Also see the post Mastering font faces in HTML.

Fonts exist as files on your hard drive, they don’t magically appear from thin air. In a standard Windows install, all fonts are stored in the C:\Windows\Fonts directory.

1. Files in a directory

If you browse this directory, you will see something like the following (you may have different fonts on your computer):

Screenshot of the Windows Font directory.Screenshot of the Windows Font directory.

Each of the files in the above view contains a font. You will undoubtedly recognise most of those font names from working in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You may not recognise AintBaroqueNFW00-Regular Regular as this is a free font that I downloaded and installed on my laptop.

2. Windows settings

You can also access, view and test the installed Fonts through Windows Settings:

Annotated screenshot of the Windows 10 Fonts panel in Windows 10.Annotated screenshot of Arial Font panel in Windows 10.
  1. Open the Settings panel
  2. Select the Fonts option
  3. You can install additional font files here
  4. You can download more fonts from the Microsoft Store
  5. Search for a specific font
  6. A non-standard font
  7. The standard Arial font
  8. Inspecting the Arial font
  9. Typing some test text
  10. Viewing the results of the test text displayed in the selected font

3. Serif, sans-serif

“In typography, a serif is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts.” [3]

Sans is French for “without”.

Serifs in typography.
Serifs in typography.

Serif font styles also include many variations in the width of the stroke whereas sans-serif fonts have strokes of an even thickness.

4. Suitability

Fonts should be suited to their purpose (is the writing formal or informal) and legibility should always be prioritised.

The below two images give you an idea of how this feature can be used to check fonts for suitability:

Viewing Arial Font in Windows 10 Settings.Viewing AintBaroque Font in Windows 10 Settings.

Note:

  • that Arial has upper- and lowercase letters while Baroque only has capital letters
  • in Arial, it is fairly easy to distinguish between an “O” (capital letter O) and a “0” (number zero), but in Baroque the two characters are identical

5. Next steps

Follow the Create Barcodes in Excel tutorial to experience the versatility of fonts!


References:

  1. Microsoft Corporation. (2018, December 10). Add a font. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from Microsoft Support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/add-a-font-b7c5f17c-4426-4b53-967f-455339c564c1
  2. Microsoft Corporation. (2014, May 20). Download and install custom fonts to use with Office. Retrieved June 14, 2022, from Microsoft Support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/download-and-install-custom-fonts-to-use-with-office-0ee09e74-edc1-480c-81c2-5cf9537c70ce
  3. Serif (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif (Accessed: 14 September 2023).
  4. Sans-serif (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-serif (Accessed: 14 September 2023).

By MisterFoxOnline

Mister Fox AKA @MisterFoxOnline is an ICT, IT and CAT Teacher who has just finished training as a Young Engineers instructor. He has a passion for technology and loves to find solutions to problems using the skills he has learned in the course of his IT career.

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