Windows 7 Font Install

[Adriana Gowen]

Its hard to overstate just how important fonts are. To spice up your Word documents, Photoshop files, and InDesign creations, you need to know how to install fonts in Windows 11 and Windows 10, and in this guide, we're going to walk you through it.

There are two main ways to install fonts on Windows, but most people should use our first method. In addition to installing fonts, we also have some steps on uninstalling fonts you don't want, as well as our favorite places online to download new fonts.

We're covering Windows 11 and Windows 10 here, which will apply fonts across all of your applications. If you're looking for a different method, make sure to read our guides on how to install fonts to Photoshop and how to install fonts on a Mac.

The best way to install fonts on Windows 10 and Windows 11 is also the easiest. All you need to do is download a font, select the font file, and drag it over to the Windows font screen. Within a few seconds, you'll have a new font without worrying about restarting your computer or downloading any programs.

Step 1: Download the font you want to install. Fonts usually come in zipped (compressed) folders. Extract the folder to your desktop or a location you can easily access on your PC. You can do this by selecting Extract All from the top of the File Explorer window.

You can install fonts through the Microsoft Store as well. The process is easier, but the Microsoft Store doesn't have that many options. Most of the fonts are free, but certain packs will cost you. We found a few packs around $5 at the time of writing, as well as some fonts for around $2.

This isn't the best option for installing fonts, not only due to the limited selection, but also because some of the fonts cost money. We recommend using the drag-and-drop method above instead. Still, we'll show you how to install fonts through the Microsoft Store.

If you want to clean up your font menu, you can delete any font in Windows 10 or Windows 11 -- including the ones provided by Microsoft. Once again, we used Windows 11 for our screenshots, but this process is the same across Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The Microsoft Store has fonts, but you'll need to look online if you want to find more options. There are dozens of free font websites online, though some are better than others. Here are some of the few Windows font archives we frequent.

If you want free fonts, the best place to start is Google Fonts. Google has thousands of free fonts available, and you don't need to worry about downloading something you didn't sign up for. Google also makes the licenses clear, which isn't always the case elsewhere.

For paid fonts, check out Creative Market. There are several community-generated packs that you can usually pick up for a few dollars. Behance is a solid alternative, too, though it's tailored for Adobe applications.

Before installing your new font, make sure to check out its license. Although many fonts are free to download, not all of them are free to use. Fonts may be free for personal use but not commercial use, for example, so it's best to double-check.

It's not often that we get innovation in something as basic as copy and paste. But in a new update to Windows 11, copying and pasting is getting supercharged with AI -- and it doesn't even require a Copilot+ PC.

Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.

One way you can change the style of a document is by adding a new text font. To add a font to Word, download and install the font in Windows, where it will become available to all Microsoft 365 applications.

All fonts are stored in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. Optionally, you can add fonts by simply dragging font files from the extracted files folder into this folder. Windows will then automatically install them. To see what a font looks like, open the Fonts folder, right-click the font file, then select Preview.

However, sometimes you may want to install custom fonts that you've created, purchased or downloaded from somewhere else. In this article we'll talk about how to install those fonts so you can use them in Microsoft Office.

In addition to acquiring and using fonts installed with other applications, you can download fonts from the Internet. Some fonts on the Internet are sold commercially, some are distributed as shareware, and some are free. The Microsoft Typography site site provides links to other font foundries (the companies or individuals outside of Microsoft who create and distribute fonts) where you can find additional fonts.

After you find a font that you would like to use with an Office application, you can download it and install it through the operating system that you are currently using on your computer. Because fonts work with the operating system, they are not downloaded to Office directly. You should go through the system's Fonts folder in Windows Control Panel and the font will work with Office automatically. On the Mac you use the Font Book to add the font and then copy it to the Windows Office Compatible folder.

Many third parties outside of Microsoft package their fonts in .zip files to reduce file size and to make downloading faster. If you have downloaded a font that is saved in .zip format double-click the zip file to open it.

Once you've downloaded the font you want to install you need to install it in the operating system. Once the font is properly installed in the operating system Microsoft Office will be able to see and use it. For detailed instructions select the operating system you're using from the drop-down box below.

When you install a custom font, each font will work only with the computer you've installed it on. Custom fonts that you've installed on your computer might not display the same way on a different computer. Text that is formatted in a font that is not installed on a computer will display in Times New Roman or the default font.

Therefore, if you plan to share Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint, or Excel files with other people, you'll want to know which fonts are native to the version of Office that the recipient is using. If it isn't native, you may have to embed or distribute the font along with the Word file, PowerPoint presentation, or Excel spreadsheet. For more information about this see Fonts that are installed with Microsoft Office.

We use GPO to deploy fonts to our computers (Computer Configuration > Preference > Windows Settings > Files), but for 15 computers, it might be easier to copy and paste. But I still suggest doing it with GPO, since if you need to deploy the fonts to another 15 computers you can just link this GPO to their OU.

I used this and it worked perfectly installing a dozen OTF fonts on Windows 7 machines.

I used it in conjunction with PDQDeploy to copy the fonts into the font folder on the local machine and then run FontReg. Easy as 3.14159.

This seems to work quite well. If we want to add a new font to all machines it can simply be dropped into that Fonts share and it will copy down to each machine upon reboot (I have a scheduled weekly reboot for all machines).

It worked after I installed the Font Installer and uninstall Figma from the other windows user. Then I closed and reopen Figma. Not sure whether the second step was necessary or I just needed to switch out from my windows account.

This is an old topic but it comes up on google searches a lot, and I can see the whole issue (and fix) is not completely explained. So I thought I'd sign in and try to do that. Sorry, this reply is really long, but I think it clears up pretty much ALL windows font-related issues like this. Problems like:

Thank you for the detail explanation, very helpful. I wonder why the average user has to engage in this bug fixing exercise of what it is a well known bug. Why Microsoft or Adobe are not addressing this issue to the root of the cause, or at least create a small App that take care of all above instructions with minimum fuss? I should probably direct this question to them. Thank you again.

I am having the same type problem, only I do not believe the fonts came from as Mac. As far as I know they are Windows fonts that appear to install in Windows/Fonts. But, they do now show up in InDesign. Any fixes?

Which particular fonts? You have another thread going that mentions Arial Narrow, and there is a known issue withthat and one or two other fonts supplied by Microsoft that have an internal error in the font name.

What I figured out is this - when you install a new font, windows copies the font file to the windows font folder, and at the same time updates a list of available fonts in the windows registry.

If the font doesn't exist in the windows font folder, but exists in the registry list, windows thinks it's installed. Even if it's not working anywhere, even if it's been moved or deleted from the windows font folder, windows considers it "installed" because it's on this list.

If the list has the font, but the list has incorrect info about the font's file name... like the list thinks it's called "font1.ttf" but the actual font file is called "font2.otf"... you can't use the font.

Also, the windows font folder gives you a weird specialized view of your files, which looks different from other folders. The actual filenames are replaced with the font name, so instead of seeing "times_0.ttf" you see "Times New Roman Regular". The listed fonts can act like "folders" that you can double click to see the full font family within. This 'special' font folder view is controlled by this hidden registry list. So let's say gotham-bold.ttf is in the windows font folder, but it's not in the registry list... gotham bold will NOT show in that special view of the font folder either. It's actually there in C:\windows\fonts\ , but you can't see it. And if you right click gotham-bold.ttf (from any folder) and choose install, you'll get that annoying error about it already being installed. Worse, even if you say "yes, replace it"... you still might not see the font appear in the folder.

3a8082e126