How to view, install, and remove fonts in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

How to view, install, and remove fonts in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

When you are looking for something to make a document or presentation more interesting, the solution can sometimes be a new font. Although Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 come with a wide range of fonts, you can find websites that offer fonts, either free or for purchase, which can spruce things up a bit. After you download a font, you have to install it and, when you do not need it anymore, you may want to remove it or hide it. Therefore, in this article, we show how to install, remove or hide a font, in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1:

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NOTE: This guide applies to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The screenshots we used are only from Windows 7 because things work the same in both versions. If you do not know the version of Windows that you have, read this tutorial: What version of Windows do I have installed?.

For Windows 10, read How to view, install, and remove fonts in Windows 10.

How to view your installed fonts in Windows

There are many ways in which you can see a list with all the fonts that are installed on your Windows computer or device. One that works is to open the Control Panel and go to: "Appearance and Personalization -> Fonts."

Fonts options in Control Panel
Fonts options in Control Panel

The Fonts window is opened. Here is where you view all your installed fonts and manage them. Make sure that you remember how to open this window because this is the place where you do all your font-related management. The Fonts window displays all the fonts and font families that are installed and available. A font family may include one or more related fonts, that have minor differences between them.

List of installed fonts in Control Panel
List of installed fonts in Control Panel

Double click on the name of a font family. If the font family you choose includes only one font, it is automatically displayed in a preview window.

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If the font family includes two or more fonts, their name is displayed in the Fonts window. Double click on the font that you want to open, to view it in a window similar to the one below.

Preview an installed font
Preview an installed font

How to preview a font before installing it

If you download a font in an archived format like ZIP or RAR, you need to extract it first. Extract it to a location where you can easily access it. Fonts that work in Windows have one of the following file extensions: ".ttc", ".ttf" or ".pfb".

Font file
Font file

You can preview any font before installing it. To do that, right click on the font that interests you and, in the contextual menu, click Preview.

Context menu for a font file
Context menu for a font file

A window is opened where you can preview how the font looks when writing a text of different sizes.

Preview for a font file
Preview for a font file

How to install a font in Windows

To install a font, you must have administrator rights. If you download a font in an archived format, you need to extract it first. Fonts that work in Windows have one of the following file extensions: ".ttc", ".ttf" or ".pfb".

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You can install a font from the preview window we have described in the previous section or you can right-click on it and, in the contextual menu, choose Install.

Install a font file
Install a font file

A progress bar is shown for a few seconds, showing the progress of the installation. You are not going to receive a notification that the font has been installed. You can check whether the font was installed in the Fonts window/ Also, you can open any text editor. If the font installation went smoothly, you should be able to choose the font that you have just installed from the list of available fonts. Please take under consideration that if you plan to send the document to someone else, they might not be able to see the same font unless they also have it installed on their computer.

How to remove fonts in Windows

In order to manage your installed fonts, you need to open the Fonts window. In order to do this, go to the Control Panel, choose "Appearance and Personalization" followed by Fonts. Select the font that you want to remove and click the Delete button.

Delete an installed font
Delete an installed font

Windows asks if you are sure you want to delete this font permanently. Press Yes and the font is gone. If you have selected a fonts family, Windows will tell you how many fonts are going to be removed after you press Yes.

Delete confirmation for an installed font
Delete confirmation for an installed font

You can remove as many fonts as you wish, using the same procedure.

How to hide or unhide fonts in Windows

You can also choose not to remove a font, but hide it instead. This is useful if you want a font to be temporarily unavailable to text editors in Windows but you might want to enable it again later.

To do that, go to the Fonts window, select the desired font and click the Hide button.

Hide an installed font
Hide an installed font

This action greys out the font in the Fonts window and makes it unavailable in text editors and other apps that work with text and fonts. According to Microsoft, the "Hide fonts" feature removes fonts from application menus. Hidden fonts are still available for drawing text, but they are hidden from the menus. This works for many, but not all Windows applications.

If you want to show a font that you previously hid, in the Fonts window, click the hidden font to select it and then the Show button.

Show a hidden font
Show a hidden font

By default, Windows hides fonts that are not designed for your keyboard input language settings. For example, if your default language is English, then Arabic, Chinese or Japanese fonts which are not designed for the English language, are not going to be displayed when working with text editors. To change this option, so that these fonts are not hidden anymore, click or tap "Font settings" in the column on the left side of the Fonts window.

Open Font settings in Control Panel
Open Font settings in Control Panel

The Font settings panel is opened. Here, deselect the box that says "Hide font based on language settings" and press the OK button.

Hide fonts based on language settings
Hide fonts based on language settings

Do you have trouble handling fonts in Windows?

Now that you know how to preview, add, remove or hide fonts, you can go ahead and create great presentations or import funny fonts and use them in your personal documents. If you are having any trouble or if you feel like you just haven't gotten enough information from this article, leave a comment with your questions.

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