Fonts+Sort+by+Similarity

Fonts Sort by Similarity

If your Windows XP system contains dozens, perhaps hundreds, of fonts, it may be difficult to navigate through all of them. For organizational purposes, you can have Windows XP sort similar fonts together. This tip will show you nearly-duplicate fonts, allowing you to remove or file away certain fonts you no longer need.

To access your Windows XP Fonts Control Panel, do the following:

Start > Control Panel. You must be in Classic view

Double-click "Fonts" to open the "Fonts" Control Panel1

Select "View" > "List Fonts by Similarity".

Your "Fonts" window will now show a pull-down where you can find fonts similar to a font of your choosing. Choose a font and then let Windows show you whether or not other fonts are similar to the given font.

For example, on one system select "Arial". The following fonts will be listed as very similar:-

Arial (obviously a font is similar to itself) Arial Black Avant Garde Medium BT Eurostile Microsoft Sans Serif Trebuchet MS

Many fonts can be listed as not similar at all to Arial, including:

Allegro BT Courier New Engravers MT Impact Perpetua Webdings

Microsoft determines font similarity by looking at a font's Panose information that classifies fonts based on visual styles.

Not every font contains such information. What is Panose? The information on the Panose classification system can be found at:- []  