Install Microsoft Fonts (including Times New Roman) on Linux

By default, Linux distributions do not include popular proprietary fonts from Microsoft. Linux users often search for how to install Times New Roman font from Microsoft. If you need to use this font in LibreOffice, Gimp or any other graphical Linux application, you can install it.

Instead of using proprietary Microsoft fonts in Linux, it is suggested to use the pre-installed Liberation fonts from RedHat. These are analogs of Arial, Arial Narrow, Times New Roman, and Courier New fonts. If you try to open a document with a Times New Roman font in LibreOffice, the equivalent Liberation font will be used instead.

However, Liberation fonts are not completely identical to Microsoft fonts. This article shows you how to install Microsoft fonts (including Times New Roman) on Linux (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux).

Run the following command to list the fonts installed on Linux:

$ fc-list

If the command is missing, install it using your package manager. For example, in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install fontconfig

Installing Microsoft Fonts on Linux with Package Manager

The Microsoft fonts package is not pre-installed on Linux and can be installed from the Multiverse repository:

$ sudo add-apt-repository multiverse

There is a package of free Microsoft fonts available in this repository. It contains the following fonts:

Andale Mono
Arial Black
Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Comic Sans MS (Bold)
Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Impact
Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
Webdings

On Ubuntu/Debian distros, you can install the Microsoft fonts package from the repository:

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

Accept the license agreement and confirm the font installation.

If you have accidentally rejected the EULA, you will need to reinstall the fonts with the command:

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

Update the font list in Ubuntu with the command

$ sudo fc-cache -fv

This will make Times New Roman fonts (and other Microsoft fonts) available in all Linux apps.

Check that the Times New Roman font is installed:

$ fc-match TimesNewRoman

Installing Microsoft fonts is a little more complicated on rpm-based Linux distros (CentOS, RHEL, Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux). You will need to build and install the rpm package containing the fonts yourself.

Install the required packages using the yum (dnf) package manager:

$ sudo yum -y install rpm-build ttmkfdir cabextract

Download the SPEC font file msttcorefonts-2.5-1.spec (Microsoft’s TrueType core fonts for Linux)

$ wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.5-1.spec
$ sudo rpmbuild -bb msttcorefonts-2.5-1.spec

After that, the RPM package will appear in the $HOME/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/ directory. Install it:

$ sudo yum install /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.5-1.noarch.rpm

Restart the xfs and check that the fonts have been successfully installed:

$ fc-list | grep Time

/usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesi.ttf: Times New Roman:style=Italic,cursiva,kurzíva,kursiv,Πλάγια,Kursivoitu,Italique,Dőlt,Corsivo,Cursief,kursywa,Itálico,Курсив,İtalik,Poševno,nghiêng,Etzana /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/times.ttf: Times New Roman:style=Regular,Normal,obyčejné,Standard,Κανονικά,Normaali,Normál,Normale,Standaard,Normalny,Обычный,Normálne,Navadno,thường,Arrunta /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesbd.ttf: Times New Roman:style=Bold,Negreta,tučné,fed,Fett,Έντονα,Negrita,Lihavoitu,Gras,Félkövér,Grassetto,Vet,Halvfet,Pogrubiona,Negrito,Полужирный,Fet,Kalın,Krepko,đậm,Lodia /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesbi.ttf: Times New Roman:style=Bold Italic,Negreta cursiva,tučné kurzíva,fed kursiv,Fett Kursiv,Έντονα Πλάγια,Negrita Cursiva,Lihavoitu Kursivoi,Gras Italique,Félkövér dőlt,Grassetto Corsivo,Vet Cursief,Halvfet Kursiv,Pogrubiona kursywa,Negrito Itálico,Полужирный Курсив,Tučná kurzíva,Fet Kursiv,Kalın İtalik,Krepko poševno,nghiêng đậm,Lodi etzana

On Arch Linux, you will need to install a number of packages that contain different Microsoft fonts:

$ sudo yay -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-vista-fonts ttf-office-2007-fonts ttf-win7-fonts ttf-ms-win8 ttf-ms-win10 ttf-ms-win11

How to Manually Install Microsoft Fonts on Linux

To install a new font on Linux, simply copy the TTF files to the usr/share/fonts (these fonts are available to all users) or to the ~/.fonts directory (current user’s fonts).

For example, to manually install the Times New Roman font on a Linux system, follow the steps below:

Download TTF font file (you can copy font files from the C:\WINDOWS\Fonts directory on a Windows computer);
Create a directory at the current user’s home (if missing):
```
$ mkdir ~/.fonts
```
Copy the font file:
```
$ cp ~/Downloads/times.ttf ~/.fonts
```
Update the font cache in Linux:
```
$ sudo fc-cache -f -v
```