How to use the font file previewer
- Choose or drop font files (ttf, otf, woff, woff2). You can add several at once.
- Type your text or pick an example, then adjust size, line height, letter spacing and background.
- Compare the card for each font, check the missing-character note, and save a PNG of any draft you like.
How a browser loads a font file
Web browsers can read the contents of a font file and register it so a page can use it. This free tool registers the file for this page only, without sending it to a server, and then assigns that font to each card to show your text. The registration disappears when you close the page, so you can see whether a font fits without installing it on your computer.
A common problem when choosing fonts is that some typed characters are not in the font and are shown in another font instead. Some Korean fonts contain only common characters, and Latin-only fonts have no Korean at all. This tool compares how each character is drawn with the font and with a font that does not exist, and reports characters the font seems to lack.
ttf and otf are regular formats you install on a computer, while woff and woff2 are compressed formats for websites. The file size is shown on the card, so you can also judge whether a web font is too heavy. For ttf and otf the internal font name is read and shown; for woff files the file name is used.
Ideas and limits
If you have downloaded several font candidates for a blog or shop title, load them together and compare them with the same text. You do not need to install and uninstall them, and the same size side by side makes weight and spacing differences easy to see.
It is also useful for checking before delivery that a font file from a designer can show all of the requested text. Type the shop name, prices and special characters as they are, and you will learn about missing characters early.
The glyph sheet shows letters, digits and common symbols at a glance. It does not count every glyph in the font and is meant for scanning representative shapes. It helps you see whether the digit 0 and letter O, or the digit 1 and letter l, can be told apart.
Switching to the dark background shows how light text looks in thin fonts. Strokes often look thinner on dark backgrounds, which helps when choosing fonts for dark-mode apps or video captions.
This tool cannot adjust the axes of variable fonts and shows the default shape stored in the file. Special font features such as ligatures and alternates are not applied. Appearance in a real document may also differ slightly depending on the operating system and browser.
To keep several drafts, change the text and press the PNG button on the card each time. Keeping images made with the same text makes it easy to recall later which font you chose and why.
When comparing several fonts, keep the same text and size so the differences show accurately. This free tool applies the same settings to every card at once, so you can compare weight, letter width and line feel fairly. Narrow the candidates to two or three and check them again with the real text.
Tips for choosing fonts
- Type the real text you will use. It is far more accurate than a sample.
- Check both a large heading size and a small body size.
- A missing-character note means that character is shown in another font.
- For web fonts, look at the file size too.
- For commercial use, check the license first.
FAQ
Is my font file stored on a server?
No. The file is never sent anywhere and is read only in your browser memory. Loaded fonts disappear when you close or refresh the page, so you can safely test licensed commercial fonts too.
Which file types can I open?
ttf, otf, woff, woff2 and ttc files. Any font format your browser can read works, and broken or non-font files show a message that they could not be read. For woff and woff2, which are compressed web formats, the file name is shown instead of the internal font name.
How does it find characters a font does not have?
It draws each typed character once with the font and once with a font name that does not exist, and if the results match it decides the font lacks that character. It does not read the glyph list inside the file, so very rare cases can be wrong. Check important characters by eye too.
Can I compare several fonts at once?
Yes. Select several files or add them one after another and each gets a card with the same text and size, listed one under another. Remove a font with the X button on its card.
Can I save the preview as an image?
Press the PNG button on a card to save an image made with the current text, size and background. It is handy for sharing drafts or keeping a record of font choices.
Notes & limitations
Font files often have copyright and license terms. This tool only shows files inside your browser without uploading them and does not judge whether a font may be used. The missing-character check is an estimate, so check important characters by eye as well.