Install New Maverick Meerkat Fonts on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx or Older Computer

The latest version of Ubuntu Linux, Maverick Meerkat come with a brand new set of fonts called Ubuntu that bring a fresh look to to your desktop and applications on Ubuntu desktops. The fonts are free to download and use on your Ubuntu Linux computer.

How to install the New Ubuntu Font on Older Ubuntu Linux Computers
Here is a simple method I used to install the new Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat font package on my older computer running Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

1. Go to this website: http://font.ubuntu.com
2. Download the ubuntu-font-family.ttfs (0.7 MB .zip) file and save it to /tmp on your computer. As of this writing the font version that was available was 0.69.
3. Unzip the .zip file, and run this command:

sudo mv /tmp/ubuntu-font-family-0.69+ufl/ /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family

You will be prompted for your password to access administrative rights.

Once the directory of font files are copied in, you will be able to use the new Ubuntu Fonts in any of your applications, including Open Office, and AbiWord. You can remove the fonts by deleting the /usr/share/truetype/ubuntu-font-family directory at any time.

For a more standard installation you can also follow the instructions on the font.ubuntu.com website. Those installation instructions are the preferred method, and you will also be able to submit bug reports, and comments on the new Ubuntu fonts.

The new Ubuntu font will be available in many different character scripts, including Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Indian Repee. You can also order up bold, italic, bold italic, and regular versions in light, medium, and condensed type faces. This gives maximum flexibility in setting up the look and feel of your documents.

The Ubuntu Font project is funded by Canonical and are being created by Dalton Maag and is still an ongoing process. You may see slight changes to the fonts and their appearance with each new release of Ubuntu. There are plans to add more font type to the next release of Ubuntu. For example, in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, there are plans to add a Mono type. This will allow the use of the new Ubuntu Font in the terminal window. A mono version of the new Ubuntu Font could also be used in programming applications.

You can also use this same method to install any true-type font onto your Ubuntu Linux computer.