Display all fonts of the computer

sinus · April 19, 2023, 11:10:50 AM

Hi,
Every computer has different fonts that are available.
These are certainly often the same or similar fonts (such as Arial, Tahoma, etc.), but they are still different on my computers.

Does anyone know if and how all the fonts can be easily and quickly displayed on the computer?
This would (probably) be best done with Design & Print, but perhaps there are other possibilities.

If no one knows or if it simply doesn't work within IMatch, then I'll just create a text field, copy it and add the different fonts (within D&P).

Thanks, someone might have an idea.

axel.hennig · April 19, 2023, 11:49:39 AM

I just know software which displays all the fonts on your computer. E.g. dp4 Font Viewer

sinus · April 19, 2023, 12:11:46 PM

Thanks, Axel

I did not know this software.
But before I look deeper into it, I wait a bit, maybe someone has an idea. Of course it would be cool, if this is possible inside IMatch, but but of course I doubt it.

I guess, there is also a possibility for InDesign, but I have an older version, hence I would love to have it inside IMatch.
Hmmm, maybe I simply bite into the apple and do it manually (once and store it as template).

Ger · April 19, 2023, 12:28:43 PM

Long time ago I used the attached excel file (with vba macro) to list all fonts installed.
i think it still works.
Open, enable macros and click the button.

ger

sinus · April 19, 2023, 12:42:18 PM

Hey Ger,
Thanks a lot, very cool, it worked immediately, very good!

I have Excel here on my computer, though I have it not at home on my laptop.
Maybe one day this can be done inside IMatch, but my VBA is (at the moment) so bad, that I am not able to "convert" this inot IMatch.

But now I can here look at the fonts.

Mario · April 19, 2023, 12:51:00 PM

You can just type fonts into the Windows Search Bar and select Fonts Control Panel
This displays all installed fonts, with previews.

Or, open a PowerShell command prompt from the START menu and type

Code Select

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")
(New-Object System.Drawing.Text.InstalledFontCollection).Families

Press <Enter> after each line.

Siehe : https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/dotnet/api/system.drawing.text.installedfontcollection?view=dotnet-plat-ext-7.0

David_H · April 19, 2023, 12:58:31 PM

Quote from: sinus on April 19, 2023, 12:42:18 PMHey Ger,
Thanks a lot, very cool, it worked immediately, very good!

I have Excel here on my computer, though I have it not at home on my laptop.
Maybe one day this can be done inside IMatch, but my VBA is (at the moment) so bad, that I am not able to "convert" this inot IMatch.

But now I can here look at the fonts.

You won't be able to get at the installed fonts from Javascript (unless Mario makes a helper method). The following powershell might do the same though; it'll create an html file called fonts.htm wherever you run it from :

Code Select

[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing");
$fonts = (New-Object System.Drawing.Text.InstalledFontCollection).Families;
$html="<html><head><title>Font Listing</title></head><body>";
foreach ($font in $fonts) {
  $html+="<p><font size='5' face='"+$font.Name+"'>"+$font.Name+"</font></p>";
};
$html+="</body></html>";
$html > "fonts.htm";
.\fonts.htm;# Opens fonts.htm in current browser

sinus · April 19, 2023, 01:32:46 PM

Thanks, Mario and David

This all works great.
But the "problem" is, I see there mostly only the name of the font or only some letters like ABC.

Unfortunately some fonts have no Umlauts (äöü ...) or other special characteres.
Therefore it is very convenient, if I can se a sentence with all wished umlauts and charactes and then see the results on all installed fonts.

A sentence like this for example:

He name is "André Müller" and HE has 13 $ + 72 £

Of course, this is not a real problem, but rather which solution is best.

Jingo · April 19, 2023, 01:44:25 PM

As a graphic designer, I typically not only want to see installed fonts but available fonts stored on specific resource hard drives. I've tried most available font viewers and they all leave something to be desired (on windows - Mac has some nice ones)... I defaulted to using a portable version of FontViewOK... it is free, pretty quick and just about as feature rich as most of the paid apps.

Most of the time when I searching for "just the right font" - I'll just do a web search and poke around... if I own the font or something similar, then I'll hunt for it using FontViewOK and install it for the project.

Good Luck!

Mario · April 19, 2023, 01:53:18 PM

Ah, OK. Important Info.

START menu > Settings.
On the left, click Personalization.
Scroll down until you see Fonts. If your system is set to German, you might see if font has Umlauts, depending on the phrase chosen.

I know of now way to automatically figure out which characters are included in a font.
Usually I either use the Windows Chracter Map app included in Windows or I make a text block with ÄÖÜß in Photoshop or designer and apply the font in question.

I only use a small set of font faces myself and all have umlauts.

If you use Google fonts, you can go to

https://fonts.google.com/?preview.text=%C3%84%C3%96%C3%9C%C3%9F&preview.text_type=custom

and see which fonts have umlauts.

sinus · April 19, 2023, 02:32:15 PM

Thanks, Jingo and Mario

At least, Mario, this with the Personalization and Fonts is a good way.

I do also do the same like you, write some letters with Umlauts in a textbox and choose the fonts.

In a old program (scribus, what I do not more use) I had created a big template with some words and characters in textboxes and I could see all fonts very good.

Maybe one day I will do the work and create such a template in D&P

...

... but for now I have found a font, what is good for my job.

Thanks a lot!

David_H · April 19, 2023, 04:21:56 PM

Quote from: sinus on April 19, 2023, 01:32:46 PMThis all works great.
But the "problem" is, I see there mostly only the name of the font or only some letters like ABC.

Unfortunately some fonts have no Umlauts (äöü ...) or other special characteres.
Therefore it is very convenient, if I can se a sentence with all wished umlauts and charactes and then see the results on all installed fonts.

In the powershell script, just change the line :

$html+=""+$font.Name+"";

To have whatever extras you need in :

$html+=""+$font.Name+" - He name is "André Müller" and HE has 13 $ + 72 £ ÄÖÜß ";

sinus · April 19, 2023, 04:37:59 PM

Thanks, David

Very good, I have to check this out, I am sure, it will work.

Ger · April 19, 2023, 08:50:08 PM

I don't want to market that tiny excel program (the other solutions are much nicer), but you can show special characters without problem there:

Just type the text in the blue field

ger

sinus · April 19, 2023, 10:39:19 PM

Hi Ger,
indeed, very cool and helpful.
Thanks again!