Show text in all available fonts

[Stan Brown]

"Online Tips from a Computer Guy"'s column at
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/view-any-text-in-all-
of-your-available-fonts-at-the-same-time/
mentions the Web site
http://wordmark.it/
where you can type in some words, click a button, and they will
display in all fonts that are installed on your computer.

But the site uses Javascript. I don't think there's necessarily
anything nefarious about Javascript on that particular site; indeed,
some sort of scripting would seem to be essential to query my system
for the available fonts. Nonetheless, one way I've kept my system
virus free is to keep Javascript turned off, and I'm leery of turning
it on for an unknown site.

Can you recommend a program (portable or installable) that would do
the same thing, or is here a native Windows facility to do it that
I've missed? I know I can double-click a font and get a preview of
that font, but I want a comparison of all fonts in one window.

(Is it inconsistent to install a program when I won't run Javascript?
I suppose so, but there *is* a difference. With a program, I can
scan it for viruses and other malware before I install it; with
Javascript on a Web site, there's no way to know in advance what it
will do.)

 

[Evelyn Woolston]

Hi Stan
If you are using MS Word then I can post a macro that will do this (well, it
works with Word 2000) but you would probably do better with the excellent
freeware program AMP Font Viewer
http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php
It has the added advantage of letting you view uninstalled fonts so that
instead of installing all the fancy fonts you can find, you can just install
the ones you really want to use.

Evi

 

[Stan Brown]

Hi Stan
If you are using MS Word then I can post a macro that will do this (well, it
works with Word 2000) but you would probably do better with the excellent
freeware program AMP Font Viewer
http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php
It has the added advantage of letting you view uninstalled fonts so that
instead of installing all the fancy fonts you can find, you can just install
the ones you really want to use.

Thanks. I gave it a try, and it seems decent, but there's no help
file. Do you know why it shows quite a few fonts with a leading "@"
in their names?

 

[Evelyn Woolston]

There's nothing unusual about font names starting with an @. Some of those
fonts are actually system files, some aren't. Just a word of warning, some
boring looking fonts are necessary, otherwise certain programs won't work
so don't delete a font without copying it into a spare folder first.
It is a nuisance that the Help file doesn't work in Win7. I have Windows 7
Starter on my netbook and just have to live with it but I think that there
is a way around this for full versions of Win 7. In the meantime, if there
is anything you'd like to know, feel free to ask - I've used this program
all the way from Windows 2000.

Evi

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

There's nothing unusual about font names starting with an @. Some of those
fonts are actually system files, some aren't. Just a word of warning, some
boring looking fonts are necessary, otherwise certain programs won't work
so don't delete a font without copying it into a spare folder first.
It is a nuisance that the Help file doesn't work in Win7. I have Windows 7
Starter on my netbook and just have to live with it but I think that there
is a way around this for full versions of Win 7. In the meantime, if there
is anything you'd like to know, feel free to ask - I've used this program
all the way from Windows 2000.

Evi

There is a free download at Microsoft's site to read old-style help
files.

I can't seem to find my bookmark, so I'll let you Google for it.

However, this may be the file name:
"Windows6.0-KB917607-x64 (for help chm).msu"

If that's so, look for KB917607 at Microsoft.com.

 

[Stan Brown]

There's nothing unusual about font names starting with an @. Some of those
fonts are actually system files, some aren't.

I should have been more clear. These are fonts whose names in the
Fonts folder *don't* start with an @ sign. In addition to the "crap
fonts" like DotumChe and MingLiu, it puts an @ in front of Arial
Unicode MS.

Actually, as I look further, I see that it has *invented* a font
called "@Arial Unicode MS", and also lists the real font "Arial
Unicode MS". The first one, under "Available subfamilies", says

Regular | @Arial Unicode MS --> (???)

while the second says

Regular | Arial Unicode MS --> ARIALUNI.TTF

Why does it just make up fonts?

It is a nuisance that the Help file doesn't work in Win7. I have
Windows 7 Starter on my netbook and just have to live with it but I
think that there is a way around this for full versions of Win 7.

I tried it with Windows 7 Ultimate and with Windows 7 Home Premium.
In each, when click Help in the menu the only options are "View
Readme" and "About". There's not even a mention of a help file, and
the Readme has no useful information about the program.

The "About" does have the author's email address, so I will ask him
about the @-fonts.

In the meantime, if there is anything you'd like to know, feel free
to ask - I've used this program all the way from Windows 2000.

[upside-down posting corrected]

 

[Stan Brown]

There is a free download at Microsoft's site to read old-style help
files.

I can't seem to find my bookmark, so I'll let you Google for it.

Thanks, Gene, I've already got it. (I have another program with an
old-style help file, ad when I tried to open it Windows gave me a
helpful pointer. Why the old help program couldn't just be included
with windows is a mystery.)

But the issue isn't that the help file in AMP Font Viewer doesn't
work, it's that there isn't one.

 

[Stan Brown]

The "About" does have the author's email address, so I will ask him
about the @-fonts.

And I did. No answer so far (22 hours). I'll post if I get one.

 

[Stan Brown]

And I did. No answer so far (22 hours). I'll post if I get one.

It's been four days now, and still no answer from the author of AM
Font Viewer to my query/.

 

[Stan Brown]

It's been four days now, and still no answer from the author of AM
Font Viewer to my query/.

And we're up to a week. I don't know why he puts his email address
in the app if he's going to ignore email. Yes, I know the app is
free, but ignoring a politely worded question is just plain rude.

 

[Zanqeutil]

Stan Brown schreef:

And we're up to a week. I don't know why he puts his email address
in the app if he's going to ignore email. Yes, I know the app is
free, but ignoring a politely worded question is just plain rude.

Hi Stan,

Take a look at Opcion Font View, it's free (Open Source)
http://opcion.sourceforge.net/about_opcion.html

Short discription from the site:

Opcion allows you to view both installed and uninstalled fonts in
different views depending on your needs. Written in Java, Opcion will
work on all platforms that the Java Runtime Environment supports (which
includes Windows, Mac, Solaris & Linux).

Opcion Font Viewer provdies a default view that allows you to view one
font at a time, and a list view which allows you to view multiple fonts
at a time. By clicking on fonts you like in the list view you are adding
fonts to a faviourties list that Opcion keeps for you. The faviourites
list can then be saved for future reference or used in finding out the
file names of fonts you wish to install.

There's an installer available but I just downloaded the Opcion_v1.11
jar file and launched it. Jar is an Java ARchive file, so you need to
have a recent version of Java JRE installed on your system.

http://ostermiller.org/opening_jar_files.html

Regards,

Zanqeutil

 

[Stan Brown]

Take a look at Opcion Font View, it's free (Open Source)
http://opcion.sourceforge.net/about_opcion.html

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it yesterday, at work (where the
Internet connection is quite reliable).

The installer choked and died while trying to retrieve some external
file to install Java. I tried again; it choked and died again.

 

[Zanqeutil]

Stan Brown schreef:

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it yesterday, at work (where the
Internet connection is quite reliable).

The installer choked and died while trying to retrieve some external
file to install Java. I tried again; it choked and died again.

You can also try 'Free & Easy Font viewer', it's the free and limited
little brother of 'Advanced Font Viewer'. Both programs are included in
the zip file, download available at this site:

http://www.styopkin.com/details_free_and_easy_fonts_viewer.html
screenshots:
http://www.styopkin.com/details_advanced_fonts_viewer.html

Short discription:

Free&Easy Fonts Viewer shows you all the installed fonts (that is, those
that are in the Fonts folder in your Control Panel) in one window. You
can scale the fonts up and down and check out how they look in different
font styles (bold, italic, underline, strike through).

Regards,

Zanqeutil