DISCUSSION: Installing TTF Fonts in GNOME

This thread is to discuss the article titled: Installing TTF Fonts in GNOME

This should seem simple enough, but when I try to drag the .ttf file over to the fonts:/// directory in Nautilus, it says: Error "Not a Directory" While Copying. Would you like to continue?

Any ideas on why it's doing that?

Here's a couple of methods that worked for me, the one in the thread "Installing TTF Fonts in GNOME" does not work for me.

METHOD 1 (Fast Method) [list=1][*]Create a folder called .fonts in your home folder (/home/<username>/.fonts). [*]Copy thr TTF fonts into the .fonts folder you just created.[*]Relogin and you should have access to TTF (TrueType Fonts)[/list=1]

METHOD 2 (A bit longer)
For TTF to be available in OpenOffice and Mozilla:[list=1][*]Copy fonts to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF[*]Create directory /usr/share/fonts/TTF[*]Also copy fonts into /usr/share/fonts/TTF[*]Edit the file /usr/share/fonts/fonts.cache-1 adding a line that says "TTF" 0 ".dir"[*]Relogin and you should have access to TTF (TrueType Fonts)[/list=1]

Method one worked best and fastest for me. I'm sure someone on the net has a better way but hope this helps someone anyway!

The method in the article works for non ttf fonts quite well (for me FC2) anyway.
In the end, I add fonts into X11 by creating a file where the X11 fonts are stored called "misc", copying all the fonts I want into it then running mkfontdir ... this last utility will automatically create and edit the font directory files needed.

This produces no trouble at all, and all kinds of fonts can be added by this system.

Simon

The command-line way of adding True-type fonts (and possibly the only way on my older Red Hat 7.3 Valhalla system) is reasonably well documented in http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/FDU/truetype.html. ttmkfdir -o fonts.scale is done before mkfontdir, which quite a few distros perform on start-up.

Would it work to create a symbolic link to

[location where windows is mounted]/WINDOWS/Fonts

In my case

/mnt/windowsxp/WINDOWS/Fonts

Note I have that directory mounted read only.

Doubt it - remember, the directory has to be a X font directory.
You could, perhaps, run mkfontdir on the windows font directory (provided you can write to it - you need captive to write to ntfs) and include it's path in the x fonts path.

However - just copying them all over would be quicker - easier - and so on. It is normal to duplicate files when you have windows...

Interestingly, while dragging font files to fonts:/// under FC4 dosn't work (nothing happens) it does work under ubuntu 5.04.