Manage fonts in Ubuntu

The humble font may not be a thing to get most people’s hearts racing, but it’s nevertheless a vital part of your Linux installation. It’s not simply a case of having the right fonts to ensure what you create on your PC can be read on other computers, whether they’re running another flavour of Linux, MacOS or Windows. No, fonts play a critical role in your everyday computing too. You’re staring at the screen for hours, switching between desktop windows, your web browser, console window and a multitude of apps. Fonts play a central role in all of this, and how they appear on screen (a process known as font rendering) can be pivotal in how tired your eyes get.

Let’s open with a quick primer. Fonts are more accurately described as typefaces, which means a particular design of type. Well-known examples include Arial, Times New Roman and Liberation. These come in different variations (also referred to as styles or faces): bold, italic and so on. Fonts can be packaged two ways: a single file containing multiple variations, or individual files for specific variations, with the files referred to collectively as a ‘font family’.

Typefaces can be organised into one or more groupings according to their general