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Installing & Managing Fonts

Overview

With so many different types of fonts available, managing them all can often be a job within itself. Luckily, both Mac OS X and Windows XP come with built-in tools to assist the user with installing, previewing, and organizing the fonts on their system.

Mac OS X

There are multiple locations where fonts can be installed on OS X:

  • /Library/Fonts - Main font library, shared by all users
  • ~/Library/Fonts - Fonts availble only to the user
  • /System/Library/Fonts - Fonts used by the system (menus, dialogs, icons). You are required to restart the computer when editing these particular fonts.
  • /Network/Library/Fonts - Fonts managed by a central network server and available to all connected clients
  • /System Folder/Fonts - Classic Mac OS 9 fonts

You can install fonts on OS X three ways:

  1. Drag and drop
  2. Double-click a font
  3. Font Book

Drag and Drop

Drag a font file directly into any of the font locations listed above, and the font will be moved and installed there.

Double-click a Font

Double-click the font you wish to install. Font Book will launch, along with a window allowing you to preview the font before you install it. By default, Font Book is set to install fonts to the folder in the current user's library, although you can configure it to install fonts into the system's main library instead (so that all users will have access). To do so, go to Font Book > Preferences and change the Default Install Location setting to "Computer."


Font Book previewing a font before installation

Font Book

To install a font from within Font Book, go to File > Add Fonts. Browse to where the font file is located, select it, and click Open. This will install the font into your default font location.

Font Book
Mac OS X's Font Book

Font Book organizes the fonts on your system into "collections." Designed much like Address Book, Font Book is split into three panes. The source pane at left displays all of your font collections. Choose a collection, and the fonts within that collection are listed in the middle pane. Choosing an individual font will preview it in the right pane (along with additional information, if you choose to have that displayed).

Much like playlists in iTunes, you can create your own collections of fonts:

Individual fonts — and even entire collections of fonts — can be enabled or disabled on-the-fly. Select a font or collection and go to Edit > Disable "[selected font]" family or Disable "[selected collection]". Applications immediately reflect font changes without restarting. To remove a font completely, select it and go to File > Remove "[selected font]" family.

Fonts can be moved between collections through simple drag-and-drop.

If you have many fonts installed on your system, Font Book's built-in search box allows you to quickly search through your fonts by name or any other type of metadata stored in a font's file.

Power user tip: While you unfortunately cannot save your font searches as "smart" font collections, AppleScript provides a workaround. With the script menu enabled, click on it and go to Font Book > Create collection from. Then, select the font criteria that you want to base your new font collection on.

Windows XP

Windows XP requires that all fonts be located in c:\WINDOWS\Fonts. You can install a font in XP two ways:

  1. Drag and drop
  2. "Add Fonts" dialog

Drag and Drop

You can drag a font file directly into c:\WINDOWS\Fonts, and the font will be moved and installed there.

"Add Fonts" Dialog

While in the c:\WINDOWS\Fonts folder, go to File > Install New Font. This will open the "Add Fonts" dialog where you can browse your computer for the font you wish to install.

Strangely, the "Add Fonts" dialog is completely non-standard. The design and layout of the window — including the folder and drive icons — appears to be carried over from Windows 3.1, forcing you to browse your entire filesystem through a small, non-resizable list box. Why didn't Microsoft just implement this as a standard Open dialog like those found throughout the rest of Windows XP?

XP does not have any font management capabilities — all fonts are simply installed in the Fonts folder. You cannot create subfolders or collections of fonts, and disabling a font requires either deleting it or moving it out of the Fonts folder.


View fonts installed in XP from within Explorer

You can view your fonts within standard Explorer views (large icons, list view, details view), as well as a unique view called "similarity." When in this view, a drop-down menu at the top of the window lets you pick a "base" font to compare all other fonts to. Fonts will then be sorted according to how similar they are to the chosen font (Very Similar, Fairly Similar, Not Similar, No Information Available).

Previewing Installed Fonts

Mac OS X

There are three ways to preview fonts on OS X:

  1. Double-click a font file
  2. Font Book
  3. Fonts Palette

Double-click a font file

Browse to any of the font locations on your computer and double-click on any font file. Font Book will launch to show you a preview of the font:

Font Book

Launch Font Book and select a font; a sample will be shown in the Preview column (like in the above screenshot).

Power user tip: if Font Book's samples are too small for you, go to Script Menu > Font Book > Create Font Sample. A custom sample of the fonts selected in Font Book will be generated in TextEdit.

Fonts Palette

Most applications that involve editing text support OS X's Fonts palette (such as Apple Mail). Usually, you can access this from within the Format menu, or from the contextual menu of the text editing field. The Fonts palette essentially looks like a "mini" version of Font Book, with a listing of all your fonts and a preview pane at the top of the window:


OS X's Fonts palette

Windows XP

There are two ways to preview fonts in XP:

  1. Double-click a font file
  2. Fonts panel

Double-click a font file

Double-clicking a font file within Explorer opens the font file in Windows Font View, where you can preview the font along with its details.

Fonts Panel

XP provides a standard Font panel, accessible from applications such as WordPad, where you can preview selected fonts:

Conclusion

Mac OS X

  • Greater flexibility for installing fonts via multiple font locations (user, computer, system, network, etc)
  • Includes built-in font managment software to organize your fonts
  • On-the-fly enabling/disabling of fonts
  • Double-click installation of fonts
  • Can create custom font collections in Font Book (which are then mirrored in the Fonts palette)
  • Multiple font locations can cause duplicate fonts to be installed on the same system, which can lead to conflicts
  • The Fonts palette does not indicate the format of a font (OpenType, TrueType, etc.)
  • No ability to sort fonts based on their similarities to another font

Windows XP

  • One location for installed fonts prevents duplicates
  • Double-click installation of fonts
  • Can view/sort fonts in Explorer by how similar they are to another font
  • Fonts panel indicated the format of a font
  • Limited flexibility in installing fonts with only one location
  • No ability to create groups or collections of fonts
  • Cannot enable/disable fonts without manually moving or deleting them

Mac OS X: 8
Windows XP: 7

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