Using Fonts With PSP and Other Programs
Let's face it font collecting, as with other aspects of PSP, can be very addicting. Some people will have 1000s of them, can tell you at a glance what each one is, have very elaborate filing systems and can even tell you who, when, and how each was produced. There are Yahoo groups, newsgroups, MSN groups, etc. devoted to collecting and sharing. And then there are the font foundries of course, where you can purchase fonts from different artists. Yes they are artists, and like any other artist they expect us to respect their copyrights. So keep in mind when collecting and sharing that not all fonts are free. Foundries and individual artists have been known to sue when their copyrights have been infringed upon.
Of all the questions about PSP I am asked, the one that pops up most often is "how do I install fonts into PSP?". The answer is simple. YOU DON'T!. You can install fonts into Windows (I won't cover Macs since I don't know anything about them) but it is not a healthy PC practice. The more fonts you have the slower the boot time and PSP becomes slower as well. The other downside to installing them in Windows is that you have to slog through all of them to find the one you want to use.
To use fonts in PSP you have 3 options:
- Install them into windows
- Open them to your task bar
- Use a font viewer
- To install into Windows (not recommended)
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- Open the control panel and double click on the Fonts folder
- Choose file->install new font
- Chose the drive where your fonts are located in the drives: drop down menu
- chose the folder where they are located in the folders: window. The fonts that are located in that folder will appear in the List of fonts: window.
- Then just select the font you want to install and click ok. Once you have installed all you want close the control panel.
- To Open font to the task bar (Ok but not efficient)
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- Find the font you want to use, and double click on it
- Minimize it to the taskbar and go back to PSP. The font should now be listed in the font drop down menu
- When finished using it, bring it back up from the task bar and close
Font viewers (recommended)
Font viewers are the most efficient and the easiest way to use fonts. They will allow you to browse and use entire folders, print the fonts, view them in larger sizes and sort them in to complex filing systems. There are tons of free and priced font viewers and you must decide which is best for you. I use Typograf, which is a paid for viewer and I highly recommend it if you can afford to purchase one. You can find it Here
Here are links to a few free viewers
I have used the Font Thing in the past and at the time it suited my needs and I know many people still use it. However, I am not sure wether it will work with WinXP as it hasn't been updated since 1999. As for the other viewers on this list I can not recommend them as I have not tried them. So you will have to judge for yourself. They are listed here just to get you started in your search.
Fontastic
The Font Thing
Styopkin Software
Type in "Free font viewer" into search
I hope you have learned something from this mini tutorial. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to .
