How to Use Uninstalled Fonts
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006
In Windows, installed fonts are loaded into memory as the computer boots up, and they stay loaded. (Mac devs, let me know if things are different for you!) Normally, this is a good thing: fonts are instantly available in all applications; they show up in font select boxes and are easy to manipulate in terms of size and style. But too much of anything is, well … not a good thing. I witnessed a machine once that was bogged down with literally 2,000 installed fonts, and the developer wondered why things were running so slowly.
And yet, developer/designers need fonts! Clients want variety. To handle this situation, a number of font managers have sprung to life, usually shareware, that allow you to view uninstalled fonts and, with the click of a button, install and uninstall them as needed. It’s certainly more convenient than dragging a TTF file into your Windows\fonts folder. That may just meet your needs, but as it happens, I stumbled onto a surprisingly easy way to use uninstalled fonts without special software. Keep reading »
