Installing Microsoft Fonts (msttcorefonts) on Debian Linux

Last updated: Jan 29, 2008

Sometimes when moving to the linux world we miss a few things that windows had to offer. A lot of times it is because we simply got used to them. Microsoft’s true type fonts are one of those things. Besides just the comfortability factor the other reason to install the MS true type fonts is for better internet browsing. Often times web designers forget to check what their pages look like in Linux with Linux’s default font package sometimes leading to some weird results. Since Microsoft has released these fonts for free we might as well save the headache and just install them.

Since Debian Linux is best known for only bundling completely free and open source software with their distribution we need to change a few things to allow other software to be installed.

You need to add two words in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Those words are, non-free and contrib. Open /etc/apt/sources as root.

Find the following lines:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main

and make them look like this:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib

You may also want to add contrib to your security updates if it isn’t already.

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

In order for apt to understand the new changes we must update it:

apt-get update

Install the package with:

apt-get install msttcorefonts

For those of you using Ubuntu, the steps are essentially the same.

All done! Now you can enjoy websites and other things in those Microsoft fonts that you have learned to love.

Need to print shipping labels on your site?

Checkout my product RocketShipIt for simple easy-to-use developer tools for UPS™ FedEx™ USPS™ and more.

Get notified on new posts or other things I'm working on

Share: