New TrueType fonts in Debian

I had a font I needed to install to make some graphics for a web project. It was easy enough to buy the font – I just chose the option for the TrueType file (TTF) and I knew I’d be fine. I had a little trouble getting the font to show up though, so I record my efforts here.

  1. Put the TTF files (there’s usually three) in their own subdirectory of /usr/share/fonts/truetype.
  2. As root, run these two commands in the new subdirectory: mkfontscale and mkfontdir
  3. Check to see if the font is installed: run xlsfonts and see if your font is there
  4. If you don’t see your font, start Googling, but perhaps start here.