Font Viewer for Linux Without GNOME or KDE Required

Linux users who want to inspect a font file have two native options: GNOME Font Viewer (if you're on a GNOME desktop) or whatever font preview integration your desktop environment provides. Both show you what a font looks like. Neither shows you what's inside it.

If you need the license text, the version string, the fsType embedding flags, or the unicode coverage of a font file on Linux, you need something else. This guide covers two approaches: browser-based (fastest for one-off checks) and fonttools CLI (best for power users and scripting).

What GNOME Font Viewer Shows (and What It Misses)

GNOME Font Viewer (gnome-font-viewer, part of most GNOME desktop installations) opens font files with a double-click and shows:

• A visual preview at different sizes
• The font name
• An "Install" button

That's the complete feature set for metadata purposes. No license text. No fsType. No version. No glyph count. No unicode ranges.

KDE's font preview (accessible through Dolphin) is similarly limited to visual preview. Neither is intended as a metadata inspection tool.

Using a Browser-Based Font Metadata Viewer on Linux

The WildandFree Font Metadata Viewer runs in any modern browser on Linux — Firefox, Chromium, Chrome. The file is processed entirely in the browser; nothing is uploaded.

Open the tool, drag a TTF, OTF, or WOFF file onto the drop zone, and the full embedded metadata appears: family name, designer, version, copyright, license text, license URL, glyph count, weight class, unicode ranges, and fsType embedding permissions.

This approach works on:

• GNOME, KDE, XFCE, and other traditional desktop environments
• Tiling window manager setups (i3, Sway, Hyprland)
• Any configuration where you have a browser available

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Font Inspection on Linux with fonttools

For power users and scripting, the fonttools Python library is the go-to. Install it:

pip install fonttools
# or on Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install python3-fonttools

Inspect a font's name table (which contains metadata):

python3 -c "
from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont
f = TTFont('yourfont.ttf')
for record in f['name'].names:
    print(record.nameID, record.toUnicode())
"

Specific nameIDs to look for: 0 (copyright), 1 (family), 5 (version), 9 (designer), 13 (license), 14 (license URL). The OS/2 table holds fsType: f['OS/2'].fsType.

fonttools is ideal when you need batch processing, scripting, or access to tables beyond what the browser viewer shows.

Browser vs CLI: Which to Use When

Use the browser viewer when:

• You have one or a few fonts to check
• You want a quick license check before using a font in a project
• You don't have fonttools installed and don't want to install it just for one check
• You want a readable, formatted output rather than raw table data

Use fonttools CLI when:

• You're processing a batch of fonts (dozens or hundreds)
• You need to extract specific fields into a script or database
• You need access to tables beyond name and OS/2 (cmap, fvar, GDEF, etc.)
• You're working headlessly or in a CI/CD context

Frequently Asked Questions

Does GNOME Font Viewer show license or metadata?

No. GNOME Font Viewer is a preview tool. It shows the font name and a visual sample. It doesn't surface the license text, fsType embedding flags, version, designer, or any other metadata fields.

How do I check font metadata on Ubuntu without installing anything?

Open the font metadata viewer in Firefox or Chromium and drag your font file onto it. No packages to install. Everything runs in the browser and processes locally.

What command shows font metadata on Linux?

With fonttools installed: `python3 -c "from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont; f = TTFont('font.ttf'); [print(r.nameID, r.toUnicode()) for r in f['name'].names]"`. Without fonttools, use the browser-based viewer.