TMO Quick Tip - Use Windows Fonts On Your Mac

by , 7:30 AM EST, January 27th, 2006

If you work in a cross-platform office, and have to open documents that were created on a Windows PC, in Microsoft Word for example, they don't always look the way you expect, and that's probably because you don't have the right fonts. Luckily, you use a Mac, and it knows how to use Windows TrueType fonts, so you can view that cantankerous Word file they way your Windows using colleague intended it to look.

Have your Windows friend copy the fonts they used in their document so that you can add them to your Mac.

There are a couple of ways to add Windows TrueType fonts to your Mac. If you use a font management application, like Suitcase Fusion, Font Agent Pro, or Apple's Font Book, load the fonts there so that you can activate or deactivate them as you need.

If you don't use a font manager, copy the fonts to your Fonts folder. It's hiding in Users>your home directory>Library>Fonts. If the application you will use to view the document is already running, quit and restart it.

Remember, many fonts are controlled by copyright licenses, so be sure to check and see what's okay to copy. The same rules that apply to music also apply to fonts, so please don't steal.