Photoshop: Where is the Fonts Folder?

Perfect control of typography is essential for any designer using graphic software such as Photoshop, Indesign or Illustrator. That is why it is important to master the font part of Photoshop and all its possibilities. This includes knowing how to install and use fonts correctly.

But, where to find Photoshop fonts and how to add new ones? We will see in this article.

What font formats are there?

OTF, TTF and Type 1 font formats are used in operating systems. TrueType was created by Apple to compete with Adobe’s Type 1 format, and allowed more control over the shape of the letters.

OpenType is an improvement over TrueType, as it is based on TrueType and is complemented by data tables that allow advanced typographic and linguistic features to be incorporated. In addition, it is compatible with all operating systems and offers greater availability of symbols, accents, among others. Therefore, OpenType is the most recommended format.

Photoshop handles fonts from Adobe Fonts, OpenType, Type 1, TrueType, Multiple Master, OpenType SVG and OpenType variables. The latest versions of Adobe’s software have included powerful improvements in font sourcing.

Difference between font, font type, glyph and text style

A font is a set of graphics comprising a variety of characters designed to look good in a document.

Font types refer to different font styles, such as Times New Roman, Arial and Comic Sans.

Pictograms are specific forms of a character.

Text styles refer to the different sizes, colors, styles of bold, italic, underline and other effects for characters.

Where is the fonts folder in Photoshop?

If you are looking for the Photoshop font folder where to add new fonts, this is the font folder of the operating system (Windows or Mac). At the end of this article we will see how to add them, but there are other ways to get new fonts without leaving Photoshop.

To change the font of a text in Photoshop we must go to the preferences panel. This panel will change to font and typeface preferences when we select the text tool.

How to get new fonts

In Photoshop we can get fonts in different ways.

First of all, we can use the system fonts (Windows or Mac). These fonts are installed in the operating system. Therefore, if we add new fonts to the operating system, they will be available in Photoshop.

On the other hand, we can get many new fonts in Adobe Fonts. Adobe Fonts can be enabled or disabled in the Creative Cloud application. It is possible to search by families or in the search bar and activate or deactivate each font separately.

Another way to get new fonts is from external download directories. The most famous font store is Google Fonts, but there are other well-known ones such as Dafont used by many professionals.

If you are looking for fonts for your project, Dafont, Font Squirrel, MyFonts, Font Diner, 1001 Fonts, Google Fonts and UrbanFonts are some of the websites where you can find a wide variety of them, most of them allow us to download new fonts for free.

Adding new fonts in Windows

The good thing about adding our favorite fonts to the operating system is that we will be able to use them in any software that uses them and not only in one in particular.

For example, we can use the same font in Microsoft Word or Adobe Illustrator, without having to install it in each software separately.

To add fonts in Windows, we must first download the file that contains them. The file containing the font is usually a .ZIP file.

We unzip the zip file to our hard disk.

Any Windows compatible font can be installed by right clicking on the file and selecting the install option.

Another way to add new fonts on Windows is to move the font files to the C:Windows Fonts folder.

Adding fonts on Mac

Mac users can also add new fonts easily.

First you will need to download the fonts and unzip them if they come in a .ZIP file.

Double-clicking on the file in Finder will open the Font Catalog and validate the font for installation.

Automatic font activation in Photoshop

Since the latest versions, every time Photoshop opens a file with an unavailable font, it automatically finds and installs it from Adobe Fonts.

If the font is not available in Adobe Fonts, it will be replaced by a default font or by another font used in the document.

Font matching

Another recent feature in Photoshop that is very interesting is Font Matching.

In the image we are editing, we select the text with a selection tool. For example, we can select a business sign.

Then we click on the menu Text >Font Match. Photoshop will display a list where we can find fonts similar to the one used in the image.

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