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3 Apps to Download & Install Google Web Fonts in Ubuntu Linux

Last updated: May 11, 2024

This simple shows how to easily download & install Google web fonts in Ubuntu and other Linux through 3 different applications.

There are quite a few handy applications that can help downloading & installing Google Web Fonts for offline use in Ubuntu. In this tutorial, I’m going to show you 3 of them, including Font Manager, Font Downloader, and TypeCatcher.

Option 1: Font Manager

Font Manager is a free open-source app for GTK Desktop environments. It allows to preview, download & install Google Web Fonts, or install fonts from local files.

The app works in 3 different modes: Manage, Browse, and Compare. Which can be switched by clicking to top-left button.

While “Manage” mode allows to install, uninstall, preview fonts, “Browse” mode allows you to preview all installed fonts in different categories. As well, it provides option to compare selected fonts (from all installed) side by side.

It as well has command line options, to list, enable, disable, and install fonts in terminal or console.

Besides that, Font Manager also includes extra features, including:

  • Change system fonts.
  • Active/De-active installed fonts.
  • Import/Export.
  • Add custom user actions.
  • And more.

Install Font Manager

Font Manager is available in most Linux repositories.

Ubuntu users can simply search for and install it from either Ubuntu Software or App Center. Or, just press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command to install:

sudo apt install font-manager

For feature requires and bugs, just go to its Github project page.

Option 2: TypeCatcher

TypeCatcher is a GTK app designed to search, browse, and download Google webfonts for off-line use. It’s a 12 years old app that’s still working today, though the app rarely gets update now.

The app provides a quite basic UI, allowing to search and browse Google Fonts, preview with selected or custom text in different size. Along with buttons to install, uninstall, and open font URL page in web browser. All the Google fonts are installed to .fonts/typecatcher folder. Just open Files (nautilus file browser) and press Ctrl+H to view them.

Install Typecatcher:

The app is available in Debian and Ubuntu system repositories. User can either open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the package:

sudo apt install typecatcher

Or, search for and get it from Ubuntu Software, App Center, or your system package manager.

NOTE: TypeCatcher does NOT launch in Ubuntu 22.04 due to bug, see this step by step tutorial to fix it. In Ubuntu 24.04, it takes quite a few seconds to launch, perhaps due to poor network connection issue.

Option 3: Font Downloader

For choice, Font Downloader is another tool can download & install Google Web Fonts for offline use in Linux Desktops.

The app provides a quite basic user interface, to search, browse, and install fonts! However, I don’t find an option to uninstall.

The only difference to other 2, is that the app provide a button to download font only without install. So, you can use the .tff font files anywhere else.

Get Font Downloader

Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian Sid can get the app simply from system repository, either by running the command below in terminal:

sudo apt install font-downloader

Or, use App Center or system package manager to search & install it as .deb (Debian) package.

For most other Linux, the app is available to install as universal Flatpak package.

(Optional) Change Fonts in Ubuntu Desktop

To change your system fonts in Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop environment. Simply install GNOME Tweaks from system package manager.

Then, you can easily change the font of Interface text, Document text, and Monospace text in the first tab of the app window.

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GScan2PDF 2.8.1 Released with Bug Fixes (Ubuntu PPA)

Last updated: July 12, 2020

GScan2PDF, graphical to produce PDFs or DjVus from scanned documents, released version 2.8.1 a day ago.

The previous program launching issue should be fixed in the release, though it didn’t happen in my machine. Gscan2pdf 2.8.1 release highlights:

  • Pass resolution to tesseract to avoid messages like “Warning! Invalid resolution 0 dpi. Using 70 instead”
  • Cope better if data model becomes corrupted
  • Add restart option to ‘device not found’ mini-wizard & if tmp directory changed.
  • When saving a session file, note that pages have been saved to avoid ‘Some pages have not been saved. Do you really want to quit?’ message.
  • Improvements to the Crashed sessions dialog to make it more intuitive.
  • Update position of OCR text when cropping
  • Create PS level 3 instead of 1.
  • Fix check for unpaper version. (Scan fails if unpaper is not installed but selected in post processing)
  • Fix check for tesseract version. Remove support for tesseract
  • Update translations.

How to Install gscan2pdf 2.8.1 in Ubuntu:

The official Gscan2PDF PPA has made the new release packages for all current Ubuntu releases, and their derivatives, including Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x, and 20.

1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jeffreyratcliffe/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. For those who have a previous release installed, upgrade it through Software Updater:

Or run following command in terminal to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install gscan2pdf

How to Remove:

To remove gscan2pdf, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove gscan2pdf

And the PPA can be removed via Software & Updates utility, under Other Software tab.

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Audacious 4.0.5 Released with Important Bug-Fixes (Ubuntu PPA)

Last updated: July 11, 2020

Audacious music player 4.0.5 was released a day ago with some important bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and derivatives.

Audacious 4.0.5 release highlights:

  • Fixed UI freeze when asterisk key (Shift+8) was pressed.
  • Fixed an exception when reading a large APE (> 1M) tag
  • Fixed album artist not being displayed for .m4a files
  • Fixed a crash on exit with a plugin settings window open
  • Fixed a crash when scrobbling with curl 7.71.0
  • Changed the default CDDB server to gnudb.org

How to Install Audacious 4.0.5 in Ubuntu:

All users of current Ubuntu releases and Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x, 20 can install the new release via Ubuntu PPA by running following commands one by one.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type your password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade the audio player:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

You can easily remove the PPA either by going to Software & Updates utility -> Other Software tab, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

To remove audacious, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove audacious audacious-plugins
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How to Install Game Chatting App Mumble 1.3.2 in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: July 11, 2020

Open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software, Mumble 1.3.2, was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04.

Mumble 1.3.2 is a maintenance release that fixed overlay not starting, and keychain-error on macOS for custom certificates.

There’s also known issues: overlay blocked by BattleEye, CS:GO Trusted Mode.

How to Install Mumble in Ubuntu:

Mumble is available as containerized Snap and Flatpak packages. You can install the Snap from Ubuntu Software, and install Flatpak from flathub repository.

For those prefer .deb package from apt repository, do following steps to install it from Mumble Team PPA.

1. Open terminal either from application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, paste below command and hit Enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mumble/release

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue adding the PPA.

2. If an old release was installed, simply upgrade Mumble via Software Updater:

Or run commands one by one in terminal to check updates and install the chat utility for gamer:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mumble mumble-server

Uninstall Mumble:

You can purge the PPA which also downgrade the VoIP chat app to the stock version via command:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:mumble/release

To simply remove mumble, either use system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove mumble mumble-server
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How to Install KeePassXC 2.6.0 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Last updated: July 10, 2020

KeePassXC, a cross-platform community-driven port of the Windows application “Keepass Password Safe”, released version 2.6.0 a few days ago.

KeePassXC 2.6.0 release highlights include:

  • Custom Light and Dark themes
  • Compact mode to use classic Group and Entry line height
  • New monochrome tray icons
  • View menu to quickly switch themes, compact mode, and toggle UI elements
  • Save Database Backup feature
  • Adds autostart option.
  • And many other new features, improvements. See here for details.

How to Install KeePassXC in Ubuntu:

The official upstream PPA has made the packages of the password manager for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, and derivatives.

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application launcher.

When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

Type your password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then either update the software package using Software Updater

or run command to install the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install keepassxc

Uninstall:

You can run the PPA repository simply by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

And if you want, remove keepassxc password manger via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove keepassxc
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How to Install Qt4 Libraries in Ubuntu 20.04 [Ubuntu 22.04 Updated]

Last updated: May 11, 2022

The Qt4 framework has been removed from Ubuntu 20.04 main repository. It is however still required for some obsolete applications.

Though it is not recommended, you can still get Qt4 libraries (e.g., libqt4-declarative, qt4-dev-tools, qt4-qmake, libqtwebkit4, and more) as software dependencies or for building an application via this third-party PPA.

NOTE: Qt4 has reached end of life! You may run into security issues with the library. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! And for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, please scroll down for option 2.

Option 1: Install Qt4 in Ubuntu 20.04

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from your system application launcher. When terminal opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rock-core/qt4

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit enter.

2.) After adding the PPA, it should automatically refresh the system package cache. On some Ubuntu derivatives, you may run command to manually update the package cache:

sudo apt update

3.) Finally install the software .deb package, and it should automatically install the required Qt4 libraries after running sudo apt -f install.

Or you may install specified Qt4 package by running command:

sudo apt install PACKAGE_NAME

See here for a full list of available Qt4 libraries.

Option 2: Install Qt4 in Ubuntu 22.04

For the new Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, you can get the Qt4 libraries via this unofficial PPA. The packages there belongs to kelebek333.

1. Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ppa

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2. After adding the PPA, install your old app packages should automatically install Qt4 as dependencies.

To install the packages manually, either run command sudo apt install PACKNAME in terminal or use Synaptic package manager:

Uninstall Qt4:

To remove the PPA, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:rock-core/qt4

Or remove the PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 using command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ppa

To remove all Qt4 libraries, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove libqt4* libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libqtwebkit4 qt4*
In Howtos
 

How to Enable Remote Desktop Sharing in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: July 9, 2020

This quick tutorial shows how to enable remote desktop service in Ubuntu 20.04, so that you can access to Ubuntu desktop remotely via VNC viewer.

1.) Open System Settings utility, navigate to Sharing in the left pane, toggle on Sharing in the top-right, and finally click on “Screen Sharing”.

2.) In the pop-up dialog, turn on “Screen Sharing” and select:

  • Enable remote control by tick “Allow connections to control screen”.
  • Setup a password or select ask for access on each connection.

3.) As a workaround of TightVNC connection error: “No security types supported. Server sent security types, but we do not support any of them“.

NOTE: Instead of running following commands, you may use Dconf Editor and navigate to org/gnome/desktop/remote-access.

Run command in terminal (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal):

gsettings set org.gnome.Vino require-encryption false

You may also run command to allow people not in local network to access using UPnP (if your router supports it):

gsettings set org.gnome.Vino use-upnp true

Finally, connect to this Ubuntu desktop remotely using either Computer name (as picture in step 1.) shows) or IP address via a VNC viewer / client and enjoy!

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How to Install Sublime Text 3 in Ubuntu 20.04 via Apt Repository

Last updated: July 8, 2020

Prefer installing Sublime Text via the official .deb package rather than using the containerized Snap package? Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04 the official way via the apt repository.

Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from your system application menu. When it opens, run following commands one by one to install the latest Sublime Text 3 in Ubuntu.

1.) Download and install the GPG key by running command:

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Type user password when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

And enable apt is set up to work with https sources via command:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https

2.) Add the official Sublime Text repository via command:

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list

3.) Finally refresh system package cache and install the text editor via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install sublime-text

And you’ll receive future updates along with system updates through Software Updater (Update Manager).

How to Uninstall Sublime Text:

To remove the apt repository, launch Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab, there remove the repository line.

And to remove the Sublime Text editor, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove sublime-text
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Tauon Music Box – Modern Streamlined Music Player for Linux Desktop

Last updated: July 7, 2020

Touan Music Box is a modern, comfortable and streamlined music player for the playback of your music collection.

The software is written in Python, and uses GStreamer or optionally BASS Audio Library for playback.

Touan Music Player features:

  • Fast and responsive UI
  • Drag and drop importing tracks & creating playlists
  • Large album art and gallery displays!
  • Support for gapless playback.
  • Seamless support for CUE sheets.
  • Batch transcode folders of music.
  • Last.fm scrobbling with track love support
  • Download cover art function.
  • Edit tags with MusicBrainz Picard (when also installed).
  • Linux desktop integration with MPRIS2.
  • Built-in topchart generator.
  • Background radio broadcasting. radio satellite (Bass only)
  • Stream music from your PLEX, koel or Subsonic API compatible server.
  • Import and control playback of Spotify tracks. (Requires Spotify Premium)

How to Install Tauon Music Box in Ubuntu:

SNAP Package:

The music player is available to install in Ubuntu Software via Snap package.

You may also run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the snap:

snap install tauon

Flatpak Package:

Tauon is also available in Flathub repository as flatpak package.

Linux Portable:

The github releases page offers Linux.zip package.

Grab the package, extract, and run the tauon.py file to launch the music player:

python3 tauon.py

Tips: 1. Go into the folder that contains tauon.py file, right-click on blank area and select ‘Open in Terminal’, finally run the previous python3 tauon.py.

2. The portable package requires python3, python3-musicbrainzngs, and maybe other python libraries, install them via apt command.

In App Review
 

Avidemux 2.7.6 Released with New Encoder/Decoder [How to Install]

Last updated: July 8, 2020

Avidemux video editor 2.7.6 was released a day ago with new video encoder / decoder, and many improvements. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04.

Avidemux 2.7.6 release highlights according to the changelog file:

  • Detect and warn when cut points in HEVC video streams may result in grave playback issues despite being on keyframes
  • Add libaom-based AV1 decoder
  • Add libvpx-based VP9 encoder
  • Update to FFmpeg 4.2.3
  • Add hardware accelerated deinterlacer and resizer based on VA-API
  • Increase maximum supported resolution to 4096×4096
  • Add support for Vorbis audio, LPCM audio to the Mp4 muxer
  • Add HE-AAC and HE-AACv2 profiles to the FDK AAC encoder plugin
  • Numerous other improvements and fixes.

How to Install Avidemux 2.7.6 in Ubuntu:

Appimage:

The official non-install single executable .appimage package is available for downloading:

After downloaded the appimage, go to file Properties -> Permissions and make it executable, finally right-click and run the file to launch Avidemux video editor.

Flatpak:

The software is also as containerized Flatpak package.

You can run following commands one by one to setup flatpak, add flathub repository, and install Avidemux flatpak package:

sudo apt install flatpak

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub org.avidemux.Avidemux

Ubuntu PPA:

I’ve uploaded the .deb packages into the unofficial PPA, available for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, and derivatives.

1.) Open terminal and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/avidemux

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then refresh system package cache and install the editor:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install libavidemux2.7-6 libavidemux2.7-qt5-6 avidemux2.7-qt5 avidemux2.7-plugins-qt5 avidemux2.7-jobs-qt5

NOTE: Due to build failure, I changed names of some shared libraries. If you have problem launching the editor, try sudo apt upgrade to update your system packages.

Uninstall:

To uninstall the PPA, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/avidemux

To uninstall the video editing software, run:

sudo apt remove libavidemux2.7-6 avidemux2.7-qt5 avidemux2.7-plugins-qt5 avidemux2.7-jobs-qt5

And to uninstall the Flatpak package, use command:

flatpak uninstall org.avidemux.Avidemux
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