We’re going to take a little break from Gimp and Inkscape today. Let’s talk about fonts. Wild and crazy fonts are always fun when you’re playing with images (for example, our Super Groovy Wallpaper). But sometimes the fonts that come with your computer just aren’t enough. What can we do about this? Well, if you’re using Windows or Mac OSX, I don’t know. But if you’re using Ubuntu Linux, you’re in luck because it’s easy!
Downloading fonts
There are literally tons of fonts available out there on the web. Sites like dafont.com have hundreds, if not thousands of fonts for you to download. Just do a Google search and you’re drowning in fonts. Browse around and find something you like. Download the link. It will probably be a .zip file. Save it on your desktop, your downloads folder, whatever. Go to where the .zip file is on your computer and extract it. Usually it will make another folder there. But sometimes it will just drop the files out right there without putting them in a convenient folder. No worries.
Installing the fonts
In Ubuntu, open up your home folder. Click on the View menu and make sure that “Show Hidden Files” has a check-mark beside it. Look around in that folder for a folder called “.fonts” and open it up. If there is no .fonts file, Just create it in your home folder. Be sure that there is a period at the beginning of the name. Now that you’re in that folder, all you need to do is copy the folder (or files) you extracted earlier into this folder. Start up whatever application you want to use this font with and it should show up in the fonts menu now. Easy Cheesy Lemon Squeezey!
I even made a video for you, just in case:
Anyone out there know how to add fonts in Windows or Mac OSX? What is your favorite font? Leave a comment.
