How to Keep Your Fonts Organized

There are many programs on the market to help you keep your fonts organized. One program may work better than another depending on how many fonts you have. The program can also depend on what you want to do, such as tagging fonts or customizing layouts. This quick guide will show you four options to keep your fonts organized.

Make sure that you have downloaded and unzipped your fonts to your PC before beginning.

Method 1 - Organize Using your PC

The most basic way to keep your fonts organized is via your PC. On your PC there is a folder on the C: drive for installed fonts. To access the folder go to C:\Windows\Fonts folder.

You can also keep your fonts organized in a separate folder on your desktop. If space is an issue, store your fonts on an external hard drive. With these two options you can organize your fonts into groups for bundles, styles etc.

The downside is that you can’t see your fonts at a glance or compare them. You also don’t have a text preview option. So, below, we will quickly discuss the more popular options to organize your fonts.

Method 2 - Organize with NexusFont

NexusFont is a free font organizer that is quite popular for anyone wanting more control over font preview.

Once you have accessed the page, click on the Download button. Locate the downloaded file and click to install.

When you open NexusFont, you will immediately see a preview of the fonts loaded onto your PC. Type in a sample text in the top box to see how each font looks.

You can compare fonts to each other by ticking the small white circle to the left of each font. Then, click on the Selected button above the font previews. You will now see only the selected font.

You can group fonts into folders so they are easy to view. For example, you may want to group serif fonts into one folder and fancy fonts into another. When you add a folder it will be placed under Collection on the left side panel.

To add a folder, go to the bottom left and click on the “+” icon to open the small menu. Now select New Collection. Give your collection a name and click OK.

We create a bundle collection for quicker reference of our favorite fonts.

Other features include:

Printing fonts or selected fonts with different sizes and text.

Tagging fonts into categories e.g. calligraphy, serif etc.

Since NexusFont is a free download, this is a great place to start organizing your fonts. It is also easy to navigate and user friendly.

Method 3 - Organize Fonts with MainType

MainType by High Logic offers a free, but limited version, to organize your fonts. Go to the Download button at the top where you will be asked for your name and email. A link will be emailed to you that will take you to the download section.

Once installed the main screen will open. Here you will be asked if you want to carry on with the free version and what limits there are. You will also see a small window showing the amount of fonts being loaded. Click on Use Free Edition.

You will be presented with a Welcome page containing a User manual, support and more to get you started.

Click on Close.

With MainType you can customize the layout by adding or removing panels.

For this example we used a cute fancy font called Ducko. In the main window you will see a selection of your fonts. At the bottom type the text in the Sample screen to see the selected font. Enter the Font name in the search bar top right to quickly view your favorite font.

You can scroll easily through your fonts or view the characters on the right side panel.

You can create new font folders and also add tags. The Tag Search panel can be found by going to View > Panels > Tag Search.

If you have the Zoom panel active, you can click on a character or a glyph under the Characters Panel. A larger preview will then show up in the Zoom panel. This will allow you to view the characters and glyphs far better than a Character Map would.

Even with the limitations on the free version, MainType does appear to have more features than NexusFont.

Method 4 - Use Suitcase Fusion to Organize Fonts

Suitcase Fusion is a subscription based option to keep your fonts organized.

Suitcase Fusion is a more complex option with similar features like font preview, creating folders etc.

The big difference is that you can integrate it with programs like Adobe Photoshop. Other features include fonts that can be temporarily added for short-term projects. The font preview panes can also be dragged over to another document.

These four options are just a few available to keep your fonts organized. The type of method used will depend on the size of your font collection and software limitations. What you choose is determined by how simple or complex your requirements are. Whatever your choice, the tools to organize your fonts are not only easy, but accessible too!