How to Use Downloaded Font

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

Using different fonts can make your documents interesting and fun. Microsoft Office and other applications come preloaded with several fonts, but you can still use other fonts that you have downloaded aside from the ones that you already have on your computer. Most fonts that can be downloaded on the Internet are packed either in .rar or .zip files. Provided in this article are some steps that could help you use your downloaded fonts.

Materials Needed:
- Downloaded font
- Mouse
- Windows OS
- WinZip
- WinRAR
Step 1
Use WinZip or WinRAR to unzip the compressed file that contains fonts. If you do not have these applications, you need to download them in order to open a ZIP or RAR files. If you already have these applications or once finished installing these applications, double click on your downloaded file. You can also double-click the icon of either WinZip or WinRAR on your desktop.
Step 2
Click the 'Extract' or 'Unzip' option and navigate to your Windows directory to select your extraction path. Fonts are usually stored in the 'Fonts' directory, which is C:\Windows\Fonts by default.
Step 3
Before you can use your downloaded and extracted fonts, you have to install it first. In Windows XP, open the 'Fonts' folder and then click 'File' and then double-click the 'Install New Fonts' item. (Note: You can also access the 'Fonts' folder by getting into the 'Control Panel' section and searching for the 'Fonts' folder).
Step 4
An 'Add Fonts' box will then appear on your screen. Locate the fonts that you would like to use and then tick the 'Copy Fonts to Font Folder' tick box.
Step 5
Click the 'OK' button on the upper right side of the box to make the installed fonts available and ready to use.
Step 6
To use downloaded fonts in Macintosh OS X, make sure to quit all running programs and then double-click on your downloaded font(s) in the 'Finder' feature.
Step 7
Once the 'FontBook' application is launched, you will then see how your font looks like.
Step 8
Click the 'Install Font' option. Your downloaded font will then be installed in your home folder’s 'Library' path.
Step 9
To enable all users to utilize the font that you have just installed, drag it into the 'Computer' folder in FontBook’s 'Collection' column.