General Questions

What happens when I install/uninstall fonts with FontPilot?

When You Install a Font

FontPilot performs a proper Windows installation:

• ✅ Copies font to your user Fonts folder (AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts)
• ✅ Registers it in the Windows Registry
• ✅ Makes it immediately available to all applications
• ✅ Font remains available even when FontPilot is closed

When You Uninstall a Font

FontPilot cleanly removes the font:

• ✅ Removes the font file from Windows
• ✅ Cleans up registry entries
• ✅ Notifies applications that fonts have changed

User Fonts vs. System Fonts

• Your fonts: Installed to your user account, manageable through FontPilot
• System fonts: Pre-installed Windows fonts (Arial, Calibri, etc.) - view only

Why Use FontPilot vs. Windows Font Viewer?

• ✅ Bulk operations - Install/uninstall entire folders at once
• ✅ Organization - Keep track of fonts by project or client
• ✅ Safety - FontPilot tracks what it installed for clean removal
• ✅ Preview - See fonts before installing them
• ✅ Features - View OpenType features, character sets, etc.

How do Folders and Tags work in FontPilot?

Folders

• What they are: Folders link to actual directories on your hard drive
• Best for: Organizing fonts by client, project, or source
• Auto-sync: FontPilot watches these folders for changes
• Activation: Activate/deactivate entire folders at once

Tags

• What they are: Virtual labels you can apply to any font
• Best for: Categorizing by style (Script, Sans-serif) or use (Headlines, Body)
• Flexible: One font can have multiple tags
• System fonts: Can even tag system fonts you can't move

Power User Tip

Use Folders for "where fonts came from" and Tags for "what fonts are for"

What are Font Features and how do I use them?

What You're Seeing

The "Features" tab shows OpenType features built into professional fonts:

• Ligatures: Special combined characters (fi, fl, ff)
• Stylistic Sets: Alternative character designs
• Swashes: Decorative flourishes
• Small Caps: Properly designed small capitals
• Fractions: Automatic fraction formatting

How to Use Them

1. ✅ Adobe Apps: Full support in Character/OpenType panels
2. ✅ Microsoft Office: Limited support (some ligatures work)
3. ⚠️ Web Design: Use CSS font-feature-settings
4. ❌ Basic Apps: May not support features at all

Not Seeing Features?

• Not all fonts have OpenType features
• TrueType (.ttf) fonts may have fewer features than OpenType (.otf)
• Variable fonts show features differently

Help! I see duplicate fonts or font conflicts

Why This Happens

You may have the same font installed from different sources:

• Previously installed through Windows
• Installed via Adobe Creative Cloud
• Installed through FontPilot
• Multiple versions in different folders

How FontPilot Handles This

• FontPilot installs fonts to your user font folder
• Windows will use the most recently installed version
• FontPilot tracks which fonts IT installed (for clean uninstalling)

How to Fix Conflicts

1. Check Windows Fonts folder first (Control Panel → Fonts)
2. Uninstall duplicates through their original source
3. Use FontPilot to manage your version going forward
4. Restart applications to load the correct version

Note

FontPilot currently doesn't detect duplicates automatically - this is a manual process

How do I backup my FontPilot settings and organization?

What Gets Saved

FontPilot stores your settings including:

• ✅ Folder locations you've added
• ✅ Tags you've created
• ✅ Which fonts you've installed via FontPilot
• ✅ Your preferences and settings
• ❌ The actual font files (these stay in your folders)

Backing Up Your Fonts

• Keep your font files in a backed-up location (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, NAS, external drive, ..etc)
• FontPilot will find them as long as the folder paths remain the same.
• Consider organizing fonts in cloud-synced folders for automatic backup

Migration Tip

When moving to a new computer:

1. Copy your font folders to the same paths
2. Install FontPilot
3. Re-add your font folders
4. Your fonts will be ready to install again

How does FontPilot help with font licensing?

What FontPilot Tracks

• ✅ Which fonts are activated/installed
• ✅ Folder organization by project/client
• ⚠️ FontPilot does NOT verify license validity

Best Practices for Compliance

Organization

• Create folders per client/project
• Tag fonts with license type (Commercial, Personal, Client-Specific)
• Deactivate project fonts when projects end

Documentation

• Keep license files in font folders
• Name folders with license info: "Google Fonts - Open Source"
• Use tags: "Adobe CC", "Purchased", "Free"

Team Usage

• Share folder structures, not font files
• Each team member needs their own licenses

Which font formats does FontPilot support?

Fully Supported

• ✅ TrueType (.ttf) - Full support including TrueType Collections (.ttc)
• ✅ OpenType (.otf) - Full support with all features
• ✅ Variable Fonts - Supported as single fonts (variations not individually selectable)

Not Supported

• ❌ .svg fonts
• ❌ .fon bitmap fonts
• ❌ .woff fonts
• ❌ .woff2 fonts
• ❌ .eot Embedded OpenType
• ❌ Color fonts may display without color layers

My fonts disappeared after Windows Update!

Why This Happens

Major Windows updates can:

• Reset font registry entries
• Clear user font folders
• Change security permissions
• Update system fonts that conflict with yours

Recovery Steps

1. Check your font folders - Original files should still exist
2. Re-sync folders in FontPilot - Right-click folder → "Sync with filesystem"
3. Reinstall fonts through FontPilot - They're unregistered but files remain
4. Check Windows.old if fonts were in system locations

Prevention

• Keep fonts in dedicated folders outside Windows directories
• Store fonts in cloud-synced folders for backup
• Document which fonts are installed for which projects