I posted a question about this earlier and I have a working solution. How to get truetype fonts working under Abiword? - Copy the truetype fonts you want to use to the directory /usr/share/abisuite/fonts - Make backups of the files fonts.dir and fonts.scale - Run ttmkfdir (get a deb for woody from http://hell.hell.pl/baran/tek/linux/debian/ttmkfdir/ as it is not in unstable), this will create a new fonts.dir file with the truetype fonts descriptions - Open the new fonts.dir file with a text editor and also open the backup of fonts.dir - Copy the contents from the backup fonts.dir and paste it above the entries of the new fonts.dir file - Both the backup fonts.dir as well as the new fonts.dir have the number of fonts in them on the first line. Count them up and put them in the first line of the new fonts.dir - Save fonts.dir, fire up Abiword and enjoy truetype fonts.
P.S. 1) I haven't tried printing yet. My concern was mainly the dismal display fonts. P.S. 2) Fonts that came with Abiword, like Time, Arial and Courier are replaced with the truetype font, although the Abiword fonts are still there. It works for me, even though there will be certain issues, like duplication of ttfonts on the system. Comments appreciated, especially if there are better ways to do it.
