In this guide we are going to look at a great free program to manage your fonts. If you use different fonts for a project, sure you can install them and when you've finished with them hopefully uninstall them? This portable program can do all this and more, in fact it can temporarily install fonts only when you need them. The program is called Nexusfont and is available at the link above this guide.
Whilst it is true that a large number of installed fonts does not bog down the operating system like it did in earlier versions of Windows, a large number of fonts will still degrade Windows performance and it's desirable to keep installed fonts to a minimum. This program can manage your installed fonts and allow rarely used fonts not installed in Windows to be used as if they were actually installed.
Nexusfont can:
Click the link at the top of the guide and download the 2.0MB compressed file to somewhere you can find later. Browse to it and use your favorite unzip app to extract the files.
Double click "nexusfont.exe" to start the program.
Note: If you would like a desktop icon to make it easier to open in the future, right click "nexusfont.exe and from the drop down menu select "send To" then "Desktop"
The program will open with an interface similar to that below.
It's fairly straight forward to install fonts in Windows but Nexusfont brings a couple of options that may suit us more. First thing to do is add our folders of fonts to Nexusfont and a great feature of Nexusfont is that it doesn't move any of our fonts, it only builds a database that points to your font files.
To add folders to Nexusfont left click the + symbol at the bottom of the interface or right click anywhere within the black section on the left. Select "New Folder Group" from the menu.
Name the folder to something meaningful, click OK.
Repeat this for as many folder groups you need.
Here two folder groups have been added, now we need to add the folders to the groups.
Right click on your folder group and select "Add Folder" from the options.
Browse to the font folder to be associated with the group, and click OK.
Repeat for any other folder groups you may have added previously.
That's the hardest part over which was pretty easy anyway. Now that we have our folders associated with our groups whenever you highlight any folder group as shown below the fonts in that group are ACTIVATED. this means those fonts are available in any windows program that allows alternate fonts to be chosen, just as if they were installed. Any installed fonts will always be available as well. Our example now gives us a total choice of 1438 fonts to use. Closing Nexusfont or selecting "Installed" from the library list will DEACTIVATE the 1208 Google fonts meaning they're no longer available in Windows.
In our examples above we have created two folder groups and added folders to them so we can use either group along with the already installed Windows files. Should you need to use fonts from more than one folder group at the same time you can create a collection and add the fonts from any folder group to a collection. To do this, again click the + sign on the bottom left or right click anywhere in the black section on the left, and click "New Collection" then name it.
We have created a new collection below and called it "work collection"
To add fonts to the work collection click in the small circle to the left of the sample font text. Select as many as you need. Below we have selected three fonts and all that's necessary is to right click anywhere on the sample text and choose "Add to Collection" then Select your collection.
You have now added Three fonts to our new work collection. Repeat for any other folder groups, and for now we will repeat the above and add five fonts from the company fonts group. We now have a total of eight fonts in our work collection.
The fonts in the newly created work collection have been bought together from multiple folders, and these folders can be local or networked and from as many folders as necessary. It is also important to remember that no fonts have actually been moved in creating these folder groups and any collections. Nexusfont only builds a small file that points to the original font location.
To install a file with Nexusfont select the font or fonts from any folder group or collection, then right click anywhere on the right hand side of the interface and select "Install"
There is a choice to
Click install to complete the installation.
To uninstall a font with Nexusfont select the font or fonts from the Installed fonts library, right click and select uninstall.
There are choices to
Click OK to complete the uninstall.
That covers the basics of Nexusfont, but be sure to explore the program fully. If you ever need to use non system fonts it really is a must have application, and If you prefer to use the installer version you can get it HERE.
If you have any questions about Nexusfont or any other computer issue please do not hesitate to ask in our forum.
Also thanks to Rustys.
Whilst it is true that a large number of installed fonts does not bog down the operating system like it did in earlier versions of Windows, a large number of fonts will still degrade Windows performance and it's desirable to keep installed fonts to a minimum. This program can manage your installed fonts and allow rarely used fonts not installed in Windows to be used as if they were actually installed.
Nexusfont can:
- Install and uninstall fonts.
- Manage fonts.
- Compare fonts.
- Print font lists.
- Activate and Deactivate fonts.
- And more.
Click the link at the top of the guide and download the 2.0MB compressed file to somewhere you can find later. Browse to it and use your favorite unzip app to extract the files.
Double click "nexusfont.exe" to start the program.
Note: If you would like a desktop icon to make it easier to open in the future, right click "nexusfont.exe and from the drop down menu select "send To" then "Desktop"
The program will open with an interface similar to that below.
- Lists the number of fonts installed
- The text sample displayed for each font, which can be changed at any time.
- The font display color and background.
- The font size.
- The font style.
- Font tools, including print, font character map, font information, and delete font.
- Add new folder group, collection, or font information.
It's fairly straight forward to install fonts in Windows but Nexusfont brings a couple of options that may suit us more. First thing to do is add our folders of fonts to Nexusfont and a great feature of Nexusfont is that it doesn't move any of our fonts, it only builds a database that points to your font files.
To add folders to Nexusfont left click the + symbol at the bottom of the interface or right click anywhere within the black section on the left. Select "New Folder Group" from the menu.
Name the folder to something meaningful, click OK.
Repeat this for as many folder groups you need.
Here two folder groups have been added, now we need to add the folders to the groups.
Right click on your folder group and select "Add Folder" from the options.
Browse to the font folder to be associated with the group, and click OK.
Repeat for any other folder groups you may have added previously.
That's the hardest part over which was pretty easy anyway. Now that we have our folders associated with our groups whenever you highlight any folder group as shown below the fonts in that group are ACTIVATED. this means those fonts are available in any windows program that allows alternate fonts to be chosen, just as if they were installed. Any installed fonts will always be available as well. Our example now gives us a total choice of 1438 fonts to use. Closing Nexusfont or selecting "Installed" from the library list will DEACTIVATE the 1208 Google fonts meaning they're no longer available in Windows.
In our examples above we have created two folder groups and added folders to them so we can use either group along with the already installed Windows files. Should you need to use fonts from more than one folder group at the same time you can create a collection and add the fonts from any folder group to a collection. To do this, again click the + sign on the bottom left or right click anywhere in the black section on the left, and click "New Collection" then name it.
We have created a new collection below and called it "work collection"
To add fonts to the work collection click in the small circle to the left of the sample font text. Select as many as you need. Below we have selected three fonts and all that's necessary is to right click anywhere on the sample text and choose "Add to Collection" then Select your collection.
You have now added Three fonts to our new work collection. Repeat for any other folder groups, and for now we will repeat the above and add five fonts from the company fonts group. We now have a total of eight fonts in our work collection.
The fonts in the newly created work collection have been bought together from multiple folders, and these folders can be local or networked and from as many folders as necessary. It is also important to remember that no fonts have actually been moved in creating these folder groups and any collections. Nexusfont only builds a small file that points to the original font location.
To install a file with Nexusfont select the font or fonts from any folder group or collection, then right click anywhere on the right hand side of the interface and select "Install"
There is a choice to
- Copy files to the system fonts folder.
- Leave the files where they are.
- Copy files to the folder below.
Click install to complete the installation.
To uninstall a font with Nexusfont select the font or fonts from the Installed fonts library, right click and select uninstall.
There are choices to
- Uninstall and Delete font files.
- Leave files where they are.
- Uninstall and backup font files.
Click OK to complete the uninstall.
That covers the basics of Nexusfont, but be sure to explore the program fully. If you ever need to use non system fonts it really is a must have application, and If you prefer to use the installer version you can get it HERE.
If you have any questions about Nexusfont or any other computer issue please do not hesitate to ask in our forum.
Also thanks to Rustys.
