Fedora Linux

2.7.1.2. Adding and removing fonts using KDE Konqueror

KDE's Konqueror file and web browser enables you to view, install, and delete fonts from both the system-wide font directories and your personal font directory. To access this mode:

1. Start Konqueror, using the Home or Web Browser panel icons, or the K menu.

2. Enter fonts:/ into the location field.

The window will show icons labeled Personal and System; double-click on the group you wish to see, and the display shown in Figure 2-26 will appear (the System group is shown here).

Figure 2-26. Konqueror system font display

Double-clicking on a font will present the KFontView window shown in Figure 2-27 , showing an extended font sample. Clicking on the T icon will enable you to change the sample sentence; the default sentence is same pangram used in the GNOME font viewer.

Figure 2-27. KFontView window

To add fonts, simply drag and drop them into the font window. If you drop them into the system font window, you will be prompted to enter the root password.

To delete a font, treat it like a file: drag and drop it onto the trash can, or right-click and select Delete. As with installation, you will be prompted for the root password if the font is from the system font window.

You can also install and remove fonts through the KDE Control Panel.

2.7.1.3. Adding and removing fonts from the command line

When an application starts, the font configuration system automatically scans ~/.fonts (your personal font directory) as well as /usr/share/fonts (which is the system-wide font directory). Any changes to the fonts contained in those directories are detected automatically, so adding fonts is simply a matter of placing files into those directories, and removing fonts is simply a matter of deleting them.

For example, if you have a compressed tar file named /tmp/newfonts.tgz containing a folder named newfonts full of TrueType fonts and wish to install them for your own private use, you can use these commands:

$ cd ~/.fonts
$ tar xvzf /tmp/newfonts.tgz '*.ttf' '*.TTF'

Or, to install the fonts so that they are accessible to all users system-wide:

# cd /usr/share/fonts
# mkdir newfonts
# cd newfonts
# tar xvzf /tmp/newfonts.tgz '*.ttf' '*.TTF'

To delete all of your personal fonts:

$ rm -rf ~/.fonts/*

And to delete the system-wide fonts installed in newfonts :

# rm -rf /user/share/fonts/ newfonts

2.7.1.4. Installing the Microsoft fonts

Web pages and documents created on Microsoft systems often use fonts that are distributed with Windows. For a time, Microsoft made these fonts available free of charge on its web site; although they are no longer available directly from Microsoft, they are available from fontconfig.org under Microsoft's fairly simple licensing terms, documented in http://fontconfig.org/webfonts/Licen.TXT .

Installing these fonts makes it possible to view Word and Excel documents and web pages created under Windows as they were originally designed. Mozilla, Firefox, OpenOffice, and other applications can all use these fonts.

In order to install these fonts, you'll need to obtain a copy of the cabextract program to extract the fonts from archives created in Microsoft's proprietary CAB format:

# yum install cabextract

Once cabextract is installed, you can easily install the Microsoft fonts from the command line:

# wget http://fontconfig.org/webfonts/webfonts.tar.gz
# tar xvzf webfonts.tar.gz
# cd msfonts
# cabextract *.exe
# mkdir /usr/share/fonts/microsoft
# cp *.[tT]* /usr/share/fonts/microsoft
# cd ..
# rm -rf msfonts
# fc-cache

2.7.1.5. Using newly installed fonts

Applications load their font lists at startup time, so simply relaunching an application is usually all that is required before you can start using new fonts.

The command fc-cache will create an index cache to speed application startup. To use it:

$ fc-cache
# fc-cache

Running fc-cache as a regular user will create the index cache for ~/.fonts , which is not really necessary because the index cache will be created automatically. Running it as root will create the index cache for /usr/share/fonts and is strongly recommended; otherwise, an index of the system-wide fonts will be created for each individual user,