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Authored by: Support.com Tech Pro Team
In Windows 10 and Windows 11, you can view, hide, remove, and download fonts, and even use the familiar drag and drop method to add more. Here's how.
Select a specific individual font (any font represented by a single page) and then click Preview, or just double-click the font. (You can also right-click the font and select Preview.) The Font Viewer shows you the font's appearance at assorted sizes. You can print the content in the font viewer window if you want a hard copy of that font.
If the font is a family (any font represented by multiple pages), double-clicking opens a page displaying each member of the family. You can then preview each individual font. If you select Preview for a font family, multiple viewers open to display the font with different attributes, such as regular, bold, italic, and bold italic.
For font families that require more than a few viewer screens, Windows first asks if you want to open them all. You then have to close each individual preview window.
You can hide a font you don't wish to see or use when you work with certain programs and apps. However, this trick doesn't work across the board. Hiding fonts through the Fonts screen renders them invisible for certain built-in apps such as WordPad and Notepad. But applications such as Microsoft Office generate their own font menus, so hiding fonts through Control Panel has no effect on them.
To hide a font, right-click on it and select Hide from the pop-up menu. You can also automatically hide all fonts that aren’t designed for your language settings. To do this, click the link for Font settings on the left sidebar. In the Font settings window, check the box to Hide fonts based on language settings. Click OK.
You can uninstall certain fonts if you're sure you'll never use them. However, this doesn't work for all fonts. You can't delete fonts that are built into Windows because they’re protected. If you try to remove such a font, Windows stops you. You can delete unprotected fonts, including those added by programs such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite. To delete an unprotected font, right-click on it and select Delete from the pop-up menu.
Before you delete a font, you may want to back it up in case you need it in the future. To do this, create a backup folder. Right-click on the font (or font family) and select Copy. Paste the font into your backup folder. You can now delete the font.
Reinstall Fonts
If you ever need the font again, right-click on it in the backup folder and select Install.
The Fonts applet in Control Panel offers more features and commands. In the left pane, click the link for Font settings. You can opt to hide fonts that aren’t in your default language and install a font’s shortcut instead of the actual font to save disk space.
Click the link for Adjust ClearType text to see if you can improve the display of ClearType fonts on your screen.
Click the link for Find a character to display a window of special characters that you can insert into a document or other file.
Click the link to Download fonts for all languages if you work with multiple languages in Windows and would like to have fonts for all of them. Be aware, though, that all these fonts would chew up a fair amount of disk space on your PC.
Before you leave the Fonts applet in Control Panel, you can learn more about fonts and how Microsoft implements them in Windows. Click the link for Get more font information online in the left pane to view a web page on Microsoft Typography.
Fonts Tool
With Windows 10 and 11, you may prefer using the Fonts tool in Settings. Go to Settings > Personalization > Fonts. Windows displays all your fonts already in preview mode.
To see more details on a specific font, click on it. Windows displays the font with various attributes. Move the slider left or right to see the font at different sizes.
You can remove an unprotected font from here as well. In the details screen for a specific font, click the Uninstall button. Windows asks you to confirm that you want to permanently uninstall the font. Click Uninstall. Again, you may want to copy the font to a backup folder through Control Panel first before you remove it.
You can add more fonts to Windows. From the main Fonts screen, click the link for Get more fonts in Microsoft Store.
The Microsoft Store displays all the available fonts. Most fonts are free; some cost a minor fee. Select the font you want to add.
Click the Open button to see the installed font.
The Font tool opens. Scroll down the screen to view the font you just installed.
Finally, you can install a font by dragging and dropping it. This comes in handy if you’ve backed up and deleted an unprotected font and now wish to reinstall it. You can also use drag and drop to install a font you’ve downloaded from the web. Many websites offer fonts, both free and paid.
To install a font using drag and drop, open File Explorer and look for the TrueType (TTF) file. Drag the file onto the pane in the Font screen that reads Drag and drop to install. Release your hold on the font when you see the Copy icon, and the font is installed.
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