FreeType is a freely available software library to render fonts.
Get the Code
Switch to /usr/local/src and download the source package.
cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name --location http://sourceforge.net/projects/freetype/files/freetype2/VERSION/freetype-VERSION.tar.gz
Extract the archive and move into the folder.
tar -xzvf freetype-VERSION.tar.gz
cd freetype-VERSION
Compile and Install
Configure, compile and install into /usr/local/freetype-VERSION.
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/freetype-VERSION
make
make install
Create a symbolic link that points /usr/local/freetype to /usr/local/freetype-VERSION.
ln -s freetype-VERSION /usr/local/freetype