So, I'm trying to make SDL_TTF work on Ubuntu. I think I got all of the right SDL_TTF and freetype packages, but I'm not exactly sure how I should go about linking against freetype. It has lots of different headers that point every which way. Thanks for any help in advance.

Hello EMR. I'm pretty sure Ubuntu's package manager already have sdl_ttf ready for install. You might need its development version, which would be called sdl_ttf-dev or something like that. I couldn't understand very well what you're trying to do, but you need not to compile it from source.

Then you must link your project against SDL_ttf (-lSDL_ttf)

Good luck.

I successfully linked (statically) SDL_TTF, but apparently SDL_TTF won't work on Linux unless one also links to it's font engine, freetype. Except freetype is kind of opaque in explaining what headers need to be linked to to use it for SDL_TTF. I'm not compiling it from source (at least I don't think I am), just trying to link statically.

EMR, I had no trouble linking against SDL_ttf on linux, i hadn't to link against freetype also. Which command you're using to compile and link your program?

This page gives more info on compiling and linking against SDL_ttf:
http://jcatki.no-ip.org:8080/SDL_ttf/SD ... .html#SEC4

Post any doubts here i'll try to help you.