>

List Installed Fonts with fc-list

Use fc-list to enumerate installed fonts and find exact family names for terminal, CSS or editor font settings.

Linuxfontsdesktopfc-listTerminalLow risk
Run `fc-list : family | sort -u` to list every installed font family, or `fc-list | grep -i mono` to search for monospaced fonts.

01Command

Command
$ fc-list : family | sort -u | grep -i noto

02What it does

fc-list prints the file path, family and style for each installed font face — the family string is exactly what you type into font settings (e.g. 'JetBrains Mono', 'Noto Sans CJK SC'). Query by pattern with `fc-list ':charset=4e2d'` to find fonts containing a specific character (4e2d is 中), which is invaluable when a document shows tofu boxes. Install new fonts by dropping TTF/OTF files into ~/.local/share/fonts/ and running `fc-cache -f`.

03Risk

RiskLow risk
Requirementsfontconfig (fc-list is preinstalled on all desktop distros). Full details for one font: `fc-list -v "family=Noto Sans"`; match by style: `fc-list :family="Noto Sans CJK SC"`.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • fc-list(1) - Linux manual page
    Ubuntu Manpages · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: fc-list lists fonts matching a pattern and displays family, style and file information for each match.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: System & Settings

06Related solutions

Update and upgrade packages on Debian/Ubuntu with apt
LinuxsystemTerminal

Refresh the package index from all configured repositories, then install newer versions of every upgradable package.

Medium risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Search text recursively in a directory with grep
LinuxFilesTerminaldeveloper

Find every occurrence of a pattern across all files in a tree, printed as file:line:number matches.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Extract a .tar.gz archive with tar
LinuxZip & ArchivesFilesTerminal

Unpack a gzipped tarball into the current directory while printing each file as it is extracted.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17