Find out the most efficient way to install fonts on a Mac so they're available to all users. Our video gear: https://kit.com/AppleInsider/video-production. Nov 19, 2019 How to Change Default Font in Word for Mac. Changing the default font in any template means that the font is used in every new document that is based on that template. For example, the default font for new blank documents is based on the Normal template. How to install and remove fonts on your Mac. Double-click the font in the Finder, then click Install Font in the font preview window that opens. After your Mac validates the font. Oct 29, 2018 Double-click the font in the Finder, then click Install Font in the font preview window that opens. After your Mac validates the font and opens the Font Book app, the font is installed and available for use.
Creative professionals almost always favor Apple computers, tablets, and devices over other brands. One of the many benefits that designers and creatives love about macOS is that it comes with numerous attractive and already built-in fonts.
But if the already built-in fonts aren't enough, you can always add fonts to Mac. In this article, we cover how to install fonts on a Mac. And don't worry, you don't need to be a tech guru to do that.
How to install fonts on a Mac?
Adding fonts to a Mac is fairly simple and something anyone can do in a few short steps. With a few extra fonts, you can make presentations and reports stand out. When designing and building everything from websites to apps, you've got the extra advantage of a beautiful font that will stand out and make an impact.
Tip: A lot of fonts may make it difficult to work with text. The same is with cache: a huge amount of the cache may slow down your Mac. It’s worth removing cache once in a while to optimize your Mac and help it run faster. The tool, that is exceptionally good at examining your Mac’s storage is CleanMyMac X. Its System Junk feature scans your Mac for user cache, system log files and other data that creates clutter on your machine. Then, it clear it off saving a lot of space and giving your Mac a necessary speed-up.
When it comes to finding a font or two you can use, there are numerous sources online. Below are a few of the most popular for design teams:
- Google Fonts - you can find hundreds of fonts for Mac in this rich library, many of them are free.
- MyFonts - another fantastic source of royalty-free fonts, plus some that come with a small fee.
- 1001 Free Fonts - here you can get free fonts, although some of them are paid if they're for a commercial project.
- FontSquirrel - an invaluable resource for both free and cheap fonts.
Once you’ve searched through the libraries listed above - and there are other sources for fonts online (they’re simply some of the most popular) - download as you would any other file. Normally, they come in a compressed .zip folder format. Double-click to decompress and open.
Now that you've downloaded a new font, you need to know how to uninstall and use it. Follow these steps to start using your new font.
Note: Before downloading a new font, or the whole library of them, ask yourself what you’re going to use it for. Most of the fonts are free, but often that is only for personal use. If you intend to use a font for a commercial project, you either need to declare and credit the creator or pay a small fee. Make sure to check Terms & Conditions to find out whether fonts can be distributed freely or not. In most cases, a font should only be used by the person who downloaded it.
Another key thing to be aware of before downloading is to check that the font you’re about to use is compatible with macOS. Check the file name. Providing the file name ends with “.ttf” or “.otf” or “.ttc,” it won’t have any compatibility issues with Mac.
How to add fonts to Mac
Thankfully, the process of installing and running a new font is made easy on a Mac.
Built-into the macOS is an application known as Font Book. Using Font Book, a font management app, you can install and run any new font that you've downloaded within minutes.
Here is how to do that:
- Open the newly downloaded Mac font folder and unzip it.
- Double-click the extracted folder and open the file ending in “.ttf” or “.otf” or “.ttc.”
- Your macOS will automatically run the Font Book.
- Click Install Font and accept the Terms of Service (you might need to enter your Mac password too), and the font you’ve downloaded can be used.
If you’ve got more than one account on your Mac and you want to install this new font for every user account, you need to visit Font Book within the Applications folder before clicking on the newly-downloaded font folder. This way, you can go to Preferences within Font Book and change the default location from User to Computer.
Now you've made that change, follow the steps above to install the font for every user account.
It can be useful and fun to have a wide range of choices on your Mac when a new or more creative font is needed. However, it can make it difficult to pick one and in some cases, having too many fonts and other applications can absorb too much memory and reduce the performance of your Mac. That’s why sometimes you may consider decluttering your Mac and deleting old fonts you don’t longer use.
Here are a few simple steps for removing unnecessary fonts.
How to remove fonts on a Mac
It isn’t possible to remove system fonts, but you can easily delete any free font that you've downloaded yourself.
- Go to Applications > Font Book.
- Right-click on the font, you want to delete.
- Click Remove “Font Name” Family when a popup window appears.
- Confirm and then delete your font from Trash.
If you decided to remove fonts because your Mac is running out of memory, there is a better way to save up some space on your Mac. CleanMyMac X, the app I’ve mentioned before, can prove useful. It scans your Mac for junk, unneeded files and lagging processes, to clean it off clutter and optimize the system.
Here’s how to clean your Mac with CleanMyMac X and help it work times faster:
- Download CleanMyMac X for free here.
- Run a Smart Scan.
- Click Run to let the app clean and optimize your Mac.
- Then go to the System Junk section of the app.
- Hit Scan to let the app check your Mac for junk.
- In a couple of clicks, anything your Mac doesn't need anymore can be removed safely.
If you want to spice up your project or anything else you’re working on, adding a new font may change things a little bit. Make sure you credit the author or pay a small fee when you use a font for commercial needs. Fonts for personal use are often distributed freely. Just double-click the font folder to add it to the Font Book and install it on your Mac. You can remove the fonts from the Font Book as well.
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Will StylerAssistant Teaching Professor - UC San Diego
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This was originally posted on my blog, Notes from a Linguistic Mystic in 2007, but is kept updated here for the internet’s use. At this point, it works for any version of Mac OS X up to 10.15 “Catalina”. The last update was July 2020. See all posts
As a linguist, you find yourself using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) incredibly frequently. Some of the characters are easy enough to use without any special work (ŋ, ə), as most fonts already include them. However, to get the more cool/obscure characters and diacritics, or to stack diacritics (placing, for instance, a tone marking above a nasal marking), you need special fonts, layouts and setup. In this post, I’m going to explain, as simply as possible, how to go about finding the files and setting this up, all without paying a dime for specialty software.
Getting the fonts and layout
The beauty of this method is that it uses software built into Mac OS X, and that you can use IPA fonts in any application that supports Unicode (translation: lots of them), not just specific programs. You also don’t need to install a separate program to clutter up your computer, just a few free fonts and a keyboard layout. So, here’s your freeware shopping list:
Necessary files:
- Charis SIL IPA Font - The best free IPA font out there (in my opinion) because it has bold, italic, and all sorts of other characters outside of IPA. The download link is around halfway down the page, grab the file with “(Windows, Macintosh and Linux)” next to it. Thanks to the Summer Institute of Linguistics, it’s completely free!
- The Unicode IPA Keyboard Layout for OS X - SIL has created a comprehensive and modern version with every key you can imagine and more at The IPA-SIL key layout site. This layout is excellent as it allows you to type regularly, but by using “deadkeys” (a key that you press before another which chooses the output), you can add any IPA key you’d like. Make sure you have the latest version (1.5, at time of update) installed, as some strange encoding issues were happening with newer OSes and version 1.4.
Optional Extra IPA fonts:
- Doulos SIL - A differently styled IPA font from SIL, missing the bold and italic forms that Charis has. Install this at the same time you install the Charis SIL font below, using the same instructions.
- SILIPA93 Fonts - These are desperately outdated, but occasionally necessary when reading other people’s old IPA. Install this at the same time you install the Charis SIL font below, using the same instructions.
So, download save them to your desktop (or a location of your choosing), and then proceed to the next step.
Power User’s Summary: Download the Charis SIL IPA Font and the IPA-SIL keyboard Layout from the above links and save them someplace you can find them.
Installing the font and keyboard layout
Now, double-click the CharisSIL(version).zip file that you saved to your desktop. It’ll unzip into a similarly named folder on your desktop. Take the CharisSILfontdocumentation.pdf file and move it to a safe place, it’s a handy guide to have around, and feel free to take a look at the readme and license files in the folder.
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It’s time to install the font and layout themselves:
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- If you’re using OS X 10.7 “Lion” or later, Apple has hidden the /Users/yourname/Library (~/Library) folder from you by default. If you’re on Mavericks or later (10.9+), go to your Home folder (/Users/yourname) and then to the “View” menu, then “Show View Options”, then check “Show Library Folder”. Otherwise, you can use “Go” -> “Go to Folder” and type in (~/Library).
- Place the four font files from the folder (CharisSILB.ttf, CharisSILBI.ttf, CharisSILI.ttf, CharisSILR.ttf) along with any of the optional fonts you’re installing into the ~/Library/Fonts folder (the “Fonts” folder inside the “Library” folder in your user directory.
- Now, the layout. First, Double click “IPA-MACkbd.dmg” on your desktop. Now click the newly opened “Keyboard” Disk Image on the desktop and examine the contents.
- Save “IPA Unicode (some version numbers) MAC Keyboard.pdf”! In fact, frame it. Wallpaper your wall with copies of it. Get a version tattooed on your chest. Just make sure you have it. Without this, you’ll have trouble figuring out exactly which keypresses result in which characters, and this method won’t work very well at all.
- Now, drag “IPA Unicode (Version) MAC.keylayout” into the “Keyboard Layouts” in your username/Library folder. Also, if there is no “Keyboard Layouts” folder, you might have to create it yourself (File -> New Folder, then name it “Keyboard Layouts”)
- You’re done! You might want to restart your computer, then everything will be all set.
Power User’s Summary: Install the font into /Users/you/Library/Fonts, and put the keyboard layout into /Users/you/Library/Keyboard Layouts. Make sure to save “IPA Unicode (version) MAC Keyboard.pdf” from the layout folder someplace accessible. Restart.
Setting up IPA Text Input on OS X 10.6-10.8
Once you’ve restarted, go to the System Preferences Application. Click the “Language and Text” (“International” on older versions), then, click the “Input Sources” (or “Input Menu”) tab inside the Language and Text Pane, and you’ll be presented with a window like this:
In this window, make sure and select “Keyboard & Character Viewer” (to see what symbols are where at a glance) and “Show input menu in menu bar”. Also, feel free to change the shortcut to switch input methods to make things faster for you down the road.
Setting up IPA Text Input on OS X 10.9 or higher
Once you’ve restarted, go to the System Preferences Application. Click the “Keyboard” Option. First, check “Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in the Menu Bar”, then, click the “Input Sources” (or “Input Menu”) tab inside the Keyboard Pane.
Then, click the “+” button in the bottom left of the window, Choose “Others” in the left pane, and then “IPA Unicode 6.2(v.X)”, and check “Show input menu in menu bar”.
Also, feel free to change the shortcut to switch input methods to make things faster for you down the road, under “Shortcuts”.
/hɛloʊ wɜ˞ld/!
Now that you’ve done that, you should have a little American flag in your menu bar. Congratulations! You’re now set up to use the IPA on your mac.
To test it out, fire up any text editor (OpenOffice, TextEdit, or even MS Word, if you insist) and open a document. Be very sure to select Charis SIL for your font in the document.
Now, click the little menu in the menubar and select IPA Unicode (Version) MAC:
Start typing and you’ll find yourself typing IPA symbols! You’ll slowly learn the reasonably intuitive set of key sequences (e.g: > then n for Angma, > then r for Alveolar Tap), and soon, you’ll be typing in IPA nearly effortlessly in nearly any application.
“But I don’t use IPA that often, and can’t memorize the keystrokes!”
Since Mavericks (10.9), Apple has stealthily included another way to input IPA characters which is far less efficient for regular, long-form IPA entry, but good if all you need is the occasional character. To enable this option, first, go through the steps above to get the font and keyboard set up, making extra sure to enable “Show input menu in menu bar”.
Once you’ve done this, go to the little input menu in the menu bar, then click “Show Emoji and Symbols”. To enable IPA, click the Gear in the top left corner of that window, then “Customize List”, then scroll down and check the box for “Phonetic Alphabet”.
![How To Fonts On Word Mac How To Fonts On Word Mac](/uploads/1/1/2/2/112218617/205391229.jpg)
Now, you can use that symbol picker menu to insert IPA by clicking “Phonetic Alphabet” and double-clicking the character you’d like. To add diacritics, just click the base character, then the diacritic which modifies it. Again, though, this will only work when you’re using an IPA-friendly font.
Using IPA in the Mac OS X World
With either of these methods, you can use IPA in any application, from email to messages, and it should display fine for any of your linguist friends who have suitable fonts installed.
That said, Microsoft Word, even the latest (2015) version, doesn’t always play nicely with this sort of input. I’d highly recommend that if you have troubles, you try using TextEdit (built in), Pages, or the free Office suite for OS X, LibreOffice, all of which I’ve tried and know to work fairly well. If you’re serious about IPA, though, and want your work to look good, there’s only one approach, which is to use TeX. It’s complicated, with a sharp initial learning curve, but with XeLaTeX (which allows Unicode entry) and this keyboard layout and font, you’ll have absolutely flawless IPA, all with all the numerous other benefits of using TeX.
How To Install Fonts On Mac For Word
But the very least, you should be able to copy/paste your IPA text into a word document, or hopefully even make the switch entirely to a better word processor. Although MS Word may be the most well known word processor, it’s far from being the best on OS X, and I highly encourage you to check out all the options.
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Regardless, thanks to these free and open source fonts and layouts, you’ll never need to write a Word macro again on OS X. /oʊ, wʌɾə wʌndə˞fl̩ wɜ˞ld/!
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