Fonts preview tool

[jaclaz]

I am looking for what I think is a simple tool, but I am literally overwhelmed from the results of searching/googling for it.

It seems like everyone, before or later has written a tool to preview fonts.

The tool I am looking for should have the following characteristics:

1. be able to run on XP
   
2. allow comparison preview of NON-installed fonts (like - example - fonts in a given directory or set of font files manually added to a list or from a pre-made list)
   
3. allow a custom text to be used for the preview
   
4. NOT needing/using .Net
   
5. possibly (but not vital) needing NO install
   
6. Freeware (yes, I am cheap)
   

To try and explain better what I am after, what I did in the past with my dinosaurish approach (and still do for lack of a better method/tool) is/was:

1. install all fonts
   
2. open a spreadsheet
   
3. type the string i want in a cell
   
4. copy the cell down n times
   
5. type in the near colums the font name and the actual filename of the font file
   
6. apply to each cell of the first column the correspondign font formatting
   
7. insert a column on the left
   
8. insert in cells in this leftmost column ordering numbers (from a visual comparison)
   
9. re-order the whole set along the order number
   
10. loop to #8 until I find a set of thre or four "similar enough" fonts to make further experiments
    
11. finally choose the "right" font among the few selected with the above procedure
    

If anyone knows of some tools capable of doing something *like* the above in a simpler way, I would be very thankful for any suggestion, as well if there is a completely different approach leading to the same final result, I am all ears.

jaclaz

Edited September 16, 2012 by jaclaz

[GrofLuigi]

1. Good old Font Thing (works on XP)

2. Lately I use ttfviewer Total Commander plugin for previewing fonts.

I think both fullfill all of your needs, except...

I don't understand the second criterium - do you need to compare two fonts or non-installed fonts (is the keyword in your sentence comparison or NON-installed? ) If the need is comparison, I just open two instances (windows) of the program, position them on the same place on screen and switch between them. *Edit: of course, they both can preview non-installed fonts.

*Edit 2 : Font thing can preview multiple fonts in a page, it that's what you meant.

GL

Edited September 16, 2012 by GrofLuigi

[jaclaz]

1. Good old Font Thing (works on XP)

2. Lately I use ttfviewer Total Commander plugin for previewing fonts.

I think both fullfill all of your needs, except...

I don't understand the second criterium - do you need to compare two fonts or non-installed fonts (is the keyword in your sentence comparison or NON-installed? ) If the need is comparison, I just open two instances (windows) of the program, position them on the same place on screen and switch between them. *Edit: of course, they both can preview non-installed fonts.

*Edit 2 : Font thing can preview multiple fonts in a page, it that's what you meant.

GL

Thanks, almost perfect , though I do miss the possibility of quickly re-ordering the fonts....

jacla

[ROTS]

CorelDraw 12 "Trail Edition" has "Bitstream Font Navigator" ( if that is still around ), for all versions of Windows that will install, and Apple OS have the free "Fontbook" program, built inside of them. You want to just glide through all the fonts really, really fast??? Another problem with Win98 is the limitation of fonts folder. I forget if all Unicode fonts are read as well???