How To Install Droid Fonts on Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty”
UPDATE: This post has been updated to include instructions for Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic”, 9.04 “Jaunty” and 8.10 “Intrepid”
Based on this recent post regarding Getting Android’s Fonts on Ubuntu by Stefano Forenza I have installed these new fonts on my machine(s) and I’m enjoying them very much. I thought I’d pass on the instructions for how to install ttf-droid, the Android fonts, on your Ubuntu machine.
As you may have read in his post (linked above), the fonts are only available in the official repositories for Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty” and beyond. If you are using a previous version you’ll have to install them manually. Here is how we’ll do it:
Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic”
sudo aptitude install ttf-droid
Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty”
sudo aptitude install ttf-droid
Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid”
Download ttf-droid package
- Double-click downloaded file to install
OR
- dpkg -i ~/Desktop/ttf-droid*.deb
I think these fonts look really clean and crisp. The ttf-droid fonts have now replaced the Red Hat Liberation fonts I was previously using on both of my work machines.
I’m curious what other fonts people generally use. I’ve run into people that are absolutely passionate about using the right font, while at the same time others don’t really care and have never changed them from their defaults. Which type are you?
The font named Segoe is better for both the desktop and as the default sans for all web pages.
In the upstream Debian font team we run a regular review of all fonts in the archive to generate thumbnails and extract the description metadata: http://pkg-fonts.alioth.debian.org/review/
A good place to look for quality open fonts.
There’s also the Unifont.org fontguide:
http://unifont.org/fontguide/ and the OpenFontLibrary: http://www.openfontlibrary.org
I have used these fonts on my desktop with dust theme for some time now..and I have to say they’re pretty beautiful together
Screenshot:
http://kuvaton.com/k/8Uc.png
I believe DejaVu Sans Condensed with subpixel hinting has no rivals for everyday desktop use
Thanks for that tip. I just switched from Liberation to DejaVu following your suggestion and you're so correct. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Can anyone tell me what license the font is released under? The package says Apache but I recall reading that it was uncertain whether the license applied the font somehow.
I use this fonts since they have been released. They look sharper than Liberation and much modern than Vera… I think they should be the default on Ubuntu.
@jldugger: the README.debian of the packages says:
“- Removed Ahem.ttf from the original tarball, license unclear.”
So I’d guess every font included in the package is under Apache2, since they already stripped the doubtful ones.
See if you can find further info on their website:
http://www.ascendercorp.com/pr/2007-11-12/
Very useful post. I'm working on Android mockups, and this made life easier…now if I could figure out their font sizes and colors….
Got to love linux repos.
Nice post dude
Got to love linux repos.