Installing New Fonts

TIP OF THE DAY

Installing New Fonts

Microsoft and Apple jointly developed a font standard called "TrueType" which is scalable and is supported in both Windows and the MacOS.  Scalable means you can increase or decrease the size of the font without distorting it.

Way back before the Internet, you generally had to purchase font packages and install them from disk. You can still purchase commercial font packages in retail stores and online, but for the most part, any font that you may want is likely available as a free download from dozens of Web sites.

If you know the name of the font(s) that you want to add, try going to your favorite search engine and putting the font name followed by ".ttf" into the search bar. The ".ttf" tells it to look specifically for the True Type Font extension, which will narrow your search results to actual sites that have the font. For instance, if you were looking for the "comic" font, put "comic.ttf" into the search engine so that you will go to sites that will actually have the font for downloading.

If you just want to go on a font finding spree, try going to 1001freefonts.com, acidfonts.com, getfonts.com, or type "free fonts" into any search engine.

When you find the font that you want, you must download it to your computer from the Web site. The exact process differs from site to site, but be sure to remember where you saved the file on your computer. If the download file has a ".zip" extension, it means it has been compressed and will require an unzip utility such as WinZip.

Once you have downloaded the fonts that you want to add, go to the Control Panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel) and open the Fonts icon. This should open a window that displays your currently installed fonts. Next, click on File / Install New Font to open the Add Fonts window. Navigate to the folder that contains the downloaded fonts by using the Folders: section. When you get to the folder containing the new fonts, they will automatically appear in the List of fonts: box at the top. If you want all of the fonts listed, click on the "Select All" button to the right, then on OK. If you only want certain fonts installed, hold down the "Ctrl" button on your keyboard, then select the fonts that you want to install, then press the OK button.

The newly installed fonts will appear in the list and will now be available to all of your programs that allow you to change fonts. A word of warning: installing too many fonts can impact the overall performance of your system and slow it down. The more fonts you install, the longer it will take Windows and some other programs to load. The number of installed fonts will appear at the bottom left of the list of fonts. To remove a font, simply click on it and press the delete key on your keyboard. To view a font, simply double-click it. Windows has a core group of fonts that are necessary for the system to operate properly, so before deleting any fonts check the table of required fonts that Sue Chastain has so kindly posted here.

Source: Ken Colburn of Data Doctors