Ubuntu is one of the best open-source operating systems in the market today. It offers a veritable software ecosystem that provides a variety of premium services, each of which you would normally expect only within Windows or macOS.
To this effect, Ubuntu provides you with a default cache of fonts used extensively for various typographic purposes. Nevertheless, users can avail some of the highest quality Google Fonts on Ubuntu for different text processing purposes. Here's how.
Download and Install Google Fonts on Ubuntu
To manually install Google Fonts on Ubuntu, the first step is to download the fonts directly from fonts.google.com.
Select the font family you wish to download. For the purpose of this guide, we'll download the Open Sans font. Click on the Download Family button at the top right corner.
A compressed archive containing the required fonts will be downloaded on your machine. The idea is to unzip this downloaded file and install the fonts via your Linux terminal.
Navigate to the pre-installed fonts folder within your machine.
cd /usr/share/fontsCreate a folder within the directory using the mkdir command.
sudo mkdir googlefontsNavigate to the newly created googlefonts folder with the cd command.
cd googlefontsUnzip the ZIP archive containing the fonts you need to install.
sudo unzip -d . ~/Downloads/Open_Sans.zipOnce you have unzipped the archive, register the font with the following command:
sudo fc-cache -fv
Finally, check if the font was successfully installed by typing:
fc-match OpenSans
That's it; you are all set to start using the font now.
Install Google Fonts on Ubuntu Using TypeCatcher
As demonstrated above, you can download and install any font you want directly from the web on Ubuntu. However, Google offers multiple fonts for various use cases.
These fonts are available in condensed, bold, italic, and light formats, thereby allowing you to download and install them in one go. However, it would be best to get hold of TypeCatcher to ease the installation.
How to Install and Use TypeCatcher
TypeCatcher, as a font repository, downloads and installs a variety of fonts on Linux systems. It is a highly nifty application to have in your repertoire, in case you frequently use Ubuntu for text processing and graphic designing.
It’s easier to install TypeCatcher from the terminal. First, launch the terminal and update your existing packages using the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -yNow, to install TypeCatcher, run the following command:
sudo apt install typecatcherAfter completion, close the terminal and launch TypeCatcher from the Applications menu. Once TypeCatcher launches, you can review the available fonts listed on the left panel.
As soon as you click on the desired font on the left, you will get a preview of the font on the right panel. This will make your task easier, as you get to preview the font of your choice before installing it.
Once you have shortlisted a particular font type, click on the Download button on the top-left corner. Alternatively, you can search for the fonts with their name to quickly locate them within TypeCatcher.
To ease things further, you can batch select Google Fonts for Ubuntu and set them to install in an automated sequence.
To test the fonts, use them on LibreOffice or any other text processing application you have installed on your system. The recently downloaded Google Fonts should be available in every installed text processor's font list.
Working With New Fonts in Ubuntu
TypeCatcher has a low footprint, and a dynamic font library inherited from Google. If you aren’t keen to limit yourself to the pre-installed Linux-native fonts, then rest assured you will be pretty satisfied with the multitude of fonts available for free on TypeCatcher and the Google Fonts website.