installing fonts in ubuntu sucks

Bug #254056 reported by nef
14
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu
In Progress
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

I installed Ubuntu 8.04 on a partition of my sisters computer, and now that her windows died she has been using Ubuntu full time for about a week.

She asked me how could she install some fonts, and i told her "I don't know, figure it out... maybe search for an option in the settings menu, or right-click the font icon and choose install"
**note: right clicking the icon actually works in kubuntu

Guess what? It didn't work...

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+faq/98
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Fonts#head-51423ff7185d56b59d892cfc5af4fd0cffb7073d

According to the links above, the most easy and obvious way to install a font is:
1. Open home directory
2. Go to View --> Show hidden directories
3. Create a new folder called ".fonts"
4. Drag and drop font file into directory
5. Restart applications where you need said font

After reading that I wondered why I didn't think of that before... it was so obvious.

I think installing fonts should be done by:
a) Right click font file --> "Install font"
b) Double click font file (view in font viewer) --> Add a "Install Font" button to font viewer
c) System --> Preferences --> Fonts
d) All of the above

Tags: fonts install
Revision history for this message
Gabriel Ruiz (anakron) wrote :

I think that the easiest way to install fonts is installing it with Synaptic or with Terminal:

If you use Synaptic, look for the package called msttcorefonts.

If you use terminal, you can install in this way:

* sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

That is all... You tried it?

Revision history for this message
nef (nefgarcia) wrote :

Gabriel,

You're missing the point.
What if I want to install any of the other thousands of fonts that are not available via Synaptic?

And yes, msttcorefonts were already installed.

Revision history for this message
nef (nefgarcia) wrote :
Revision history for this message
nef (nefgarcia) wrote :

More related links...

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/193897
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/145395
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/215995
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86598

I believe this is a serious usability issue that shouldn't be too hard to fix.
What can I do to raise the awareness of this bug?

Revision history for this message
Michael Rooney (mrooney) wrote :

Hi nef, thanks for using Ubuntu and thanks for taking the time to file this bug report and aggregate the related links! You may also be interested in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/font-selector, the corresponding blueprint of which has been accepted for Intrepid.

Revision history for this message
Mikko Saarinen (mikk0) wrote :

This has not been fixed in Intrepid. Installing fonts still sucks =(

This should be so easy that my mother could do it. Now she couldn't even if I told her how. It seems this font-selector was not implemented in time or is not part of the default Ubuntu desktop.

Revision history for this message
MasterNetra (designerkline) wrote :

Or...the fonts folder could simply be visible and there by default? The install option for font extensions would be nice too i suppose. Because as it stands installing fonts can easly leave people scratching their heads if they don't know how to install them already. :/ If ubuntu is going to be user friendly this is one of the things that should be done.

Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

Related/duplicate bugs: Bug #82724 Bug #389657

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