check which fonts are already installed
fc-list
Navigate to /usr/share/fonts
cd /usr/share/fonts
place your downloaded *.otf and *.tff fonts in this directory.
To make the system aware of the new fonts, update the font cache by running the following command:
fc-cache -f -v
As a side note, specific users can have fonts in their home that are not available system wide. They simply place them in ~/.fonts and run 'fc-cache -f -v' as a regular user.
Other options: fontconfig, GNOME fonts or KFontView for graphical fonts installation
Traditionally on Linux-based operating systems, fonts are managed via the fontconfig library. The directories where the fonts should be installed are declared in the /etc/fonts/font.conf
Default font related directories:
/usr/share/fonts /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1 /usr/share/X11/fonts/TTF /usr/local/share/fonts ~/.fonts
Command to get information only about a specific font: (example uses font named cantarell)
fc-list cantarell
Installing Microsoft Fonts
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
If you want to install Microsoft fonts, there's an easy way. Just go to your package manager and look for a package named "ttf-mscorefonts-installer". Click on it, Mark for installation and apply.
There is more fonts in the repository. Go to your "Package Manager" and try searching for 'fonts'. You'll see various fonts packages there.