proper way to uninstall fonts?

[Joe]

A recent issue of "Smart Computing" magazine in an article "Speed up Your
PC" suggests uninstalling some fonts. It says that Windows loads all fonts
into memory.

My fonts folder has hundreds of fonts. There seems to be 3 types as
indicated by the icons. The icons show either a TT, an O or an A. I presume
some are system fonts and shouldn't be deleted.

So, assuming some are safe to delete (to be determined)- just delete them?
Any potential negative effects?

Are there any MS articles on the subject? Any advice?

Joe

[Character]

Post by Joe
A recent issue of "Smart Computing" magazine in an article "Speed up Your
PC" suggests uninstalling some fonts. It says that Windows loads all fonts
into memory.

I believe that either the article is in error or you're possibly
misreading it. Windows XP only loads fonts as needed. HOWEVER - there
are some applications, notably most of Adobe's (Photoshop, InDesign,
Acrobat, etc.) that DO load all your installed fonts when they start,
and it is a royal pain!

A font *index* is a very tiny piece of the system registry, which does
get loaded into memory.

Post by Joe
My fonts folder has hundreds of fonts. There seems to be 3 types as
indicated by the icons. The icons show either a TT, an O or an A. I presume
some are system fonts and shouldn't be deleted.

Hundreds of fonts are not a problem for XP or Vista. Thousands can
begin to get awkard. There were finite limitations in earlier systems
such as Windows 3.x and 9x/Me.

TT is Truetype, O can be either a Truetype-based Opentype font with a
.ttf extension or a font with an .otf extension. The upper-case "A" is
a font used only for on-screen display. A lower-case "a" would be a
Type 1 font.

Post by Joe
So, assuming some are safe to delete (to be determined)- just delete them?
Any potential negative effects?

Unwanted and unneeded fonts can be deleted. In general, unless you
know exactly where they came from and can find that source, they
should first be backed up or copied somewhere so you can retrieve them
easily.

Post by Joe
Are there any MS articles on the subject? Any advice?

A Font Manager such as Suitcase, Typograf, Printer's Apprentice, Font
Reserve, and many others will allow you to dynamically install and
uninstall defined groups of fonts as needed. For instance, if you have
a group of fonts that you use to make greeting cards that are unneeded
when you're composing the company annual report, and vice versa.

There are many lists of what fonts should not be deleted; NO TWO
AGREE! And to those, you'd have to add fonts that are used in
documents you create or read, and fonts that are needed by specific
applications you've installed. For instance, Turbo Tax installs fonts
needed to display and print tax forms, Corel Draw installs its
standard default text font, etc.


This article was written for Windows 98. Its general approach is
excellent, but the limitations and font list are obsolete:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/fontoverload_2.htm

This list is more current, and includes some that are not universally
needed:
http://styopkin.com/articles/fonts_installed_winxp.html

One thing that no list that I've found includes is a statement that
fonts that have the Hidden attribute should not be deleted. The most
notable one of these is "Marlett", which contains the symbols used for
such things as the up and down arrows in scroll-bars and the
maximize/minimize/close buttons in a window!


Hope this helps

- Character

[Character]

Character wrote:

that should have been "awkward"

There is an excellent MVPS article on the subject, but it refers
mainly to Win98

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/deletefontssafelycontent.htm

This article, although aimed at Mac, for some reason includes the very
large asian fonts in its "do not disable" list

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/deletefontssafelycontent.htm

Vista adds more "standard" fonts:
Segoe UI, Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and
Corbel. There are probably others.

- Charcter

[Joe]

Post by Character

Post by Joe
A recent issue of "Smart Computing" magazine in an article "Speed up Your
PC" suggests uninstalling some fonts. It says that Windows loads all
fonts into memory.

I believe that either the article is in error or you're possibly
misreading it. Windows XP only loads fonts as needed. HOWEVER - there are
some applications, notably most of Adobe's (Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat,
etc.) that DO load all your installed fonts when they start, and it is a
royal pain!

(snipped)

I think you're probably correct about Windows not loading all the fonts -
but that's what the magazine article says. I first saw an issue of Smart
Computing in a store and it was a good issue- but then I subscribed and I
find that most of the articles are elementary or in this case- just plain
wrong.

So.... that's why Photoshop and Acrobat take so long to load! and, I just
got a copy of Paintshop XI (now owned by Corel) and it too takes forever to
load- my early versions of that program loaded instantly.

Joe

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, you can just delete them, but I what I would recommend instead is that
you move them to another folder. I have one called Available Fonts, from
which I can install fonts as needed for specific projects. Obviously, a font
manager of some kind would be even better, but you can be your own font
manager if you don't have to do it often. To avoid deleting vital fonts, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/DeleteFontsSafely.htm, noting that this
is an old article and may not include some of the new fonts required for
Office 2007, nor does it mention the "Web-safe" fonts introduced by MS some
years back (Georgia, Verdana, etc.).
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Post by Joe
A recent issue of "Smart Computing" magazine in an article "Speed up Your
PC" suggests uninstalling some fonts. It says that Windows loads all fonts
into memory.
My fonts folder has hundreds of fonts. There seems to be 3 types as
indicated by the icons. The icons show either a TT, an O or an A. I presume
some are system fonts and shouldn't be deleted.
So, assuming some are safe to delete (to be determined)- just delete them?
Any potential negative effects?
Are there any MS articles on the subject? Any advice?
Joe

[tedmi]

I second Suzanne's suggestion of moving rarely-used fonts to a separate
folder - on my systems I call that folder MyFonts. Copy files from
Windows\Fonts to MyFonts
and only then delete them Windows\Fonts.
When re-installing the fonts, in the Install New Font dialog, navigate to
the MyFonts folder and then UNcheck "Copy fonts to Fonts folder"
That way, only a link to MyFonts will be put in the Fonts folder, and you
won't clutter your disk with duplicate copies. When you next uninstall the
font, only the link gets deleted, the font file remains intact in MyFonts,
ready to be installed again.
--
TedMi