How to Use Uninstalled Fonts
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.
An answer, short and sweet
To make a font available, it simply needs to be loaded into memory. If you double click a TTF file, it will load into Windows’ built-in font viewer. That’s all it takes. You may now open Flash, Photoshop, and the like, and that font (or fonts) will be available.
Pros and cons
What I like about this approach is that it keeps me organized. I save uncommon TTFs per project right in the same folder as my FLAs, along with other extras such as PSDs, color swatches, and the like. I enjoy not having to keep track of fonts in order to uninstall them again later.
What I don’t like is that I have to remember to double click each TTF used in the FLA — before I open Flash. For each TTF loaded, I have to minimize its associated font viewer window.
So, like anything else, it comes down to weighing what bothers you more. I haven’t yet decided to use this “trick” all the time, but for what it’s worth, I thought I’d mention it.
May 10th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Adobe Type Manager Light is Free, and it seems to be a quite good solution too, even if the discontinued Deluxe version was quite better.
http://www.adobe.com/products/atmlight/
May 10th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for the link, Davel_x. As noted on the Adobe site, Adobe Type Manager Light isn’t necessary for basic font installation and rendering in Windows 2000 and higher, but it does have the convenient click-to-install/-uninstall feature.
May 11th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
I use extensis suitcase for windows. This allows you to create font groups, as well as only activate the fonts you need. Additionally it comes with font doctor which sorts your fonts base don a variety of advanced settings.
May 11th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Extensis Suitcase seems a bit steep at $79.95, but hey, if the shoe fits…!
May 13th, 2006 at 10:57 am
It’s fun to see what one can achive with DOS, although I am a beginner… Here’s a useful little batch program I wrote:
@ECHO OFF
FOR /R “%CD%” %%f IN (*.ttf) DO start /MIN “” “%%f”
Just save that as, whatever.bat
It will open all ttf’s in the current directory (and I think all subdirectories…) minimized. And if you use Windows XP, all the fonts will be grouped in the taskbar, so all you have to do is right click and hit Close All.