Install Microsoft Windows Fonts In Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Most of the educational institutions are still using Microsoft Fonts. I am not sure about other countries. But in Tamilnadu (India), Times New Roman and Arial fonts are still being widely used by almost all sorts of documentation works, projects, and assignments in colleges and schools. Not only the educational institutions, most government and private offices, small organizations, and shops are still using MS Windows Fonts. Just in case, if you are in a situation where you need to use Windows fonts, here is how to install Microsoft Windows fonts in Ubuntu Linux desktops.

Disclaimer: Microsoft has released its core fonts for free. However, Please be aware that usage of Microsoft fonts is prohibited in other operating systems. Read the EULA carefully before installing MS Fonts in any Linux operating system. We (OSTechNix) are not responsible for any kind of piracy act.

Install Microsoft fonts in Ubuntu 18.04 and 16.04 LTS desktops

Install MS TrueType Fonts as shown below:

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Microsoft's End user agreement wizard will appear. Click OK to continue.

Click Yes to accept the Microsoft agreement:

After installing the fonts, we need to update the font cache using command:

$ sudo fc-cache -f -v

Sample output:

/usr/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 6 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 4 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1: caching, new cache contents: 8 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/encodings/large: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc: caching, new cache contents: 89 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/X11/util: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cMap: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 5 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-cns1: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-gb1: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-japan1: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-japan2: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/cmap/adobe-korea1: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 2 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/malayalam: caching, new cache contents: 3 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/noto: caching, new cache contents: 24 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 46 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Gargi: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Gubbi: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Nakula: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Navilu: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Sahadeva: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/Sarai: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/abyssinica: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu: caching, new cache contents: 6 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/droid: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-beng-extra: caching, new cache contents: 6 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-deva-extra: caching, new cache contents: 3 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-gujr-extra: caching, new cache contents: 5 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-guru-extra: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-kalapi: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-orya-extra: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/fonts-telu-extra: caching, new cache contents: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont: caching, new cache contents: 12 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/kacst: caching, new cache contents: 15 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/kacst-one: caching, new cache contents: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lao: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation: caching, new cache contents: 16 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation2: caching, new cache contents: 12 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-assamese: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-bengali: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-devanagari: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-gujarati: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-kannada: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-malayalam: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-oriya: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-punjabi: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-tamil: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-tamil-classical: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lohit-telugu: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/malayalam: caching, new cache contents: 11 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts: caching, new cache contents: 60 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto: caching, new cache contents: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/padauk: caching, new cache contents: 4 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/pagul: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/samyak: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/samyak-fonts: caching, new cache contents: 3 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/sinhala: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/tibetan-machine: caching, new cache contents: 1 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/tlwg: caching, new cache contents: 58 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-khmeros-core: caching, new cache contents: 2 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu: caching, new cache contents: 13 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/type1: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 1 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts: caching, new cache contents: 35 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/local/share/fonts: caching, new cache contents: 0 fonts, 0 dirs
/home/sk/.local/share/fonts: skipping, no such directory
/home/sk/.fonts: skipping, no such directory
/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/sk/.cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/home/sk/.fontconfig: not cleaning non-existent cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded

Install Microsoft windows fonts in dual boot with Linux and Windows

If you have dual boot system with Linux and Windows operating system, you can easily install the MS fonts from Windows C drive. All you have to do is mount the Windows partition (C:/Windows).

I assume you have mounted the C:\Windows partition at /Windowsdrive directory in Linux.

Now, link the fonts location to your Linux system's fonts folder as shown below.

ln -s /Windowsdrive/Windows/Fonts /usr/share/fonts/WindowsFonts

After linking the fonts folder, regenerate the fontconfig cache using command:

fc-cache

Alternatively, copy all Windows fonts to /usr/share/fonts directory and install the fonts using the following commands:

mkdir /usr/share/fonts/WindowsFonts

cp /Windowsdrive/Windows/Fonts/* /usr/share/fonts/WindowsFonts

chmod 755 /usr/share/fonts/WindowsFonts/*

Finally, regenerate the fontconfig cache using command:

fc-cache

Test and use windows fonts in Ubuntu

Open LibreOffice or GIMP after installing MS Fonts. Now, you will see there the Microsoft coretype fonts.

That's it. Hope this guide useful.

Update 1:

Mscorefonts comes preinstalled in Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS desktop. So, I guess the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS desktop users need not to install it.

Update 2:

If you accidentally rejected license agreement during upgrade from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to 18.04.3 LTS,  you can reinstall the installer to get the license agreement by running the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Thanks Arno77.