please,no flaming or bashing. if you have to criticize,please do so in a respectable way.
i will show you how to display whatever font you want on your desktop,taskbar,menus etc...
This was done in ubuntu 7.10 gutsy, I use gnome environment and I do not know if it works for other versions or kde.
I am very new to Ubuntu and still learning it,
i love to modify everything, so i began my quest to have old English fonts . I see lots of people asking in posts for the same thing but no definitive tutorials or confirmation on being able to do it.(not in my searching anyway) So i gathered the info i could find and experimented till i got it. if you need to find what version of debian you are using, go to taskbar, system,administration,system monitor, when it opens you will find your version in the systems tab(see pics)

Step 1: Root Permissions

First thing to do is find the ttf you want to use. I chose Old English but you can use whatever is available or Google for others. you can get some from a windows operating system from what ive read.
next to do is for later in the instructable,but we will do it now so its ready.right click on your desktop and select create launcher.type root in the name box, then type gksudo nautilus in the command box. now you have a shortcut to root privelages on your desktop.

Step 2: Fonts, Except for the Desktop.....i Think

from the task bar select places,desktop, then navigate /usr/share/fonts/truetype. right click on an empty space and create a new folder. name it the same as whatever font you will be using.(In my case i called it old English). You will copy and paste or drag and drop your ttf file into this newly created folder.
Next step is to close back to your desktop, from your task bar select system, then preferences, appearance. a box will pop up with tabs. select the fonts tab.
Now you can choose what aspect of your system you would like to add this new font too,as well as what size etc. click on the bars with the numbers at the right end,scroll through until you see the font you saved in your newly created folder. It should update right away for all except the desktop.
At this point you can ctrl-alt-backspace to restart x and your desktop fonts may have updated if you chose that option.(I may be wrong about that part as i did some other steps before restarting,but i will show you that tutorial as well)

Step 3: Now for the Desktop

on your desktop now,double click the root shortcut, enter your password and voila! you now have root permissions.
(note that if you do not use the root shortcut,you will not be able to create the folder needed for this step.)
navigate to /usr/local/share/fonts, create a new folder as you did before with the same name. drag and drop or copy and paste your ttf font into this folder. ctrl-alt-backspace to restart x and you should see your fonts on your taskbar.
I hope you liked this instructable and find it useful