Install and configure Unicode TrueType fonts in Linux

Uncompress the downloaded font archive to a directory and add it to the font path, a list of directories containing fonts:

1. Uncompress the archive
   
   # tar xvzf utf8.tar.gz
   
   or
   
   # tar xvjf arial.tar.bz2
    
2. Create a directory for new fonts
   
   # mkdir /usr/share/fonts/truetype
    
3. Move the uncompressed font files to the new font directory
   
   # mv *.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype
    
4. Navigate to the font directory
   
   # cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype
    
5. Create fonts.scale and fonts.dir
   
   # mkfontscale && mkfontdir
   # fc-cache
    
6. Add the new font directory to the X11 font path
   
   # chkfontpath --add /usr/share/fonts/truetype
    
7. Restart X font server
   
   # /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs restart

You can verify the successful addition of the new path by running chkfontpath command or by listing X font server's /etc/X11/XF86Config file.

If you do not have root access, copy the *.ttf to ~/.fonts directory instead.
 

Make X11 fonts available to Java

Perform one of the following:

1. Open /etc/profile and add a new environment variable
   
   JAVA_FONTS=/usr/share/fonts/truetype
   export JAVA_FONTS
   
   
2. Open font.properties file under jre/lib directory, uncommnent and set to the appropriate font directory
   
   appendedfontpath=/usr/share/fonts/truetype
   

References & Resources:

http://www.vnlinux.org/sitemoi/?q=node/4
http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Font-HOWTO
http://vietunicode.sourceforge.net
http://vietpad.sourceforge.net/javaonlinux.html