FontReport Lite Shows Fonts Previews in Windows

Before you start designing a new document in text editors like Microsoft Word or some graphics editors like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, you want to make sure that you have all the right fonts for the job. For example, if you want to write a formal letter to anyone then perhaps you would go with traditional fonts like Times New Roman or DejaVu Serif. Of course, you can see how a font will actually look like inside the word processor application itself. But this applies to fonts that are already installed in Windows. What about the fonts that you have downloaded off the internet or have bought from some online store?

For previewing all the installed fonts (the ones that reside in the Windows system folder) and all the external not-yet-installed fonts, you can use the FontReport Lite application. It is free and portable, so you can start using it right away without having to install anything.

After launching the FontReport.exe file, you will see the application’s window but it won’t display any fonts until you select the fonts that you want it to process. To add the fonts installed in your Windows system, you can select File → Add to font list → Installed. Similarly, for adding any external TTF or OTF font files, you can select File → Add to font list → External from the menubar.

FontReport Lite

Once the fonts have been added, everything else is a child’s play. You can select the fonts in the list and a preview using the popular phrase – “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” – is displayed on the top. It also shows some important information about the selected font in the window. For example, it can tell you whether a font is Unicode compliant or has only the ASCII character set.

FontReport Lite

FontReport Lite is a lightweight font previewing utility for Windows. It does not include any font uninstalling or installing feature for the fonts, but you can preview all types of fonts using it before you actually choose to install them.

You can download FontReport Lite from http://www.acutesystems.com/free.htm.