3 posts
move a font to store on external hard drive
How do I move a font to store on an external hard drive? I have too many fonts on my pc, most I never, ever use.
A font file is a file same an other. You can store it everywere you want.
If you don't use some fonts, don't install them. Just store it in an other directory an install only the fonts you need.
It will be easier to use.
EmmausDan, don't ever try to move or rename any installed fonts. It can and will damage the font permanently, and may also damage copies of the same font you may have stored in other folder directories, even if they are in unopened .zip files. Installed fonts use a lot of computer memory; having too many installed at the same time can slow down other processes.
To move or rename an installed font,(using Windows XP operating system):
1) Configure your folder options so that file extensions are hidden, for known file types. Most of your installed fonts probably have .ttf or .otf file types. In some cases, an .otf font may have a .ttf file extension. It will still work properly, but the icon and file extension types are not the same; hide the extension, so the computer can make the correct decision, on your behalf. In XP, go to Tools in the menu bar, select folder options. Select the View tab in the folder options dialog box, put a checkmark in the 'hide extensions for known file types' box, and click the OK button. If the box was already checked, just close the folder options dialog box, without making any changes.
2) Create or open a folder, which will be the destination for the fonts you want to move or rename.
3) Open Windows search.
4) In Search, browse for the "look in' location C:\Windows\Fonts, but leave all other search fields empty, (you want the results to show all files in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, but only fonts that are in that folder). Click search.
5) Open a Windows Explorer window of the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.
6) From the search results, select the fonts you want to move or rename, copy them, and paste to the destination folder. If you want to rename them before reinstallation, (ie: if you wanted the internal font names to match with the file names), do that with the copies in the destination folder, not the one installed in C:\Windows\Fonts.
Note that certain fonts cannot be renamed. On Win XP, they are the Tahoma family, (regular, bold, italic, and bold italic), Microsoft Sans Serif, whatever font is currently selected for the app Notepad, and any system fonts, which should have a different icon. The unrenameable fonts may vary between operating systems. You can't rename Tahoma on Win XP because it's the default font for text display. System fonts should never be renamed or removed. You can't select them in a word processing app either.
7) After renaming the fonts in the destination folder, check them by opening them in preview. If you see the text display at different point sizes, the font is fine. If the text display is visible when you open the font in preview from the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, but not in the destination folder, you did something wrong to the copy; delete the copy in the destination folder, and copy that font again from the search results to the destination folder.
8) Once you have successfully renamed fonts in the destination folder, go to the C:\Windows\Fonts window of Windows Explorer, (not the same listing in the search results). Select the fonts you have successfully renamed in the destination folder, and click the Uninstall button, to remove these from Installed fonts. You can then select and cut the renamed versions from the destination folder, and paste them back into C:\Windows\Fonts, to reinstall them, with a new or corrected file name. If you just want to remove the font from the Installed folder, to store it somewhere else, you may or may not want to rename it. In that case, you would keep the copy in the destination folder, delete the copy in C:\Windows\Fonts, then reinstall the font from the destination folder to C:\Windows\Fonts only if/when you plan to use that font in apps again, otherwise, it remains in the destination folder.
This procedure sequence should be the same for other Windows operating systems, but I can't give precise instructions.
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