The Curious Case of Windows 7 Font Installation

I’ve gotten several queries in the past week regarding font installation in Windows 7. It seems the old start menu route - the standard installation process going back to Windows v2 - is no longer in existence. Luckily, the new process is actually a pretty big improvement, and is incidentally similar to the way that the system and Fontbook manage type on the Mac OS.

Under Windows 7, to install a font, simply double click on the font file itself. At the top of the resulting preview window, you’ll see an option to install that particular font (as well as a button to print a simple specimen); once activated, though, the font may not be available to currently-running applications right away - you might need to quit and restart your apps to have it available.

I’ve tested this process with TT, PS and OTF font files and all seem to install smoothly.

You can also manually manage your fonts in Windows 7. That particular process also works well - in reverse - to deactivate type.