How to Install Fonts (For Non-Techy People)

Now and then I get emails from lovely readers with questions about something they've seen on my blog. Of these questions, there is one which is currently popping up more than any other; "how do I get the fonts to work once I've downloaded them?" So today I thought I would write a quick tutorial about how to install fonts, (obviously I am happy for people to email me for help if they are still having problems after reading this post).

The first thing you need to know is that how you go about it very much depends on your computer - it's different for a Mac than a PC, and it will also vary according to what version of Windows you are running. You might also not be too familiar with zipped files, so I will cover that briefly too.

What to do with zipped fonts

The majority of websites provide font files in .zip form. You absolutely must unzip these files before they can be installed. To do this, right click on the file and select "Extract All...".

You will then need to go into the folder with the extracted files and look for the true type font(s), which have the extension .ttf, and install them in your fonts folder.

How to install font on a PC

Windows 8/ Windows 7/ Vista

Installing fonts on newer versions of Windows is simple. Right click on the .tff file and select "Install".

Installing fonts under any version of Windows

If you are running an older version of Windows then installing fonts takes slightly more effort. First of all, you need to know where your computer's font folder is. Common routes for opening the folder are:

C:\Windows\Fonts

C:\WINNT\Fonts

Start Menu>Control Panel>Appearance and Themes>Fonts

Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Fonts

If none of the above seem to apply to your computer run a search for "fonts" on your computer and that will either bring up the location or automatically open the folder for you.

To move the .ttf file to the fonts folder you can either left click on it and drag it into the 'Fonts' folder, or just cut and paste it. This is done by right clicking on the .ttf file and selecting "cut" then right clicking in the 'Fonts' folder and selecting "paste".

How to install a font under Mac OS

On a Mac, fonts need to be dragged and dropped into the 'Fonts' folder. This can be found under:

/Library/Fonts

Or, if you only want the font to be available to a specific user, then follow the path:

/Users/user_name/Library/Fonts

You can also install fonts via Font Book.

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I am not an IT expert so I hope that my tutorial makes installing fonts a little less scary for other non-techy people! Now that you know how to install fonts, check out my fonts page to find some pretty typography for your computer.

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