diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c29e749..65d7f0a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -105,6 +105,10 @@ The font file can be a ZIP file of lots of fonts or just a single font.
 Depending on how you installed pyfiglet, you may find that you need
 root access to install the font - e.g. `sudo pyfiglet -L <font file>`.
 
+On Unix-like systems, pyfiglet also looks for fonts installed by FIGlet in
+`/usr/local/share/figlet` and `/usr/share/figlet`, so system fonts can be used
+by name without installing them separately into pyfiglet.
+
 ## **Author**
 
 All of the documentation and the majority of the work done was by
diff --git a/pyfiglet/__init__.py b/pyfiglet/__init__.py
index 545d9d9..51083dd 100755
--- a/pyfiglet/__init__.py
+++ b/pyfiglet/__init__.py
@@ -60,8 +60,14 @@
 
 if sys.platform == 'win32':
     SHARED_DIRECTORY = os.path.join(os.environ["APPDATA"], "pyfiglet")
+    FONT_DIRECTORIES = (SHARED_DIRECTORY,)
 else:
     SHARED_DIRECTORY = '/usr/local/share/pyfiglet/'
+    FONT_DIRECTORIES = (
+        SHARED_DIRECTORY,
+        '/usr/local/share/figlet',
+        '/usr/share/figlet',
+    )
 
 
 def figlet_format(text:str, font:str=DEFAULT_FONT, **kwargs:Any):
@@ -144,7 +150,7 @@ def preloadFont(cls, font:str):
                 font_path = path
                 break
             else:
-                for location in ("./", SHARED_DIRECTORY):
+                for location in ("./",) + FONT_DIRECTORIES:
                     full_name = os.path.join(location, fn)
                     if os.path.isfile(full_name):
                         font_path = pathlib.Path(full_name)
@@ -173,13 +179,16 @@ def isValidFont(cls, font:str):
         if not font.endswith(('.flf', '.tlf')):
             return False
         f = None
-        full_file = os.path.join(SHARED_DIRECTORY, font)
         if os.path.isfile(font):
             f = open(font, 'rb')
-        elif os.path.isfile(full_file):
-            f = open(full_file, 'rb')
         else:
-            f = importlib.resources.files('pyfiglet.fonts').joinpath(font).open('rb')
+            for location in FONT_DIRECTORIES:
+                full_file = os.path.join(location, font)
+                if os.path.isfile(full_file):
+                    f = open(full_file, 'rb')
+                    break
+            else:
+                f = importlib.resources.files('pyfiglet.fonts').joinpath(font).open('rb')
 
         if zipfile.is_zipfile(f):
             # If we have a match, the ZIP file spec says we should just read the first file in the ZIP.
@@ -198,8 +207,9 @@ def isValidFont(cls, font:str):
     @classmethod
     def getFonts(cls):
         all_files = importlib.resources.files('pyfiglet.fonts').iterdir()
-        if os.path.isdir(SHARED_DIRECTORY):
-             all_files = itertools.chain(all_files, pathlib.Path(SHARED_DIRECTORY).iterdir())
+        for location in FONT_DIRECTORIES:
+            if os.path.isdir(location):
+                all_files = itertools.chain(all_files, pathlib.Path(location).iterdir())
         return [font.name.split('.', 2)[0] for font
                 in all_files
                 if font.is_file() and cls.isValidFont(font.name)]
diff --git a/pyfiglet/tests/test_cli.py b/pyfiglet/tests/test_cli.py
index b79e8d0..155d233 100644
--- a/pyfiglet/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/pyfiglet/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 import pytest
 
+import pyfiglet
+
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def test_font_dir():
@@ -45,6 +47,14 @@ def test_strip_strange_font(test_font_dir):
     assert result.returncode == 0
 
 
+def test_font_directories_are_searched(test_font_dir, monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(pyfiglet, "FONT_DIRECTORIES", (test_font_dir,))
+
+    assert "TEST_ONLY" in pyfiglet.FigletFont.getFonts()
+    rendered = pyfiglet.Figlet(font="TEST_ONLY").renderText("0")
+    assert "0000000000" in rendered
+
+
 # normalize is just strip with padding
 def test_normalize():
     command = "pyfiglet -f slant -n 0"