X-Fonter 14.0

Copy & Move Fonts

The Copy and Move actions let you physically relocate font files between folders on your system. The key reason to use X-Fonter's own tools rather than Windows Explorer is that X-Fonter automatically updates all collection references and tag associations to point to the new location — so nothing breaks after the operation.

Copy vs. Move

	Copy	Move
Original file	Stays in place — untouched	Removed from its original location
Result	Two copies of the file exist: the original and the new one	One copy exists at the new location only
Collection references	Unchanged — collections still point to the original	Updated automatically to point to the new path
Best used for	Backing up fonts; consolidating fonts for a project delivery without disturbing your main library	Reorganising your library; moving fonts to a new permanent location

Important: Always use X-Fonter's Move action — not Windows Explorer — when relocating fonts that belong to collections or have tags. Moving files outside X-Fonter breaks collection links and orphans tag data, which must then be repaired manually. See Fixing Broken Links if this has already happened.

How to Copy or Move Fonts

Select the font(s) you want to copy or move in any tab — Browse, Installed, or Collections. Use Shift+Click for a range or Ctrl+Click for a non-contiguous selection.
Right-click the selection and choose Copy Fonts or Move Fonts from the context menu. Both actions are also available from the toolbar at the bottom of the font list.
A folder browser opens. Navigate to the destination folder and click OK.
The progress dialog opens automatically and the operation begins.

The Progress Dialog

The copy/move progress dialog showing a grid of selected fonts with a Status column updating as each file is processed, and an error count at the bottom — The progress dialog. Each font's status updates as it is processed. Errors are flagged in the Status column and counted at the bottom.

The dialog lists every font in the operation and shows a live Status column that updates as each file is processed. Once a file completes successfully its status changes to indicate success. If a file fails — for example because a font with the same name already exists at the destination, or because of a permissions issue — the reason is shown in the Status column for that row.

A running count of errors is shown at the bottom of the dialog. If any errors occur, click the Status column header to sort by status — this groups all failures together so you can see at a glance what went wrong and which files need attention.

Tip: If an operation fails partway through — for example if a disk becomes full mid-transfer — check the status column carefully. Files that completed successfully before the failure will already be at the new location. For a Move operation, those files will no longer exist at the source; only the failed files remain at the original path.

Common Scenarios

Reorganising your font library into a new folder structure

Use Move. Navigate in the Browse tab to the folder containing the fonts you want to relocate, select them, and move them to their new home. X-Fonter updates every collection that referenced those fonts automatically, so your collections remain intact after the move.

Delivering project fonts to a client or colleague

Use Copy. Select all fonts from the relevant collection, copy them to a dedicated delivery folder (or a compressed archive), and hand that folder over. Your main library is untouched and all collection references remain unchanged.

Consolidating fonts from multiple sources into one library folder

Use Move. Browse each source folder in turn, select all fonts, and move them into your central library. If you move fonts into subfolders that already exist in your library (for example by type or foundry), the collection and tag data will follow automatically.

Making a backup of specific collections

Use Copy. Open the Collections tab, select all fonts in the collection you want to back up, and copy them to a backup location. This produces a standalone copy of just those files without affecting the working library.