Web Development: How to Install a Font on Windows 10

Monday, January 13, 2020

How to Install a Font on Windows 10

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

Found a great new font, but not sure how to install it? In this tutorial, we'll walk through how to do just that—install a font onto your PC running Windows 10. In addition, we'll look at how to uninstall a font, just in case you'd like to remove one from your list of installed fonts.

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

What You'll Need

The following assets are used in this tutorial:

Modern Serif - Elegant Serif Font

This is the font I'll install in this example. You're welcome to use this font with me. Otherwise, you'll need a font of your choice—the only requirement is that it has not been installed on your computer just yet!

Modern Serif Font — Here's the font I'll install in this tutorial—Modern Serif.

Now, let's get down to business and install a new font.

1. How to Install a Font on Windows 10

Step 1

First, download your font.

In most cases, font files tend to be delivered in a compressed document, containing more than one file. A common file type for this is a ZIP file. Make sure to open this file up and extract the font files to your computer.

Below is an example. When, for example, I open a ZIP document, it's like looking inside a folder.

All I need to do is select the contents and drag it to a location on my computer.

I chose to save and store my font files in a folder called "My Fonts" on my Desktop. Here's what it looks like when my font files are extracted from the zip document and into a folder on my desktop.

Step 2

When it comes to fonts themselves, there are many different file types. I won't dig deep into the details of that in this article, but here are two of the most common file types that you'll likely see:

TTF: this is a TrueType Font.
OTF: this is an OpenType Font.

What's the difference? If you're looking for basic font usage, TTF or OTF would likely serve you just fine. If you're a designer looking for extras, OTF might be a stronger choice as it can store additional options like ligatures, glyphs, and alternates that a TTF wouldn't include.

Again, there are other font file types out there, but these are most likely the ones you'll encounter.

Step 3

So, where do the fonts "go" on our computer, when we want to install them? Just having them in any old folder on your computer won't install them.

On Windows 10, you'll want to navigate to your C drive. Double-click to "go inside" and view its contents. Note, if your operating system (Windows) is installed on a different drive, go there instead. However, in most cases, this is assigned to the drive named "C".

Then, go to the Windows folder. Again, double-click to go inside this folder.

Inside the Windows folder, select the Fonts folder. We're going to go inside this folder too.

Here's what the Fonts folder looks like, once I've double-clicked to go inside it.

Tip: Not sure where you "are" on your computer? Check out the highlighted square, below. You'll see that I'm currently viewing "Fonts" inside of Windows, on my C drive.

Step 4

Next, we're going to take our font files and drag them into the Fonts folder.

Just select a font file, click and hold, and then drag it to the folder. When you do so, you'll get visual confirmation that Windows is installing the font.

If there's any concern or conflict, your computer will let you know. For example, if the font is already installed, it will ask you what you would like to do.

Step 5

And now, your font is installed! However, before we wrap up, let's look at one additional way that we can install fonts. This way is even faster and even easier.

Go to your font file and double-click it to open it. You'll get a visual preview, and in the upper left-hand corner, you'll see a button that says Install. Super easy, right?

When I'm installing a lot of fonts at once, I tend to prefer the first method—dragging multiple font files into my Fonts folder. However, for just one, single font, either method is just fine. Choose the one that's most convenient for you!

2. How to Uninstall a Font on Windows 10

Step 1

Now, let's uninstall a font that we don't want on our computer anymore.

Before we do so, I'd like to recommend backing up your fonts.

I like to keep a copy of my font files, just in case. Keep in mind that licensing might limit your installations, but keeping a backup for your records is typically acceptable.

Remember the "My Fonts" folder I made earlier, on my Desktop? This isn't my live fonts folder—having font files here doesn't mean they're installed. They're just files on my desktop. However, I can store them here as a backup if I'd like to.

I can also select fonts from my Fonts folder (where they are installed)—and copy and paste them to another folder, to back them up. For example, here's my backup folder with an extra font I copied from my Fonts folder (the font is Mattea!)

Step 2

Let's go to the Fonts folder in our Windows folder. Again, to get there:

Go to your C drive. Double-click to go "inside" it and look at its contents. Note, you'll want to go to where your operating system is installed. This is typically assigned to "C", but may vary if your system was set up differently.
Go to the Windows folder. Double-click to go inside and view its contents.
Go to the Fonts folder. Again, double-click to go inside this folder.

Remember this folder? We can browse through all the fonts installed here.

Step 3

Now, browse through the list of fonts and find the one that you want to uninstall. Again, I would suggest saving a backup of the font you uninstall, so you have it for your reference—in case you'd like to reinstall it sometime.

Right-click on the font you'd like to uninstall and select Delete.

Image: https://cms-assets.tutsplus.com/uploads/users/2092/posts/34379/image/font_11b.jpg

Step 4

Next, we're given a warning prompt. It asks us to confirm if we'd like to delete this font from our computer. Click yes if you'd like to, or click no if you've changed your mind.

And That's How It's Done!

Installing and uninstalling a font on Windows 10 only takes a couple of clicks. Hopefully, this tutorial has helped you figure out how to install fonts and uninstall fonts to your heart's content.

Love fonts? Check out these tutorials for more how-tos and typographic inspiration.