Updated 28-Jun-2024
How to manage fonts in Debian (installing/removing/refreshing).
- See also Fonts, Typefaces, Typography
Microsoft Core Fonts Installer
Check to see if this is installed via apt-cache
sudo apt-cache search ttf-mscorefonts-installer
Emoji fonts
Yeh, I don't like them but people use them so need to see them.
sudo apt install fonts-noto-color-emoji
Debian and application fonts
There is a large number of fonts installed via Debian and basic X11, as well as applications (such as LibreOffice).
In order to reduce these, it will be necessary to create a script to get rid of these. Even better:
- Figure out which fonts can be removed, from where
- Remove those directories
- Add fonts using symlinks to repositories
- Update the repositories regularly (figure out how to do this)
Copy Fonts to Directories
/usr/share/fonts
/usr/share/X11/fonts
/usr/local/share/fonts
~/.fonts
Note, better/easier to symlink to /usr/share/fonts/ if organized with a set of font directories. Example:
First remove font shares:
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/other-fonts
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/code-128-fonts
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/fonts/thai-fonts
Then add font shares
sudo ln -s /home/jeff/sync/fonts /usr/share/fonts/other-fonts
sudo ln -s /home/jeff/sync/github/code-128-font/fonts /usr/share/fonts/code-128-fonts
sudo ln -s /home/jeff/sync/github/thai-font-collection/downloadable-free-thai-fonts /usr/share/fonts/thai-fonts
sudo ln -s /home/jeff/sync/additional-fonts /usr/share/fonts/additional-fonts
Rebuild the Font Cache
sudo fc-cache -fv
List all Installed and Cached Fonts
fc-list
Reconfigure Fonts
This may be needed to support bitmap fonts.
dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config