First download any True Type Font to your Desktop. If you download a zip file, use ARK to unzip/extract it. ARK is usually at Applications | Accessories. After extraction, you will have a file with the extension .ttf

If your extraction left you with file(s) that have multiple underscores or spaces, right-click the file choose Rename. Edit and remove extra spaces and underscores but leave the extension .ttf . This will make it a lot easier to copy these files from the command line as you’ll see in a moment.

Open up your Terminal as Super User (su). I usually just select Applications | System Tools | Terminal Program – Super User Mode

Enter your su password.

At the command prompt, path out to your Desktop directory by entering:

cd /home/name_of_your_homearea/Desktop

*Note: In Linux, case matters, so Desktop must have the capital D.

*Note: Enter the exact name of your home area after /home/

To copy the ttf files to your fonts area, enter this at the command line:

cp name_of_file_you_downloaded.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/

If you are wanting to copy and entire folder to the fonts area, at the command prompt enter

cp /home/name_of_your_homearea/Desktop/folder_name /usr/share/fonts/truetype -r

*Note: There is a space after cp and after the folder name in the command line

You will have to restart your computer for the changes to go into effect but that’s it!

If you want to check and make sure the files are successfully copied over, open your file explorer and path up (usually it will default open in your home area, so you’ll need to use File | Open Parent a few times to get all the way to the top of the file structure. From the top (double-click Computer and choose Filesystem), path out to usr/share/fonts/truetype and you should see all your fonts including the newly copied ones.

*Note: If you can’t see certain directories, they may be hidden. To view hidden files and folders, select View | Show Hidden from your Explorer window.

Interested in installing the Microsoft fonts to your Linux system in one quick download? Check out this fab tutorial by Mark Sanborn.