INSTALL A FONT ON A MAC

Operating system tested: Mac, Sequoia 15.1.1

Tested: 08 January 2025 / Missy Meyer

Font file types to use: TTF, OTF

Before you can use fonts in a design program, you need to install them to your computer.  Fonts aren’t installed into specific programs; they’re installed to your full system so that all programs can use them.

First, you’ll want to download a font from the internet. If you’d like to test this, you can grab my freebie Spicy Sketcher. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to download a ZIP file from Google Drive.

Most sites and marketplaces will have you download a ZIP folder – this will contain not only the font files, but additional documents like a copy of your license or a guide to how to use the font.

Once you have the file downloaded, you’ll want to unpack it.  A ZIP file is like a stuffed suitcase; everything is crammed in to take up as little room as possible. Extracting the contents is like unpacking that suitcase and fluffing out the clothes; they’re now full-size and ready to use.

To extract a ZIP file in most versions of the Mac OS, you don’t need any additional software; the OS has a built-in way to do it.  Just find where the file has been downloaded to (in my case, it’s the Downloads folder), and double-click on the ZIP icon.

This will unpack everything and put it into a regular folder, right next to the ZIP file.

To get into that folder, click on the wee > next to the file folder icon to expand the folder and view its contents.

There’s all that extra stuff I mentioned: a copy of the license, PDF guides, and other goodies. Right now, what we want is a file ending in .otf or .ttf.  A lot of single-line fonts will only be delivered in .ttf format, which is fine! I’m going to install the double stroke version of Spicy Sketcher; on my fonts, the double stroke version has the name end with the number 2.  (The single stroke version ends in the number 1.)

If you aren’t sure yet whether your software uses the single stroke or double stroke version, there’s no harm in installing them both!  Or you can go over to the software guides area to look up your design program to find out which type is the one you want to use.

Double-click on the file you’d like to install.

After you double-click, you’ll get a pop-up with another pop-up on top of it.  This topmost pop-up will show you the name of the font, a preview of the basic character set, and it will have a blue “Install” button in the bottom right corner. Click on that button to install the font.

That’s it! The font is now installed on your computer, and the next time you open up your design program, it should be there in the fonts list, ready to use.

If this program has been updated since this test and this guide no longer works, please drop me a line at the contact form so I can update this page!