Add Linux fonts

Can’t I use an app?

For some reason, no, or maybe.

I’ve read talk about Gnone’s ‘gnome‐font‐viewer’ modifying fonts. Well, I’ve never seen any such function. If you click on a font file directly, Gnome may offer an install option. As for KDE, I understand there is an app ‘KFontview’—though I hear also that KDE has builtin ‘Font Management’ code.

Storage locations

Likely,

~/.local/share/fonts

Where are these locations?

Probably find the list of directories in, or near,

/etc/fonts/fonts.conf

Get font

If you don’t have a font, may come from for example, Google Fonts, or Fontsquirrel, or with some sofware data. If the font is packaged like the Debian ‘larabie’ fonts, well, the packaging should install the font for you.

Be aware that,

fonts usually come in a zipped/compressed folder

which will need expansion

fonts often come in multiple variants

e.g. reworking for variants like ‘Bold’, or the modern ‘Variant’ container (which can handle several variants such as ‘Bold’ ‘Compressed. ‘Italic’ etc.). Need to install all files you want to use

what’s available is not the story

Good fonts cost money

too many fonts make work unmanageable

If you want to carry all your layout work with you when you upgrade computer, you’ll need to install the fonts again.

too many fonts slows font handling programs

For example, I think LibreOffice loads or checks every font before it loads. This is so it can offer you previews as you work. Same may apply to image editing programs like GIMP and Inkscape

Put font files in a targeted directory

Likely,

/.fonts

or even more likely,

/.local/share/fonts

Update cache

fc-cache -fv

…or target some directory,

fc-cache -fv /usr/share/fonts

where,

‐f

force

‐v

verbose

Simple list of fonts

fc-list

Done.