New Macs come with tons of cool fonts, but sometimes you need something really specific that ‘s not there and need to install a new font.  Fortunately, this process is quick and easy in Mac OS X.

First, find the font you want to add.  You can purchase fonts from many sources or visit one of the zillion free font websites on the web.  Some of our favorite free sources are:

Freefonts.com

Acidfonts.com

and

Dafont.com

Find the one you want and download it.  Some sites offer a ‘Mac OS’ download which is very convenient, but if they don’t have that, don’t panic.  Leopard has built-in support for a few font types including:

• TrueType fonts
• PostScript Type 1 fonts
• Data fork suitcases (whose filenames end in “.dfont”)
• Mac OS classic font suitcases
• OpenType fonts (“.otf”) and
• Microsoft Windows fonts and collections (“.ttf” and “.ttc”)

Don’t worry about memorizing all of those; in most cases you can find either a Windows or Mac True Type version of what ever cool thing you’re looking for, just look for the words True Type and download!

Once you’ve downloaded the Font, it will be in your Downloads folder, go there and double click the item.  Once you do, you’ll see a window pop open with a representative sample of the font.  Look for the “Install Font” button in the bottom right hand corner of that window.  Click it, and the work of installing the new font is done.  It should show up on the fonts list of other applications now.

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