5 Minute Tips General Fonts Can Make Your Documents Stand Out | Fonts Can Make Your Documents Stand Out |
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| Thursday, 08 June 2006 | |
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Ever notice that you never have enough fonts? In many cases, a distinctive font or typeface can make a big difference in your presentation. The key is knowing how to find and install the right type of fonts. Although that TrueType or handwriting font may look great on your PC, it may pose a problem for someone else.
Windows comes prepackaged with many fonts. These default fonts work for most people. Still others hunt for the perfect font for their sales presentations, proposals and resumes. Depending on the font, it can be easy to add these to your Windows system and to use them in other applications such as Microsoft Word. Fonts FolderWindows comes preinstalled with a number of font families. You can see these fonts listed in many applications such as Microsoft Word. The other place where you can see your fonts is in your Fonts folder. To access your Fonts folder, 1. Click Start 2. Select Control Panel 3. Click Fonts (You may have to select Appearances and Themes first) 4. Select the View menu The View menu has several options which make listing and comparing fonts easier. One option allows you to compare the fonts to a base font such as Arial. This allows you to find similar fonts. Another useful option is to hide fonts with style variations such as Bold, Italic and so on. This filter makes the list more manageable.  Click to enlarge If you want to see how a specific font looks, you can click its name and a dialog appears with sample text and other descriptive information such as font type.  Click to enlarge To the left of each font is an icon that shows the font type. Most people use either TrueType or OpenType fonts since they are common to most Windows machines. These font types are scalable so you can create and print type in any point size. OpenType fonts are usually installed with your Windows operating system. These are an extension of TrueType fonts. This newer technology was jointly developed by Apple and Microsoft so the fonts are cross compatible. These font files can be larger than TrueType fonts since they contain character sets for other languages. When using OpenType fonts, you should verify your application can read them. Microsoft Office products can read these files, but there may be issues with other third party programs. In these situations, you should be able to use a TrueType equivalent. Finding New FontsThe internet is full of sites where you can find fonts or software to create your own. My preference leans towards the commercial sites since the fonts tend to be more professional and there are less pop ups. You should also note any licensing agreements for your fonts. For example, you might buy a script font, but be restricted to using it on your computer. This could be an issue if you're sharing documents or material with someone else who does not have the same font. Microsoft offers a free font extension tool that displays the font properties and license for each font.  Click to enlarge How to Install FontsInstalling fonts is easy as Windows does most of the heavy lifting. 1. Click Start 2. Select Control Panel 3. Click Fonts (You may have to select Appearances and Themes first) 4. Select the View menu 5. From the File menu, select Install New Font? 6. In the Add Fonts dialog, navigate to the folder that contains your new font. 7. Highlight your font. 8. Click OK. Once you've installed the font, you can use it in other applications. Just remember that other people may not have this font in which case the document or web page may not display properly. You'll need to get the other people the same font file. If you're using Microsoft Word and TrueType fonts, you can embed the font with the document. This makes your document larger, but you won't have to worry about missing font files. To embed your font in the Word document, 1. Open your document. 2. From the Tools menu, select Options. 3. Click the Save tab. 4. Check the box Embed TrueType fonts. 5. Click OK.  Click to enlarge If you need to spice up your presentations, fonts can make a difference. There is no reason why you need to stick with the conventional typefaces. You can go out and find a font to match your presentation or even try to create one of your own. Just make sure you take the steps so everyone else can see your creation. Additional Resources
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 02 May 2007 ) |
