How to install custom fonts in Linux

Installing custom fonts in Linux improves visual consistency across desktops, documents, and design tools, especially in environments that rely on specific branding or typography. Dedicated font files avoid repeatedly embedding fonts at the document level and provide a shared pool of typefaces for office suites, editors, and graphic applications.

Most modern desktops rely on fontconfig to discover and index fonts from predefined directories, then expose them to toolkits such as GTK and Qt. Local font directories under the home folder affect only a single account, while shared directories under /usr/share/fonts provide fonts for every user on the system.

Choosing between local and system-wide installation influences required permissions, backup strategy, and potential side effects. Local installation avoids administrative access and limits misconfiguration to a single profile, whereas system-wide changes require root privileges and can affect login screens or other system components. The procedures below assume a generic Linux system with fontconfig available and rely on rebuilding the font cache after copying new files.

1. Confirm that the desired font files are available in TTF or OTF format.
2. Create the directory ~/.local/share/fonts if it does not already exist.

   $ mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts

3. Copy or move the new font files into ~/.local/share/fonts.

   $ cp ~/Downloads/*.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/
   $ cp ~/Downloads/*.otf ~/.local/share/fonts/

4. Rebuild the font cache so fontconfig registers the new fonts for the current user.

   $ fc-cache --force --verbose ~/.local/share/fonts
   fc-cache: "/home/user/.local/share/fonts": caching, new cache contents: 4 fonts, 0 dirs
   fc-cache: succeeded

   No error messages from fc-cache indicate that the per-user font cache rebuilt successfully.

5. Launch a graphical application, such as LibreOffice Writer.
6. Verify that the new fonts appear in the application's font selection menu.

   GNOME Tweaks offers additional control over interface and monospace fonts on GNOME desktops.

   $ sudo apt update --verbose
   ##### snipped #####
   $ sudo apt install --yes gnome-tweaks
   ##### snipped #####

1. Obtain the required font files in TTF or OTF format, stored in a directory accessible to the administrative account.
2. Create the system font directory /usr/share/fonts/custom if it does not exist.

   $ sudo mkdir --parents /usr/share/fonts/custom

3. Copy the font files into /usr/share/fonts/custom.

   $ sudo cp /path/to/fonts/*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/custom/
   $ sudo cp /path/to/fonts/*.otf /usr/share/fonts/custom/

4. Ensure that all installed fonts are world-readable so every user can access them.

   $ sudo chmod 644 /usr/share/fonts/custom/*.{ttf,otf}
   $ sudo chown root:root /usr/share/fonts/custom/*.{ttf,otf}

   Incorrect permissions or ownership in /usr/share/fonts can cause applications to skip fonts or display missing-glyph boxes instead of text.

5. Regenerate the global font cache to register the new system-wide fonts.

   $ sudo fc-cache --force --verbose
   /usr/share/fonts/custom: caching, new cache contents: 4 fonts, 0 dirs
   fc-cache: succeeded

   System-wide font changes affect all user sessions; misplacing or overwriting core fonts can lead to unreadable interfaces or inconsistent rendering across applications.

6. Confirm that the new fonts are available by querying the font list.

   $ fc-list | grep "Font Name"
   #/usr/share/fonts/custom/FontName-Regular.ttf: Font Name:style=Regular
   ##### snipped #####