Install Microsoft TrueType Fonts in Fedora and Ubuntu

When it comes to typography, Microsoft TrueType fonts are both visually appealing and aesthetically pleasing. They’re found all over the web, usually specified in stylesheets. Unfortunately for Linux users, the most common TTFs aren’t installed (by default, that is). Instead, they are replaced by generic equivalents. With these font packages installed, you will see websites as the designer intended.

The Microsoft TrueType fonts package includes:

  • Andale Mono
  • Arial Black
  • Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Comic Sans MS (Bold)
  • Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Impact
  • Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Webdings

Installing MS TrueType fonts in Ubuntu

You can install the MS core fonts by installing the msttcorefonts package. You will need to enable the “Universe” component of the repositories (done by default in Feisty & Hardy). After that, run the following from the command line:

$sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

While this gives you the core fonts, it also gives you the ability to install any other font by simply copying the .TTF to the ~/.fonts/ directory.

When installing new fonts, you’ll need to re-login to be able to see & use them. Optionally, this step can be bypassed by regenerating the fonts cache with:

$sudo fc-cache -fv

Installing MS TrueType fonts in Fedora

Yep, a few extra steps in Fedora, but still a cinch. From the shell:

cd /tmp
wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
yum install rpm-build cabextract
rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
yum localinstall –nogpgcheck \
/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

That should do it. Reinitialize the font cache, re-login or reboot and have another look at this site (with Georgia).



6 Comments so far

  1. [...] Their linux package is called msttcorefonts, but is not available in Fedora 8. You either need to build it or use package from over here (not tested, I was just looking for the [...]

  2. Chris @ October 8th, 2008

    Thanks I can confirm it work on my aspire one after a reboot.

    I had to change the –nogpgcheck to –nogpgcheck to get the last 2 statements to work however

  3. Chris @ October 8th, 2008

    Thanks I can confirm it work on my aspire one after a reboot.

    I had to change the –nogpgcheck to –nogpgcheck to get the last 2 statements to work however

  4. iceolate @ January 28th, 2009

    For anyone that’s interested, it’s available in the FreeBSD ports under

    /usr/ports/x11-fonts/webfonts

  5. Sergio @ June 11th, 2009

    I have followed the instructions and successfully installed the fonts in my Acer Aspire One netbook.

    The last command, however, requires a previous tweaking. First you have to open the yum configuration file as root:

    sudo mousepad /etc/yum.conf

    Then change the line containing “gpgcheck=1″ replacing the 1 by a 0 (zero). Save file.

    Now you can proceed to the last command. By the way, the command you have to type to update the font cache is

    sudo fc-cache -f -v

    That should be enough!

  6. Sergio @ June 11th, 2009

    Sorry, I forgot to remind you to undo the change in the yum configuration file once you have your fonts installed (i.e, restore the 1 in the gpgcheck line).

Leave a reply

Add this site to your Firefox Search Bar

Twitter Updates


First blue moon on NYE in almost 20 years:

Follow Ben on Twitter

Recent Entries

Categories

Archives

This site is optimized for Firefox.