title: How to load .ttf file in matplotlib using mpl.rcParams?
body: <p>I have a matplotlib script that starts ...  </p>
  
  <pre><code>import matplotlib as mpl
  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  import matplotlib.font_manager as fm
  
  mpl.rcParams['xtick.labelsize']=16 
  ...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've used the command </p>
  
  <pre><code>fm.findSystemFonts()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>to get a list of the fonts on my system.  I've discovered the full path to a .ttf file I'd like to use, </p>
  
  <pre><code>'/usr/share/fonts/truetype/anonymous-pro/Anonymous Pro BI.ttf'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've tried to use this font without success using the following commands</p>
  
  <pre><code>mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = 'anonymous-pro'  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <pre><code>mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = 'Anonymous Pro BI'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which both return something like  </p>
  
  <pre><code>/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1218: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['anonymous-pro'] not found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can I use the mpl.rcParams dictionary to set this font in my plots? </p>
  
  <p>EDIT</p>
  
  <p>After reading a bit more, it seems this is a general problem of determining the font family name from a .ttf file.  Is this easy to do in linux or python ? </p>
  
  <p>In addition, I've tried adding </p>
  
  <pre><code>mpl.use['agg']
  mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = False
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>without any success </p>