Microsoft Windows 7 & fonts
This page provides a comprehensive overview of the way fonts are handled by Windows 7. It covers the following topics:
- What is new?
- Font types that Windows 7 supports
- Typefaces that are included in Windows 7
- How to install fonts?
- Other sources of information
What is new in Windows 7 when it comes to fonts?
- The thumbnails in the fonts folder show 3 characters of the font’s alphabet on the icon. This makes it easier to identify fonts. Stacked icons indicate that different font styles are available. Such a group of fonts is called a ‘collection’. The use of collections reduces the clutter in the font folder.
Font collection
- Windows 7 can hide certain fonts automatically when needed. Fonts that are hidden are not available to applications although they are still installed in the operation system. One way in which this mechanism is used is for hiding fonts deemed useless based on the regional settings: if you indicate that Windows 7 should use western regional settings, japanese fonts will be hidden. This font hiding mechanism frees up memory and simplifies font selection.
- The ‘Install New Font’ menu option that hadn’t changed since Windows 3.1 or so is no longer available in Windows 7. You install fonts by copying them into the fonts folder.
- Gabriola is a new font that is included with the operating system. It is a script font with support for a wide variety of advanced OpenType features.
Gabriola
- Font rendering has improved: the ClearType technology that is used to anti-alias type on LCD displays has been optimised and now displays sharper fonts. Programmers also get easier access to advanced OpenType functionalities.
Font types that are supported by Windows7
I haven’t found a good list yet and assume that Windows 7 supports the same font types as Vista does.
- Type 1 (as with other versions of Windows, you need .PFM and .PFB files)
- Multiple Master (see the work-around below on how to get them working)
- TrueType (.TTF/.TTC/.OTF)
- OpenType (using CFF outlines, .OTF)
- bitmap fonts (.FON)
- Old vector font format fonts (typically .FON as well).
- A new composite font file format that is used to describe international font linking and fallback logic (.CompositeFont).
Fonts that are included in Windows 7
Windows 7 ships with 235 fonts, versus 191 in Vista and 133 in Windows XP. The list of typefaces that ship with Windows 7 can be found here. Microsoft publish them on this page and list all the new fonts here.
To view a list of all the fonts on your system, go to the Fonts control panel or simply type ‘font’ at the Start menu. This will take you into the same control panel.
How to install fonts
There are a number of ways in which you can install fonts:
- Copy fonts to the Fonts folder (usually C:\Windows\Fonts). You can do this by drag & drop or by using Copy and Paste.
- Right-click a font file and select ‘Install’ from the context menu. (There is a settings in the Fonts control panel which allows you to install a shortcut of fonts. That allows you to keep font files on another disk. I haven’t tried this on a production machine and don’t know how well it works in situations where the original file becomes unavailable).
If you run into issues with installing fonts, the first thing to investigate is whether you are actually allowed to do this. You need to have write access to the Fonts folders to be able to install fonts. Without this an error message will appear that states that the file you are trying to install ‘is currently being used and cannot be replaced’ or that it ‘does not appear to be a valid font’. Solutions and work-arounds can be found in this thread.
How many fonts can you install? All Windows versions that have been released in the last 10 years or so are designed to cope with large font lists. The system only loads the fonts that it is using. To keep your font list manageable, you may still want to invest in a font manager, such as SuitCase.
Fonts that should never be deleted in Windows 7
I have not yet found a list of the mandatory system fonts. At the very least the following fonts should not be deleted:
- Marlette – This is the font used for the minimize, maximize and close buttons on your window borders.
- Arial (TrueType)
- Times New Roman (TrueType)
- Courier New (TrueType)
- Any .FON files. These are fixed size fonts used for MS-DOS windows and some dialog boxes.
Add a comment if you are aware of a more complete overview.
Other sources of information
I haven’t run across Windows 7-related prepress stuff yet. Here is an interesting article on ClearType.
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Actually, for those of you that are missing the old ‘Install new font’ dialog, there are a number of ways to install fonts in Windows 7:
- Through the ‘Install’ button in font viewer.
- Right-click -> install in explorer.
- Drag and drop.
- Copy and paste.
Yes, the fonts are really fantastic that are introduced in windows 7.
Hello.
I have windows2k professional linked to a new windows7 box. How do I get multiple master fonts from win2kPro to windows7 ? They won’t show up when I drag and drop them. This is a disaster…
Multiple master technology is dead as of Vista. Go to Adobe website to get more info.
I just keep getting messages…… “does not appear to be a valid font” … I drag the pfm and the pfb at the same time…. no dice.
Any one getting the “Does Not Appear to be a valid font” message make sure you are an ADMIN. and it should work just fine.
Windows 7 font issue. I have a bunch of Alberta fonts of different varieties. When I open the font group there are only 3 displayed. If I delete those 3, 3 new ones appear. If I add new fonts of the same type to the group, it says they are already installed even though they do not show in the folder, and when I say reinstall they show for a few seconds and then go away??? I’m not sure they are there or not, I can’t use them in any applications, but they are already installed?
Hi Gary, could you solve your issue? The same thing is happening to me but with a different font. I dont know what to do!!!!!! Please, help!
Has anyone found a way to delete unwanted fonts?
Nicholas……
See Here ! http://www.support-ing.de/2010-02-11/how-to-remove-windows-7-not-latin-fonts/comment-page-1/#comment-299
When I try to install or Copy/Paste Fonts in Windows 7, I get the message that it “Does not appear to be a valid Font”.
The fonts (.ttf) I am trying to install worked well with WinXP. This is for our Native American Language Department.
Please advise.
Thank you,
Larry Murner
Cape Flattery School Dist.
Hi Larry
I had this problem also, when trying to copy over fonts from a WinXP partition. I found by right-clicking the font file and “Taking Ownership”, then right-click again & choose “Install” worked.
Hope it works for you too!
Cheers
Fonts that should never be deleted in Windows 7:
Marlette – This is the font used for the minimize, maximize and close buttons on your window borders. Don’t remove this!
Arial (TrueType)
Times New Roman (TrueType)
Courier New (TrueType)
Any .FON files. These are fixed size fonts used for MS-DOS windows and some dialog boxes.
Hiding fonts is just wonderful if it just worked! I have hide all the junk fonts that i don’t want Indesign and Illustrator to see. Nothing happens! The font lists are still crowded with junk. This is rubbish!
I use Paint Shop Pro 7, 9 and X2 and now with Windows 7, I have a major font issue. With all other operating systems, any of my 8200 fonts (in folders) could be opened and minimized and they would then appear in PSP’s font list to be used in graphics projects. Windows 7 doesn’t support this and it’s a major hit for us.I was told that W7 will hold 750 fonts. I need access to more than that! Looks like I’ll be constantly installing and uninstalling fonts.
Paula I use Paint Shop X2 and X3. All you have to do is have a font viewer like AMP Font Viewer which is free, and there are others. With it you can add your favorite fonts or folders, have them open in the Font Manager and when you open your Paint Shop Program those fonts will show up in the drop down menu.
I have tried to intall some type 1 fonts onto Windows 7. I have both the .PFB and .PFM files. When I drag them into the font folder I get a message saying that ‘this is a ‘PBF’ file for a Type 1 font and cannot be installed directly. Please install the associated ‘PFM’ file.
I have installed the ‘PFM’ file but the fonts don’t show up in any of my applications ie: photoshop, indesign, illustrator.
Can anyone help me, am I doing something wrong?
Did you ever resolve your font problems! I have hundreds of fonts too and i cannot install them either! Can you tell me please how you resolved this i am in such a rut with alot of work! Love this windows 7 stuff! LOL
Thanks
Just installed Windows 7 and am using Suitcase fusion 2 – now Windows will only show postscirpt fonts as active – none of the truetype fonts wehn activated will work, they immeditaley get deactivated – is there a solution to this problem?
You only drag .pfm file in c:\windows\fonts
I have an expensive CD-ROM with 25 TrueType fonts in non-Romanized double-byte characters. They have been used in Windows 3.1/95/98/NT. There are setup98.exe and setupNT.exe inside. But none of them works in (English) Windows 7 Professional, WIndows 7 Virtual PC and Windows 7 XP Mode. I also tried using Windows 7’s XP SP2/SP3 Compatibility Modes. Hopeless there.
Any insight?
I also got the ‘Font not Valid’ message when trying install a couple of fonts on a new installation of Win 7.
The workaround I found is to open the folder of the font you wish to install, select all and drag to the Win 7 fonts folder. It seems to be the folder that is the problem.
hi i am using windows7 in that there is a problem for installing astrology software(Josiam Pakrathu and HoroExProEng)while installing language packs . it gives a error as UNABLE to install C:windows\font\DAWN_279$$A please help me send reply through my mail also
I have same problem as Maxine:
I have tried to intall some type 1 fonts onto Windows 7. I have both the .PFB and .PFM files. When I drag them into the font folder I get a message saying that ‘this is a ‘PBF’ file for a Type 1 font and cannot be installed directly. Please install the associated ‘PFM’ file.
I have installed the ‘PFM’ file but the fonts don’t show up in any of my applications ie: photoshop, indesign, illustrator.
Can anyone help me, am I doing something wrong?
How Windows 7 handles fonts: like crap, just like every other version of windows. Here’s a hint for the idiots at Microsoft. Put essential system fonts in a SEPARATE FOLDER. Stop forcing everyone to drop all 150,000 fonts into one folder and then delete them back out without damaging the essential ones strewn about.
Problems I’ve had:
Windows 7 will sometimes not show you the fonts you have installed into the fonts folder. It says the folder has 700-150,000 files in it but it only shows and lets you edit 10-12 fonts. The solution seems to be to reinstall windows or go to a previous backup.
No one makes a font management system for Windows that comes anywhere close to what a Mac can do.
Some font management systems will delete or “deactivate” essential system fonts, causing system and programs to stop working correctly.
Gorky, you’re a man who speaks the truth. Windows font handling is as useful as a three legged donkey. Real smart move giving us all those fonts. Shame they’re nearly all crap and totally unsuitable for anything apart from marking out the user as a typographical philistine.
I particularly like the way you can’t delete the real monsters from the font folder and the long lists of asian fonts really help when all I generally use are 1-5 fonts in a document. I really enjoy wading through lists of crap all the time.
Suitcase is the only way to go, although it won’t show anything already in the system font folder and won’t eliminate all the crap it’s still the only game in town.
Hellow! I thought that I was the one, but this is a caos, I need other fonts that did install it, and I can¨t see them, please need your help.Thank you.
Hello
I used windows xp for a long time because in every version I tried after that something is crap. I tried vista (crap). Then I tried windows 7 ultimate. That is better but when I look at the fonts on a CRT monitor (yes I keep this because my eyes can not stand an LCD monitor) the fonts look like crap. The fonts under windows xp are sharper, more dark than on windows 7. I tried to fix this but still the fonts have some gray look. My guess is that this is done for lcd screens or so.
but for me it is not working, so I will leave again the new windows 7 version (or give it away)
What on earth is going on.
First I find that Windows 7 will not allow me to ‘Align Icons to Grid’ in folders (Only on the desktop), (Vista Ultimate lets me do this)
Now I find that only 10 fonts are showing up in the fonts control panel. If I go to the fonts folder, I still see only 10 fonts, although the folder size is 598Mb.
My programs show the fonts OK, it’s just that I have no ability to change or remove fonts.
Microsoft, you are beyond my comprehension.
how many indian language fonts in window 7 ?
plz. send me answer of this question. thnx.
Hi Pankaj,
If you gret answer of Indian language fonts in Win 7 then pls let me know.
Thanks,
Sushil Suri
Oh my god, the win 7 font management system for advanced users is rubbish, well, it doesnt exist
i cant believe that they did that. I use suitcase to manage lots of type, and i have been searching for the same problem in other win 7 users. I activate the fonts in suitecase for use in Adobe CS5 Suite, and none of the programs runs the Postscript type. I had to actually install the fonts inside the win7 folder system. And then i realized that i cant see the font list or eliminate fonts. REAL SMART MICROSOFT!
So to find the font you want to install that has a cryptic or library name, like G_ALT__, you have to right click every font in the folder to find the name??? This is an incredibly useless system. There’s not even a Font Name column that can be added to Explorer that displays the font name. And no preview for Type 1 fonts. How lame. How long will we have to wait for someone to develop a plug in that gives us the Install Font dialog back so we can see the names of the fonts we can choose from?
I’m running Windows 7 and cannot run any Open Type OTF fonts. I’ve tried:
-drag and drop
-right click and Install
-”take ownership”
-registry edit
1. Open the registry editor (type “regedit” in Start Menu\Run)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. Add a new REG_DWORD entry (right click in the right frame, choose New\DWORD Value). Called it “SessionImageSize” and double click on it and give a value (decimal) of 20
and I STILL get the “…font not valid” error. I’m going to lose this job if I can’t install the fonts – any suggestions?
I know one example where a .FON type font does NOT work in Win7, but AOK in Vista and earlier, making a program entirely unusable. It’s a font that’s included with a product called “DBS Master Collection”, which is a collection of classical Jewish texts, all in Hebrew.
This one font is called DbsSys.FON, and I am pretty sure it’s used for window title bars and for the hierarchical menus used to navigate the directory of content. (The name suggests “DBS’s System Font”.)
Double clicking this font file in XP or Vista comes up fine (all jagged of course at huge sizes, but that’s normal for bitmapped), whereas in Win7 you get just a big, empty window on that double click.
The program also includes a bunch of .TTF fonts, which work fine in Win7, as they do in XP and Vista, all scaling as expected.
For the program, I tried all the usual compatibility options in Win7, none worked.
I did not try the more involved option of running XP as a virtual machine, which is really not a solution, but a brute force workaround, and one that would hardly be free, since I would first have to Anytime Upgrade to at least Pro edition, then add more memory all of which would get used up, etc.
This could be an isolated, rare case, but all I can say is if both XP and Vista can understand the font, why can’t Win7?
If it needs to put it into some different format, then it should include some kind of automatic font file converter.
I seem to recall MacOS Classic (before it became Mach-based) was well ahead of Windows back then, too. How many billions of dollars does MS need to spend to get this right?
Now I see why anyone making almost any money doing design work considers it worth paying extra for a Mac.
Hello. Sorry to crash in on this discussion. Can anyone help me, please? I’m using Windows 7 and Office 2007. Suddenly, several fonts have gone missing, including Gil Sans (that I use a great deal) and Helvetica. I have re-installed W7 and Office but the issue remains. Can anyone help? There doesn’t seem to be any specific advise on this on the Microsoft Answers site.
I’ve lost so much work time trying to fix this – I’m so frustrated!
Many thanks
Both of these fonts are not included in Windows 7, so reinstalling that won’t help. As far as I know they also aren’t part of Office 2007. You’ll have to find your original copies from when you bought these fonts and reinstall them again.
Fuck ALL the MS bastards! I want the old “Install new font” command and panel back! I want to select a folder to scan for fonts, I want their full names to be displayed and I want to install the selected ones. Fuck you, microsoft!
(
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 words to you Microsoft! and I totally agree with this entire thread. All i want is a simple frickin calligraphy font that will install. That’s all. Keep upgrading Microsoft! You have the corner of the market just like the post office. Like come on really, who else we gonna go to? They can’t or won’t solve this problem? We have laptop computers for crying out loud. Not in a whole room like the 70’s – 80’s. Hello?
Okay… Windows 7 here…
1st: I could NOT install Fonts by just dragging them into the fonts folder !!! I actually had to use the “Install” Button it offers when double clicking the fonts.
2nd: It did NOT put them into the Windows/Fonts folder as in the previous windows versions – WHERE DID IT PUT THEM???
3rd: Since my Fonts Folder is completely EMPTY !!! I can not delete unwanted ones…
4th: Font Management vs the Control Panel doesn’t work: It points me conitinuously to my empty Fonts folder – when I ask it for the Fonts folder properties, it keeps telling me “0 Files” …
I am super frustrated
Any help on that please? Where did my fonts end up after all?
Doing a search brought me to the winsxs folder, but once I click to go there, it shows as empty, too or only shows .inf files… *at a loss*
Could it be that your access rights don’t allow you to install fonts or view the installed ones in the Fonts folder? On corporate computers or even systems used at home which are shared by a number of people this may well be the case. My daughter, for instance, has no administrator level access to our home computer.
Hi everyone,
I just installed some fonts while evaluating a product we might buy later, and now I want to delete them.
I am an admin on my machine, and use Window 7.
When I try to delete the fonts, my delete drop down option has a little shield next to it, and the delete simply fails to do anything without any explanation.
Any thoughts how to go about this?