X-Fonter 14.0

Installing & Loading Fonts

Both installing and loading make a font available to all running Windows applications — it will appear in their font menus immediately. The difference is how long that availability lasts, and what happens to the font file on disk.

Installing vs. Loading: The Key Difference

	Load	Install
Duration	Current Windows session only — the font is deactivated when X-Fonter closes or you unload it manually	Permanent — the font is available after every restart until you uninstall it
File location	Font file stays exactly where it is	Font file is copied into the Windows Fonts folder (`C:\Windows\Fonts`)
Best used for	Trying a font in a design application before committing to it; fonts you only need for one project or session	Fonts you use regularly across many projects and always want available
Effect on font menus	Font appears in all running applications immediately; disappears from menus after unloading or restarting Windows	Font appears in all applications immediately and persists across restarts

Recommendation: If you have a large font library, prefer loading over installing wherever possible. Keeping hundreds of fonts permanently installed slows down application startup, bloats font menus, and can cause conflicts. Install only the fonts you use daily; load everything else on demand.

How to Load a Font

Navigate to the font using the Browse tab, the Installed tab, or the Collections tab.
Select one or more fonts. Use Shift+Click for a range or Ctrl+Click to add individual fonts to the selection.
Click the Load button at the bottom of the font list, or right-click the selection and choose Load Font(s) from the context menu.
Switch to your design application — the font appears in its font menu immediately, without a restart.

The font list with fonts selected and the Load and Install buttons highlighted at the bottom of the screen — The Load and Install buttons at the bottom of the font list. The buttons are enabled only when the action is valid for the current selection.

A loaded font remains active until one of the following happens:

You click Unload in X-Fonter
X-Fonter is closed
Windows is restarted

Tip: You can load an entire Collection at once using the Load button at the top of the Collections panel. This activates every font in the collection in one click — ideal for switching between project-specific font sets at the start of a work session.

How to Install a Font

Select the font(s) you want to install.
Click the Install button at the bottom of the font list, or right-click and choose Install Font(s).
X-Fonter copies the font file into the Windows Fonts folder and registers it with the system. The font is immediately available in all applications.

The right-click context menu showing the Install and Load options alongside other font actions — The right-click context menu provides access to all font actions, including Install and Load.

Note: Installing a font copies its file into C:\Windows\Fonts. If you later move or delete the original file, the installed copy is unaffected — but X-Fonter may lose track of where the original came from. To avoid confusion, keep your font library in a stable location before installing.

How to Uninstall a Font

Uninstalling removes a permanently installed font from Windows. The font disappears from all application font menus after the next application restart (some applications may require a full Windows restart to fully release the font).

Switch to the Installed tab to see all currently installed fonts.
Select the font(s) you want to remove.
Click Uninstall, or right-click and choose Uninstall Font(s).

Important: Uninstalling does not delete the font file from disk — it only removes the Windows registration. The file remains in C:\Windows\Fonts or wherever it was copied during installation. To also remove the file, use the Delete action after uninstalling, or delete it manually from the Fonts folder.

How to Unload a Font

Unloading deactivates a temporarily loaded font without touching the file on disk. It is the counterpart to Load and only affects fonts that were loaded by X-Fonter in the current session — permanently installed fonts are not affected.

Select the loaded font(s) in the font list. Loaded fonts are indicated by a distinct icon in the Installed & Loaded tab.
Click Unload, or right-click and choose Unload Font(s).

Tip: To unload an entire Collection at once, select it in the Collections tab and click the Unload button in the Collections toolbar. This is the fastest way to clear all the fonts from a session-specific working set.

Working with Collections

The Collections tab has its own Load and Unload buttons in the toolbar above the collections list. These act on all fonts in the selected collection, regardless of which fonts are individually selected in the list below.

If you want to load or unload only some fonts from a collection, select those specific fonts in the lower panel and use the action buttons at the bottom of the screen instead.

Which Should I Use?

Situation	Use
Trying a font to see how it looks in your design application	Load
Working on a project that needs specific fonts for the next few hours	Load (or load a Collection)
A font you use in nearly every project	Install
System fonts that Windows or your applications depend on	Install (already installed — do not uninstall these)
Fonts for a single client whose work is now complete	Unload or remove from the active collection
A font you no longer need at all	Uninstall, then optionally Delete