terminal, change directory to “~/.local/share/fonts.” To list the items in the directory, use the “ls” command. You can see the installed fonts in the image below.

Method 2: Install Font Using Terminal

For those who prefer to install files manually via the command-line, this second method for installing fonts should be easy and simple. All you need to do is copy the downloaded font file, either the TTF or OTF file, to the “~/.local/share/fonts” directory using the “cp” command.

Open the terminal and, using the “cd” command, navigate to the directory to which the font has been downloaded. In my case, the font file is in the “Downloads” folder. For manual installation, I am using the “berlin_sans” font.

Next, unzip the font file using the “unzip” command.

The files from the zipped folder will extract in the same “/Downloads” directory. Now, copy the font to the “~/.local/share/fonts” directory using the “cp” command:

You can verify the installed font using any text editing software or by issuing the “ls” command in the “/.local/share/fonts” directory:

Installing Fonts for All Users

In the above examples, the fonts that we installed could only be used by the user who installed them. Now, we will install a font so that it can be accessed by all users. The process for this method is not unlike the methods previously described. All you need to do is change the directory from “~/.local/share/fonts” to “/usr/local/share/fonts.” To differentiate from other examples, I am using the “Gila” font.

First, change the current directory to the directory where the font file is present. My font files will be downloaded to the “Downloads” directory, as shown below. Next, unzip the font file in a folder using the following command:

The font files will be extracted to the destination folder “GilaFont.” Now, to install the font type, issue the following command:

You can verify the font installation by changing the directory to “/usr/local/share/fonts” and then list using the “ls” command, as shown in the above image.

Similarly, font availability can also be verified using any text editing application, as shown above.