Adding new fonts in Fedora

The default installation of the Fedora Linux (Fedora) includes several basic fonts. If you plan to use Fedora for activities such as typesetting and graphic design, you may wish to add additional fonts.

Adding new fonts as the superuser

System fonts are available to all system users. If you need to add system fonts, there are two ways:

Use the dnf package manager to install font packages,
Manually add fonts to the system and update the font cache to make them available to the users.

If you manually add system-wide fonts, you will not be able to control them with the package manager. If the font is provided as a distribution package, you should always use the package manager to install it.

Installing new fonts with dnf

Whenever you can add new fonts by installing a font package with the dnf package manager, you should do so. This method gives you control over the font package in the future, such as updating the package and removing it from the system.

To install a font package with dnf:

Before you start

Add and enable repositories with font packages.

A lot of fonts are available from the RPMfusion repository. To enable the repository on your system, follow the instructions on the RPMfusion webpage.

Procedure

List all available font packages from enabled repositories.
```
# dnf search fonts
```

Install the package you need.

# dnf install libreoffice-opensymbol-fonts.noarch

More information

The dnf search fonts command lists all available font packages, as well as their descriptions.

Installing new fonts manually

When you need to install fonts that are not available in a repository, you can install them manually by copying the font files into a system font directory and updating the font cache.

Procedure

Create a new directory in the system’s font directory /usr/share/fonts, where you will place the font files.
```
# mkdir /usr/share/fonts/robofont
```
Copy the font file to the font’s directory created in the previous step.
```
# cp ~/fonts/robofont.ttf /usr/share/fonts/robofont
```
Update the font cache.
```
# fc-cache -v
```

Adding new fonts as a user

When you do not have superuser access to install fonts on the system level, or you only need to install a font that will be available to your user account only, there are two methods to do it.

Adding new local fonts with the Gnome Font Viewer

The Gnome Font Viewer is an application to display the fonts installed on the system. It also allows you to locally install fonts. To add a new font file with Gnome Font Viewer:

Before you start

Make sure you have installed the gnome-font-viewer package.

Procedure

Open a file manager.
Double-click on a font file to open it in the Gnome Font Viewer.
Click on the blue Install button on the top bar.

Currently, there is a bug in the application. When you click on the Install button, it does not inform whether the installation succeeded.

More information

Gnome Font Viewer copies the font files to a font directory in the current user’s directory .local/share/fonts and updates the font cache.

Adding new local fonts manually

If you do not want to use any tools to add new fonts, you can do it manually. Copy the font files in the .fonts directory placed in the user’s directory and update the font cache.

Before you start

If it does not exist, create a .fonts directory in your user’s home directory.

Procedure

In the .local/share/fonts directory, create a new directory to place your fonts files.
```
$ mkdir ~/.local/share/fonts/robofont
```
Copy the font file into the newly created directory.
```
$ cp robofont.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/robofont
```
Update the font cache.
```
$ fc-cache -v
```