I have always been a bit of a font addict and love finding new fonts to play around with. Recently I shared with you a few of my favorite FREE fonts and received some questions regarding how to install a font onto a computer. Free fonts are certainly not as fun when you don’t yet know how to install them! So today I’m going to share a step-by-step tutorial on how to install fonts on a Mac OSX. If you are a PC-girl (or guy), don’t worry because I’ve got you covered too! Hop on over to The Shabby Creek Cottage and Gina will take you through the steps of installing a new font on your PC. Once you see how simple it is to install new fonts, you might just turn into a font addict too!
I should also point out that this process takes much longer to write about and outline in a step-by-step post than it does to implement in real life. You can install a bunch of fonts in a minute or two once you know how!
Step 1: Google search the term “free fonts” to find a font site that contains fonts you would like to download to your computer. Please note: Take caution when downloading items to your computer. Some sites may not be safe so download at your own risk. In the screenshot below you can see that I have pulled up some fonts on the site fontsquirrel.com. To begin downloading the font I click on “Download TTF” or “Download OTF”. All font files will be a .ttf or .otf file. For the purpose of this example, I have downloaded the “UglyQua” font.
Step: 2 After you install your font you will see it located in your downloads file as a zip file. Double click on the zip file to open it.
Step 3: Once you double click on your downloaded font zip file your Downloads folder will automatically open (beneath your browser–so minimize your internet screen to see it). Click on the font file folder to open it.
Step 4: Once you open the font file folder you will see the license for the font in a text (.txt) document and then the actual font(s) as the .ttf or .otf files. Click on the font file (.ttf or .otf) to open the font in the Font Book.
Step 5: The font is now open and ready to be installed. Click on “Install Font”. Note that some fonts don’t convert to Mac and an error screen will pop up warning you that the font has errors before you install.
Step 6: The font will show up in your Font Book. Congratulations! You installed your font!
And that is all there is to it! Your Mac will do most of the work for you and all you have to do is simply know which words to click on. If you follow these steps (and are on a Mac OSX then you shouldn’t have any problems. To get you going with your new-found superpower, I recommend looking for free fonts at dafont.com, urbanfonts.com, and fontsquirrel.com. Enjoy!
Athalea says
Mind. Blown. Thank you so much!
Kimberly says
Okay, so I got the fonts installed on my Mac but I use Word for Mac and while the fonts show up in my Font Book, I can’t get them to show up in Word. Please help!
Sara Miles says
I got them to show up by restarting my computer! I had the same issue, but when I restarted and then went into Fonts, through Word, they were there!
Kelly says
Thank you so much! I didn’t realize how easy this was!
Lorraine@Miss Flibbertigibbet says
Oh boy, I need this. I have a new Mac and am still trying to figure things out and this was one of them! Yay!
Lauren @ The Thinking Closet says
I’ve been downloading new fonts to my Mac like cray cray lately…and it always takes me forever to find the proper folder. I didn’t know there was a MUCH easier method…so thank for you for sharing this.
Bliss says
Pinned it. I never remember how because I don’t install fonts often enough.
Bliss
antiquechase says
thank you I needed this. I had a problem with Engravers, it said proceed with caution… so I didn’t download it. I love that font, any idea why this would happen with only this font. I tried 3 times, same message. thanks! marcy
Beth says
There are some true type fonts (.ttf) that aren’t cross compatible on a PC and Mac. Open type fonts should be. I would search for an open type font in Engravers (.otf) and see if that solves the problem. If not, then your Mac is simply warning you that something in the file is corrupted and should be avoided. I’ve downloaded a few files that had warnings attached and the entire font wouldn’t load, only a few characters.
Angela says
Love it,, thanks so much for this, yay !!!!
Beth says
You’re welcome! Happy fonting!