Install a nerd font on ubuntu

instructions.md

1.) Download a Nerd Font

2.) Unzip and copy to ~/.fonts

3.) Run the command fc-cache -fv to manually rebuild the font cache

@donovan awesome script, TY.

+1 to @donovan 's script, wonderful and easy to read

What is ~/.fonts? Directory?

@p6002 yep, it's a directory

works! thanks

thanks

Well, I'm a beginner in this art of creating scripts, so the script below is certainly not optimized or error-proof, I used a good part of @donovan's code, I just changed the use of wget to a git clone using the sparse option, guaranteeing the most current version of the font and the install described in the official documentation, it can also be changed to the powershell installation but as it is not my case at the moment, I did not use it. In fact, bandwidth consumption is higher because it downloads the repository (even if only partially), something that direct download does not, so there is a certain amount of "waste".

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=(
    # BitstreamVeraSansMono
    # CodeNewRoman
    # DroidSansMono
    FiraCode
    # FiraMono
    # Go-Mono
    # Hack
    # Hermit
    JetBrainsMono
    # Meslo
    # Noto
    # Overpass
    # ProggyClean
    # RobotoMono
    # SourceCodePro
    # SpaceMono
    # Ubuntu
    # UbuntuMono
)

fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
    mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

echo -e "\e[0;32mScript:\e[0m \e[0;34mClonning\e[0m \e[0;31mNerdFonts\e[0m \e[0;34mrepo (sparse)\e[0m"
git clone --filter=blob:none --sparse git@github.com:ryanoasis/nerd-fonts
cd nerd-fonts

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do
    echo -e "\e[0;32mScript:\e[0m \e[0;34mClonning font:\e[0m \e[0;31m${font}\e[0m"
    git sparse-checkout add "patched-fonts/${font}"
    echo -e "\e[0;32mScript:\e[0m \e[0;34mInstalling font:\e[0m \e[0;31m${font}\e[0m"
    ./install.sh "${font}"
done

echo -e "\e[0;32mScript:\e[0m \e[0;34mCleaning the mess...\e[0m"
cd ../
rm -rf nerd-fonts```

Still waiting for proper documentation how to install it

@p6002 for linux, open a text editor and paste the code from @donovan . Then you can save it as installFonts.sh. Your will then have to make it runnable from the properties context menu for the file. Then run it in a terminal with ./installFonts.sh

Thanks, but I have already made several approaches to these fonts, hours-long approaches.
There were always unfixable problems, errors, bad characters. Which was frustrating enough, since it's just a theme and should work with a single command.
For now I'm watching the project and waiting for someone to write proper documentation with steps on how to install this theme. Currently it's such a mess there that I think only the author can use it.

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time for me to realize nerd-fonts the Github repo already comes with an install.sh script.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts.git    # warning: takes a while

cd nerd-fonts/
./install.sh FiraCode

(or whatever other font you want -- or all of them if you just run ./install.sh by itself.

Thank you, @hiAndrewQuinn

@hiAndrewQuinn's example should probably be on the main README considering the amount of us that have ended up here.

I still waiting for proper documentation how to install and use it.
In the meantime, I started the rack, I learned how to use Docker, I run services through Docker Compose and several VMs without any problems. But I still can't install the fonts...

@Sephyros absolutely amazing 👍

Hi guys, after testing several linux distros and having to configure and customize my terminal and shell every time, I decided to create this script that downloads directly from the Nerd Fonts repository, use it as you like and if you want to contribute something, feel free.

The documentation on how to use the script is in the readme:
https://github.com/mcarvalho1/Nerd-fonts-Downloader-Script

Thanks @mcarvalho1!

@donovan @Sephyros thanks both

Thanks @mcarvalho1 !

Hi guys, after testing several linux distros and having to configure and customize my terminal and shell every time, I decided to create this script that downloads directly from the Nerd Fonts repository, use it as you like and if you want to contribute something, feel free.

The documentation on how to use the script is in the readme: https://github.com/mcarvalho1/Nerd-fonts-Downloader-Script

This is beautiful.

I made a small, but useful to me, change to @donovan code. I added code to look up the latest version of nerd fonts and download those.

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=(
BitstreamVeraSansMono
CascadiaCode
CodeNewRoman
DroidSansMono
FiraCode
FiraMono
Go-Mono
Hack
Hermit
JetBrainsMono
Meslo
Noto
Overpass
ProggyClean
RobotoMono
SourceCodePro
SpaceMono
Ubuntu
UbuntuMono
)

version=$(curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest' | jq -r '.name')
fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do
zip_file="${font}.zip"
download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/${version}/${zip_file}"
echo "Downloading $download_url"
wget "$download_url"
unzip "$zip_file" -d "$fonts_dir"
rm "$zip_file"
done

find "$fonts_dir" -name 'Windows Compatible' -delete

fc-cache -fv

had to move the font in /usr/share/fonts

Another variant, which installs fonts passed on args (allows to install new fonts without modifying the script) and download directly the latest version:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

fonts_dir="$HOME/.local/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
    mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

for font in "$@"; do
    zip_file="$font.zip"
    download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/$zip_file"
    echo "Downloading $download_url"
    wget -O "/tmp/$zip_file" "$download_url"
    unzip "/tmp/$zip_file" -d "/tmp/$font/"
    mv /tmp/$font/*.ttf $fonts_dir
    rm "/tmp/$zip_file"
    rm "/tmp/$font/" -rf
done

fc-cache -fv

Check out Nerd Font Downloader (nfdl): https://github.com/rubiin/nfdl
It requires node(js) to run.
It presents a (fuzzy searchable) list of Nerd Fonts which you can choose from to download.
It tries to put the font in the right place for user fonts (per operating system).
On Linux and macOS it will even try to run fc-cache for you, after downloading.

Check out Nerd Font Downloader (nfdl): https://github.com/rubiin/nfdl It requires node(js) to run. It presents a (fuzzy searchable) list of Nerd Fonts which you can choose from to download. It tries to put the font in the right place for user fonts (per operating system). On Linux and macOS it will even try to run fc-cache for you, after downloading.

this npm helped fix a missing icon issue on ubuntu 24.04
Thank you!

I made a small, but useful to me, change to @donovan code. I added code to look up the latest version of nerd fonts and download those.

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=( BitstreamVeraSansMono CascadiaCode CodeNewRoman DroidSansMono FiraCode FiraMono Go-Mono Hack Hermit JetBrainsMono Meslo Noto Overpass ProggyClean RobotoMono SourceCodePro SpaceMono Ubuntu UbuntuMono )

version=$(curl -s 'api.github.com/repos/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest' | jq -r '.name') fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then mkdir -p "$fonts_dir" fi

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do zip_file="${font}.zip" download_url="github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/${version}/${zip_file}" echo "Downloading $download_url" wget "$download_url" unzip "$zip_file" -d "$fonts_dir" rm "$zip_file" done

find "$fonts_dir" -name 'Windows Compatible' -delete

fc-cache -fv

I made him better.

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=(
BitstreamVeraSansMono
CascadiaCode
CodeNewRoman
DroidSansMono
FiraCode
FiraMono
Go-Mono
Hack
Hermit
JetBrainsMono
Meslo
Noto
Overpass
ProggyClean
RobotoMono
SourceCodePro
SpaceMono
Ubuntu
UbuntuMono
)

version=$(curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest' | jq -r '.name')
if [ -z "$version" ] || [ "$version" = "null" ]; then
  version="v3.2.1"
fi
echo "latest version:$version"

fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"
#fonts_dir="/usr/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do
ls ="${font}.zip"
download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/${version}/${zip_file}"
echo "Downloading $download_url"
wget "$download_url"
unzip "$zip_file" -d "$fonts_dir"
rm "$zip_file"
done

find "$fonts_dir" -name 'Windows Compatible' -delete

fc-cache -fv

@pedoc

You've got a typo in your script that's causing an error. On the line where you have ls ="${font}.zip", you're mistakenly using the ls command instead of assigning the zip file name to a variable. This incorrect usage leads to the script failing to locate the font file, resulting in a "No such file or directory" error when it tries to download and unzip the font. By correcting that line to zip_file="${font}.zip", you'll properly assign the zip file name to the zip_file variable, allowing the download URL to be constructed correctly and the font installation to proceed without issues.

Script below with fixes and works on 24.04

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=(
  BitstreamVeraSansMono
  CascadiaCode
  CodeNewRoman
  DroidSansMono
  FiraCode
  FiraMono
  Go-Mono
  Hack
  Hermit
  JetBrainsMono
  Meslo
  Noto
  Overpass
  ProggyClean
  RobotoMono
  SourceCodePro
  SpaceMono
  Ubuntu
  UbuntuMono
)

version=$(curl -s 'https://api.github.com/repos/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest' | jq -r '.name')
if [ -z "$version" ] || [ "$version" = "null" ]; then
  version="v3.2.1"
fi
echo "latest version: $version"

fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"
#fonts_dir="/usr/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
  mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do
  zip_file="${font}.zip"
  download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/${version}/${zip_file}"
  echo "Downloading $download_url"
  wget "$download_url"
  unzip -o "$zip_file" -d "$fonts_dir"  # Added the -o option here to allow replacing
  rm "$zip_file"
done

find "$fonts_dir" -name 'Windows Compatible' -delete

fc-cache -fv

#!/bin/bash

declare -a fonts=(
    BitstreamVeraSansMono
    CodeNewRoman
    DroidSansMono
    FiraCode
    FiraMono
    Go-Mono
    Hack
    Hermit
    JetBrainsMono
    Meslo
    Noto
    Overpass
    ProggyClean
    RobotoMono
    SourceCodePro
    SpaceMono
    Ubuntu
    UbuntuMono
)

version='2.1.0'
fonts_dir="${HOME}/.local/share/fonts"

if [[ ! -d "$fonts_dir" ]]; then
    mkdir -p "$fonts_dir"
fi

for font in "${fonts[@]}"; do
    zip_file="${font}.zip"
    download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v${version}/${zip_file}"
    echo "Downloading $download_url"
    wget "$download_url"
    unzip "$zip_file" -d "$fonts_dir"
    rm "$zip_file"
done

find "$fonts_dir" -name '*Windows Compatible*' -delete

fc-cache -fv

Thank you so much!

I made a small, but useful to me, change to @donovan code. I added code to look up the latest version of nerd fonts and download those.

No need to introduce dependency on curl and jq. With proper download_url wget will be automatically redirected to the latest version
download_url="https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/${zip_file}"

Since I just loaded Ubuntu on a new computer, had trouble and found this page, I'll add that the instructions at the top are great except unzipping didn't put them in a folder for me, so neovim/lazyvim didn't seem to load them properly. To get it to load, I had to put it into a folder inside the font folder. For example, after downloading FiraCode Nerd Font I went to my Downloads folder and ran...

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts      # create folder to load fonts into
mkdir FiraCode                     # matches the name of the zip file
mv ./FiraCode.zip ./FiraCode       # move the zip into the new folder
cd FiraCode                        # change directory into the folder
unzip FiraCode.zip                 # unzip into the folder
rm FiraCode.zip                    # delete the zip file, we don't need it anymore
cd ..                              # change directory back up to Downloads
mv ./FiraCode ~/.local/share/fonts # move our new font folder into the font folder we created at the beginning
fc-cache -fv                       # reload the font-cache

Very manual, but I don't think I should need to update these very often!