Copyright: FontPage Help by © David De Groot - Bluefive software


General Information

What is FontPage

FontPage lets you examine and compare all of the fonts on your system.

You can view any typeface in bold, italic, underline and 3-D. You can also print out a specimen page for any font, or print a list of them.

FontPage has its own character table with copy and print options, a window with two displays to compare fonts and it has an extra window to preview uninstalled fonts. Lots of features, slick interface, and more to come!

FontPage runs on all 32bit Windows OS platforms, including Windows 95,98,ME,NT4,2000 and XP.

What else is there

If you want to "jump right in" and start using FontPage right away without reading any further, be my guest. You won't be sorry. Just try everything, press every button, click your mouse, knock yourself out, get to know this beauty!

Help

Besides this help file, which is available at anytime in the program by pressing the F1-key, FontPage also offers instant info in the form of a "Status bar". Whenever you position your mouse over an object the Status bar will tell you what will happen if you press a button or click some item.

Thanks for using FontPage!

David De Groot.


New/History

Version 2.0.8

Minor update

New option to create a list with TTF's and their font names:

Right-click the fonts-listbox and select List TrueTypes/Font Names.

Version 2.0.7

Major update

New things:

•	The "Fonts at large" window (to show fonts in a large window)

•	Slide Show function (to show fonts automatically with a user-defined interval)

•	Second slider in the Compare window; Option to remove the font name (from the compare strings)

•	Support for Visual Styles (for Windows XP)

•	FontPage Help File (documentation, tips and troubleshooting)

Version 2.0.6

Major update

New function to preview uninstalled fonts (either located on your harddrive or on cdrom and other media as over a network).

Version 2.0.5

Minor update

The FontPage Charactermap is easier to access.

(Now via the exclamation mark icon). Before this button was there to remove the Statusbar (this function is deleted, nobody will miss it).

Version 2.0.4

Minor update

Custom text string can be viewed in both 3D and fonts-displays.

Version 2.0.3

Bugfix

If you minimize FontPage, and then close the program from there, FontPage will not become visible the next time you start it up. There is a way round this, but I managed to 'repair' this faulty behaviour from within the code.


Copy a font name

Right-click the fonts-listbox and select Copy font name to Clipboard.


Compare two fonts

Click the button with the loupe icon.


Create a list with TTF's and their font names

Right-click the fonts-listbox and select List TrueTypes/Font Names.


Display your own text

You can enter a string of your own in the "The quick brown fox jumps etc." textbox.

Mark the little checkbox in the "The quick brown fox jumps etc." textbox to have your string displayed in all preview windows. De-select to return to default setting.


Install new fonts

Via FontPage:

1. Click the Explore the fonts folder button

2. Go to menu File

3. Select Install New Font...

4. Browse to the location of the new fonts

5. Select the fonts you want to install

6. Click OK

Via Windows:

Click the START button, then, go to SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL and double click on FONTS. Now, choose FILE and INSTALL NEW FONT. Finally, go to the directory where your new fonts are, select the font(s) and choose OK.

If you don't see the INSTALL NEW FONT option in the menu, see: I do not have the menu item "Install New Font" .


Preview uninstalled fonts

Click the Preview other fonts button.

This feature enables you to preview or print fonts which you have not yet installed. These will typically be fonts on CD-ROM collections or fonts which you have downloaded and saved on your hard drive.


Show fonts in a large window

Double-click the medium-left preview display to open a resizable window showing the selected font.


Start a Slide Show

Right-click the fonts-listbox and select Slide show settings for the settings of the Slide Show function.

Select two or more fonts in the fonts-listbox, then right-click and select Slide show to start a slide show showing the fonts you just selected.

Or click the button with the film icon:

See also Slideshow preferences.


View a font's Character Map

Click the button with the exclamation mark icon, or double-click a fontname in the list to see its charactermap.


Colors

Right-click the medium-left preview display to change its color settings.

You can change the fore- and back -colors of the display. FontPage will remember these settings.


Default Font size

Double-click the Fontsize label to change the default font size setting in the medium-left preview display. FontPage will remember this setting.


Slideshow

Right-click the fonts-listbox and select Slide show settings for the Slide Show Setings window.

(You can also right-click the button with the film icon to access the Slide Show Settings window. Another way to get to the Slide Show Settings window is to select one font in the fonts-listbox and press the button with the film icon).

Once there, you can test and set the speed  of the slide show and mark an option to have a beep at every interval.

FontPage will automatically remember your preferences.


Font cache corrupted

Get TweakUI from Microsoft PowerToys. It has a Repair Fonts option.

See Tip - TweakUI .


I do not have the menu item "Install New Font"

This can happen for three reasons: the system and read-only attributes are no longer set on the Fonts folder, the Fontext.dll file is missing/damaged, or the Desktop.ini file may be missing/damaged.

We'll start with the easiest fix first, and that is repairing the attributes on the Fonts folder.

For this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start/Run, type command, and click OK.

2. At the Command window, type cd\windows and hit Enter. You'll then be at the C:\Windows directory.

3. Now type in attrib +s +r fonts.

4. Now, just reboot Windows, and your Install New Font menu should be back.

If this doesn't work, it may be a missing or damaged Fontext.dll file. To fix this, do the following:

1. Reboot Windows, and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.

2. At the Command prompt, type cd\windows\system and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\System folder.

3. Now, type dir fontext.dll and hit Enter.

4. If you don't have a Fontext.dll file, then proceed to the next step. If it does find a Fontext.dll file, then you need to type rename fontext.dll fontext.old, and hit Enter to rename your damaged Fontext.dll file. Type exit to restart back into Windows.

5. To recreate your Fontext.dll file, we need to extract a good copy of it from your Windows install files. Click Start/Run, type sfc and click OK.

6. Click Extract one file from installation disk and in the Specify the system file you would like to restore box, type C:\Windows\System\Fontext.dll.

7. Click Start, and in the Restore From box, click Browse. Now, browse to your Windows CD or to your Cab files. On some machines you can find the Cab files in C:\Cabs or in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.

8. Click OK and follow the on-screen instructions. When this is done just reboot Windows.

If all this doesn't work, then we still have one more possible fix: replacing the Desktop.ini file. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Reboot Windows and choose to restart in MS-DOS mode.

2. At the Command prompt, type cd\windows\fonts and hit Enter to switch to the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.

3. Type rename desktop.ini desktop.old and hit Enter to rename your damaged desktop.ini file.

4. Type exit to restart into Windows. Now, we need to extract a good copy of the Desktop.ini file from your Windows install files.

5. Click Start/Run, then type sfc and click OK.

6. Click Extract one file from installation disk, and in the Specify the system file you would like to restore box type C:\Windows\Fonts\Desktop.ini.

7. Click Start, and in the Restore From box, click Browse. Now browse to your Windows CD or to your Cab files. All that is left is to restart Windows.

[Thanks to Chris Pirillo http://www.lockergnome.com/ for this explanation].


Newly installed fonts don't appear in my application's font list

If, having installed a font, it does not appear in an application's font list, you may have to quit the application, and start it again to make it aware of the newly installed font. If the problem persists, exit and restart Windows itself.


Tip - Don't exaggerate

The most common cause for font system corruption is over-loading it with fonts.

Windows cannot maintain an infinite number of fonts. The characters which make up the font name, plus the characters which make up the complete path name (including the file name) for all fonts cannot exceed 64K. This translates to approximately 800 font files.


Tip - TweakUI

TweakUI from Microsoft PowerToys has a Repair Fonts option.

It has been proven very usefull for fixing corrupt fonts folders.

Get it

There’s no steady PowerToys URL, so please perform a search on Powertoys or TweakUI on one of the Internet search engines.

Win98 users:

Check your Control Panel for TWEAKUI. If it is not there, load your Win98 CD and right-click on this file from your CD drive: \Tools\Reskit\Powertoy\Tweakui.inf

Now select install which will place TWEAKUI in your Control Panel.

Install

You don't need all the other toys, just install TweakUI only by right-clicking on tweakui.inf.


Tip - Update Video driver

Outdated or poorly programmed third-party video drivers are sometimes responsible for printing and font problems. To isolate this possibility, reconfigure your system with the standard VGA driver supplied with Windows and then see if the problem recurs.


Default printer has been set to other than a valid printer

Check that your default printer has not been set to Generic, text only as this will stop fonts from showing.


Dot matrix printer

If you use a dot matrix printer, make sure that your printer is set for its highest resolution. Run the Windows Control Panel and select Printers. Highlight your printer and click SETUP, then RESOLUTION. Select the highest resolution your printer can handle.


HP laserjet

If your HP LaserJet printer gives an ERROR 20 message when you try to print, it doesn't have enough memory to complete the print job.

Try reducing the number of fonts or font sizes in your document, remove graphics or otherwise simplify the page, lower the printer resolution, or try printing fewer pages at a time.


Printer driver

Make sure that you are using the most current version of your printer driver. Run the Windows Control Panel and select Printers. Highlight your printer and click SETUP, then ABOUT. If you don't have the correct driver, contact Microsoft or your printer manufacturer for an update.


Registry

If you are interested in the entries FontPage makes to the Windows Registry you will appreciate this little info.

The Registry Path is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/BlueFive/FontPage

All the settings related to FontPage are kept here.

Amongst them: Screen positioning; Default font size; Preview colors; 3D settings; Slide Show preferences.

Nothing FontPage added to the Registry is critical to the operation of Windows. You can totally remove all of its entries from the Registry without any side-effects. Of course, if you do, it will be as if you were running FontPage for the very first time.


Disclaimer

This software is provided as is and without warranty. The author assumes no liability for damages, either direct or consequential, which may result from the use of this product.

Distribution

This program is freeware. There is no charge for using it and it may be distributed freely so long as the files are kept together and unaltered. You may neither sell nor profit from distribution of this software in any way. Distribution on CD-ROMs, Shareware-disks, in shops or through networks are allowed as long as

a) no money (for the program itself) is taken

b) each file of the original ZIP-file is included and

c) you informed me about it.

Thanks

Thanks to Alan Edwards and Chris Pirillo for their troubleshooting tips.

Special thanks to Francois Helsen, Sergio Azenha, Sujan Swearingen, Peter Wilhelmsen and Lada Ruzickova for their contributions, time, effort and support.

Keep your copy up-to-date

Please check regularly for updates at:

http://bluefive.pair.com/


Web pages

When you create web pages that contain special fonts, the browser won't see the font if visitors don't have them installed on their computer.

This same principle applies for Word documents, or other files that use special fonts. If the end user doesn't have the font on their computer, they won't see the font when they get it.


How to handle uninstalled fonts

A simple way to handle uninstalled fonts:

Place them in a separate folder.

Call it 'MyOtherFonts' or something.

When you eventually need some of these fonts (that aren't in your Windows font folder), don't install them:

Just open the particular fonts you need from 'MyOtherFonts'.

Then minimize them. At this point these fonts are already known to Windows and available to any program you want to use. (The fonts are open (= available) yet minimized (= they're not in your way)).

Just close the fonts when you no longer need them.

That way you don't have to install and uninstall.