Be careful when ‘hiding’ unwanted fonts

John Hardesty asked if there’s a way to reduce the number of fonts on his Windows 10 PC to just a few favorites he uses for designing greeting cards. Yes. Click the Taskbar’s “Ask Me Anything” button and type in FONTS (upper or lower case optional).

Then click on “View Installed Fonts.” Finally, right-click each unwanted font and choose “Hide.” This will hide the unwanted fonts but will not delete them from the system.

In pre-Win10 versions of Windows, you can see what a particular font looks like by going to Start>Control Panel>Fonts. To prune the very lengthy list, I recommend moving them into a separate folder.

Right-click your Desktop, choose New Folder, and name it something like “Surplus Alphabets.” Then drag unwanted fonts into this folder from the “Fonts” folder.

Note that the dragged fonts are copied rather than moved, meaning they will need to be DELETED from the Fonts folder. Conversely, however, dragging a font from “Alphabets” back into the Fonts folder will physically move it.

When naming the new folder, avoid the words “font” or “fonts” because doing so messes up some versions of Windows, since “Fonts” is a “Reserved System Folder Name.”

Do NOT delete any fonts with a red “A” or anything else in their icons that is red. These are “System Fonts” whose removal can play havoc with a Windows PC.

You should definitely maintain on hand these popular fonts used on the Internet and by most home users: Arial, Verdana, Georgia, Comic Sans MS, Times New Roman and Courier New.

Courier New is the PC equivalent of the mono-spaced alphabet used on typewriters for many decades. It’s handy for arranging data in columns that are established by using your space bar to go from one column to the next.

Times New Roman is the default font in most word processors and in many email programs. My favorite for just plain legibility is Verdana.

Bear in mind that fancy fonts will NOT be properly displayed in outgoing emails unless recipients have the identical fonts on their computers. Otherwise, the fancy fonts will change to a recipient’s default, usually Times New Roman.

You can choose a different default font in some programs. In Word-2007 (and later) under Home, click Font, make your choice and then click the “Default” button. In earlier versions of Word, click Format>Font, choose your favorite and click Default>OK.

In Windows Live Mail, click Tools>Options>Compose and choose a font. In Notepad, click on

Format>Font.

In Outlook-2003, go to Tools>Options>Mail Format>Stationery &

Fonts>Font. In Outlook-2007 (and later), go to Tools>Options>Signatures & Stationery>Font.

Most word-processing programs will let you choose sizes beyond the standard Toolbar choices. For instance, you can choose, say, “13” points by clicking on any standard size (such as “12” points), mouse-selecting it, and then typing “13” over it. Some will even let you type in sizes such as “13.5.”

Contact Don Edrington at (949) 891-1731 or donedrington@gmail.com.