How To Install libfreetype6 on Debian 11

In this tutorial we learn how to install libfreetype6 on Debian 11. libfreetype6 is FreeType 2 font engine, shared library files

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install libfreetype6 on Debian 11.

What is libfreetype6

libfreetype6 is:

The FreeType project is a team of volunteers who develop free, portable and high-quality software solutions for digital typography. They specifically target embedded systems and focus on providing small, efficient and ubiquitous products.

The FreeType 2 library is their new software font engine. It has been designed to provide the following important features:

  • A universal and simple API to manage font files
  • Support for several font formats through loadable modules
  • High-quality anti-aliasing
  • High portability & performance

Supported font formats include:

  • TrueType files (.ttf) and collections (.ttc)
  • Type 1 font files both in ASCII (.pfa) or binary (.pfb) format
  • Type 1 Multiple Master fonts. The FreeType 2 API also provides routines to manage design instances easily
  • Type 1 CID-keyed fonts
  • OpenType/CFF (.otf) fonts
  • CFF/Type 2 fonts
  • Adobe CEF fonts (.cef), used to embed fonts in SVG documents with the Adobe SVG viewer plugin.
  • Windows FNT/FON bitmap fonts

This package contains the files needed to run programs that use the FreeType 2 library.

There are three methods to install libfreetype6 on Debian 11. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install libfreetype6 Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install libfreetype6 using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install libfreetype6

Install libfreetype6 Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install libfreetype6 using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install libfreetype6

Install libfreetype6 Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install libfreetype6 using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install libfreetype6

How To Uninstall libfreetype6 on Debian 11

To uninstall only the libfreetype6 package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove libfreetype6

Uninstall libfreetype6 And Its Dependencies

To uninstall libfreetype6 and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 11, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove libfreetype6

Remove libfreetype6 Configurations and Data

To remove libfreetype6 configuration and data from Debian 11 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge libfreetype6

Remove libfreetype6 configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove libfreetype6 configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge libfreetype6

Dependencies

libfreetype6 have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install libfreetype6 package on Debian 11 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.