Installing Free Mac Fonts in macOS Catalina

Apple has always given its macOS users—including Catalina—the option to change the system font. This is quite a fun feature as you don’t have to commit to just one UI look every time you power up your Mac. Just recently, Apple purchased licenses for more fonts for users to choose from, giving us more customization options — for free!

The downloadable fonts are licensed from Mark Simonson Studio, Commercial Type, and Klim Type Foundry. However, since these fonts are optional downloads—even if they are available for free–not many Catalina users are even aware of them.

Now that we’ve piqued your interest, let’s learn how to download these new fonts.

Installing New Mac Fonts Using Font Book

To start installing the fonts, follow this step-by-step guide:

Open the Font Book app.
On the app’s lefthand sidebar, click All Fonts.
You will be given a list of fonts. You may notice that some of the fonts are grey. This means they are deactivated or haven’t been downloaded.
Right-click on the greyed-out font you are interested in and select Download [name of the font] (you can either download the individual selection or the entire font family).
You can also download the font using the Download button at the top-right of the window.
A prompt may appear requesting download confirmation. Once again, select Download.

You are now ready to use the new fonts.

Install New Mac Fonts From a Font File

This method requires you to have a separate font file available. To get the font file, you can download it from Apple. This also works for third-party font providers such as Font Space. Once you download the file (the file extension should be either .otf, .ttf, or .ttc), follow these steps:

Locate the directory location of the font file.
Right-click on the font file.
Select Open With —> pick Font Book.
Click on Install Font.
You can also drag and drop the font file into the Font Book Window, then choose Install Font.

Validate New Fonts

The system will validate newly installed fonts to check for errors automatically. If for some reason your new Mac font doesn’t display properly or an app or document won’t open because of a potential corrupt font, you can re-validate the file.

Open the Font Book app.
Right-click on the font you wish to validate, then select Validate Font.
Next, you’ll be taken to the Font Validation window. Click the expander icon next to the font to review its condition. As a side note, the green icon suggests that the font is passed, the yellow icon suggests warning, and the red icon means that the font fails the validation check.
To resolve any warning or error, click the checkbox beside a font then select either Install Checked or Remove Checked.

Disable Fonts

Disabling fonts will remove them from the font menu. They remain installed, however.

Open the Font Book.
Click Edit, then select Disable [name of the font].
The selected font will be disabled. To make sure it’s disabled, check to see if it shows “Off” beside the font name in the Font Book app.

Remove Fonts

Sometimes, you may wish to remove fonts entirely. Removing is different from disabling in that the former would also uninstall fonts instead of simply disabling them. To remove a font, you can simply right-click the font you wish to erase from the Font Book then select Remove [name of the font].

Sometimes, duplicate fonts appear in Font Book. To remove them:

Open the Font Book app.
From Edit, select Look for Enabled Duplicates.
You’ll need to select one of the two options:
- Resolve Automatically: Automatically moves duplicates to the trash. No further action is needed.
- Resolve Manually: Handle removing duplicates yourself.
If you choose Resolve Manually, you will be presented with a list of the fonts’ copies and their duplicates. To throw away duplicates, delete any copy not labeled as “Active copy”.

Conclusion

Installing free Mac fonts is one of the more unknown options available to users. So now that you know the how and where, take advantage of one of the company’s best user perks!