For the most authoritative and up-to-date information on fonts in GIMP, consult the „Fonts in GIMP 2.0” page [GIMP-FONTS] at the GIMP web site. This section attempts to give you a helpful overview.

GIMP uses the FreeType 2 font engine to render fonts, and a system called Fontconfig to manage them. Any font in Fontconfig's font path is available in GIMP. In addition, any font which is located in GIMP's Font Folders is available in GIMP. Font Folders are set on the Fonts page in the Folders preferences. By default, there are two Font Folders: The system GIMP fonts folder (which you should not alter), and a fonts folder inside your personal GIMP directory. You can also add additional font folders if wanted.

FreeType 2 supports many common font file formats. You can also add modules to support other types of font files. See FREETYPE 2 [FREETYPE] for more information.

Linux.  On a Linux system, if the Fontconfig utility is set up as usual, all you need to do to add a new font is to place the file in the directory ~/.fonts. This will make the font available not only to GIMP, but to any other program that uses Fontconfig. If for some reason you want the font to be available to GIMP only, you can place it in the fonts sub-directory of your personal GIMP directory, or some other location in your font search path. Doing either will cause the font to show up the next time you start GIMP. If you want to use it in an already running GIMP, press the Refresh button in the Fonts dialog.

Windows.  The easiest way to install a font is to drag the file onto the Fonts directory and let the shell do its magic. Unless you've done something creative, it's probably in its default location of C:\windows\fonts or C:\winnt\fonts. Sometimes double-clicking on a font will install it as well as display it; sometimes it only displays it. This method will make the font available not only to GIMP, but also to other Windows applications.

Mac OS X.  There are several ways to install fonts on your system. You can drag-and-drop them to the „Fonts” folder in „Libraries” folder of your „Home Folder”. Or you may use Font Book, invoked by double-clicking the font file icon in the Finder. You can see what the font looks like, and click your favorite fonts so that their files are to be installed on the system. These methods will make the fonts available for all applications, not only GIMP. If you want all users can use the fonts, drag-and-drop the fonts to the „Fonts” folder in „Libraries” folder of the Mac OS X™ Disk, or to the „Computer” folder in the Collection column of Font Book.

In principle, GIMP can use any type of font on Windows that FreeType can handle; however, for fonts that Windows can't handle natively, you should install these fonts by placing the font files in the fonts folder inside your personal GIMP directory (see above). Windows support for different font file formats varies by the Windows version. Please ask in a Windows support forum in case of problems.