Installing fonts in Windows is one of the fastest and easiest ways to customize the appearance of the operating system, of the documents that we create and edit on the PC, etc. However, there are a vast majority of users who have never done it or, in the best of cases, have considered it but do not know how to do it.
There is an important point in this regard, and it is that if we want, for example, to use a new font in Word, we will install it directly in Windows, making it available in all applications that use the operating system’s font catalog. This centralized system makes everything easier, since we won’t have to install each font, individually, in each of the applications in which we want to use it.
Also, installing fonts in Windows is extremely easy. Sometimes, although it may surprise you, The hardest part is choosing the most suitable source. for the use we want to give it. And it is that sometimes we let ourselves be captivated by visually very striking designs, without taking into account that in reality, in many cases, the simplest designs are the most appropriate. The more “baroque” typefaces are only recommended for titles or very, very short texts.
On the other hand, another “mistake” (technically it is not a mistake, but it is highly undesirable) is, when discovering repositories of free fonts, downloading and installing a large number of them on Windows. At this point, moreover, I am speaking from my own experience, I still remember an occasion, decades ago, when a friend left me a CD with an enormous amount of fonts. As someone who goes to a free buffet for the first time in their life and also arrives hungry, I installed absolutely all of them on my PC from those days. In addition to the fact that this substantially slowed down the loading of some applications that, when opened, loaded all the system fonts, it made it practically impossible for me to find, every time, the typeface I was looking for. In less than 24 hours I ended up deleting the vast majority.
Also, sometimes we see a preview of a font, like it, and decide to download and install it. However, when using it we discovered that it does not allow the use of accented characters. Therefore, it is important to review the full grid of characters or use the website’s test function to verify that these characters are available.
If you’ve never done it yet, you may be wondering where you can get free fonts. The truth is that there are a huge number of web pages where you can find many and varied designs. To get started, I recommend you explore these three:
Navigating through these pages is very easy, so take the time now to find a font you want, and download it. Make sure, yes, that they are TrueType (TTF) or OpenType (OTF) and, if what you download is a compressed file (which is the most common), unzip it now.
Once you have the file(s) in TTF and/or OTF format, select them all and click on them with the right mouse button. Then, when the context menu is displayed, click on the “Install” entry. In a matter of seconds the fonts will be available on your PC. Keep in mind, of course, that many applications load the font catalog when they are opened, so it is possible that you have to restart them to have the new fonts already available.
