Igniting Critical and Creative Thinking

FONT HACK FOR TEACHERS – USING FONTS WITHOUT THE DOWNLOAD

Are you obsessed with fonts? Do you hate making classroom materials on your school computer because you can’t install all those fabulous fonts you find on Teachers Pay Teachers and other websites? Do you have cute fonts on your home computer, so you make everything at home instead of school?  Despair no more!  I have a FANTASTIC FONT HACK that makes it possible for you to use all those fabulous fonts on your school PC without having to install them!  

First, there are a couple of criteria for this font hack:

  • You must use this hack on a PC – it will not work on a MAC.
  • This hack only works on Microsoft Office programs.  Personally, I have only used it with PowerPoint and Word.
  • Only use True Type fonts – most fonts are in this format, and all the sellers I know on TpT make True Type Fonts.  If you are not sure if a font is a True Type font, when you are in PowerPoint, click on the down arrow in the font tab, and you will see all your fonts listed.  Before the name of each font, you should see a double TT which means it is a True Type font.

This is an easy HACK, but I am going to guide you through all the steps!  I have made my examples in PowerPoint, but if you are working in Word, you will follow the same steps when you create your initial Word Document.

Font Hack Step 1

Font Hack for Teachers

In this step, you create a master document of your favorite and most commonly used fonts.  Depending on the program you plan to use with your master font document, this file will be either a Word or PowerPoint document. If you are using both formats, you will need to make a document specific to each program. I create a master font file for both horizontal and vertical pages, so I don’t have to change the page orientation.  To keep your files up to date, you need to update your font master documents each time you download a new font.  

Font Hack Step 2

Font Hack for Teachers

By editing a document’s SAVE Options, you enable all the fonts in your document to be used on computers that don’t have the fonts installed.

Font Hack Step 3

Step three is where the magic happens! Be sure to check embed all fonts AND select embed all characters.  This step allows every character in a font to be used in a document.  I save this document to a flash drive, Google Drive, my external hard drive, AND Dropbox.  This allows me to have access to my font master document on any computer that has Microsoft Office for PC’s installed.  

Font Hack Step 4

Font Hack for Teachers

In step four, you are opening your saved Font Master document to create a new document.  Immediately after opening the file, you should save the file under a new name.  For example, Fractions Worksheet or Fractions Notebook Cover. It is important to complete this action first so you don’t accidentally change the master document.  After completing your new document,  delete the font master pages in the file and re-save the document using the Embed All Characters Option.

A Freebie for you!

Here is a PDF document with all the steps you can print for easy reference.  Just click on the picture below to download the file!

Font Hack for Teachers

Where Can I Get Great Fonts?

I am often asked where I find my fonts. To be honest, I find 95% of the fonts I use on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Many font designers on TpT have fonts you can download for free.   Below are some great font designers with links to their TpT stores. To give you variety, I have listed established font designers and some of the newer, up and coming designers. If you know a fabulous font designer that I left off the list, please leave a comment in the comments section so all my readers can also discover that designer.

Font Designers on Teachers Pay Teachers 

  • KG Fonts by Kimberly Geswain, is a massive collection of free fonts and paid fonts for commercial use. 
  • KB3Teach has a large collection of free fonts along with fonts you can purchase.
  • Zippy Fonts from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, offers approximately 25 paid font collections and a HUGE font bundle.
  • Graphics From the Pond features a large collection of free fonts along with fonts you can purchase.
  • The Kinderhearted Classroom by Elizabeth Coller, has a new growing bundle of paid fonts.
  • Okie Fonts Collection by Elaine from The Treasured Schoolhouse, has a collection of paid fonts.
  • Perfect Blend Fonts offers seven collections of paid fonts and an all fonts bundle.
  • CK Fonts by Courtney Keimer, has free and paid fonts.
  • AG Fonts by Amy Groesbeck from the Animated Teacher, offers several paid font bundles and a large growing font bundle.
  • Hello Fonts by Jen Jones from Hello Literacy, has a large bundle of paid fonts.
  • MGL Fonts by Stef from Miss Gavin Learns, has approximately 15 free fonts and bundle of paid commercial fonts.
  • Amanda Byrnes offers free fonts for classroom use and paid commercial fonts.
  • The Upper Elementary Classroom has a selection of free fonts. 
  • Monica Fonts by Monica Abarca, provides 25 free fonts and large selection of paid fonts.
  • Jackie G  offers a selection of free fonts in addition to a large selection of paid fonts that sell for approximately $1.
  • KA Fonts by Kaitlynn Albani Teaching Resource,s offers many paid font bundles.
  • Babbling Abby by Abby Mullins, has 8 paid font collections and a bundle of all fonts.
  • YB Fonts by Yara from Sea of Knowledge, offers a large paid font bundle of around 129 fonts for $15. 
  • Teach 123-Michelle has a collection of 34 fonts for $8 and several free fonts.
  • Mrs. Leeby offers a collection of paid fonts for approximately $1 each.
  • CC Fonts byCara Carroll, has three paid font collections.
  • Sheila Melton has 30 paid single fonts and a font bundle.
  • TeachtoTell offers individual paid fonts and a fonts bundle. 
  • GB Fonts by Gabby Barba from Instruct and Inspire, has 3 sets of paid fonts and a growing fonts bundle.

Although this post focuses on using this font hack on school computers, I have used my master font document on many other PC’s. With this hack, you never have to worry about a PC not having the fonts you need. Imagine your computer crashes and you must use a different PC while you wait for yours to be fixed, or worse yet, purchase a new one. You will be very thankful you have your font master documents so your work will not have to be interrupted because you can’t use the fonts you need.

Disclaimer:  This information is shared for you to use the information to create materials for your classroom and not materials intended for resale.  Creating materials for resale on your school computer is probably against your school system policy and I highly advise against it.

I hope you found this Font Hack helpful.  I’d love to hear how it is working for you.  Until next time, have fun creating! 

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hey y'all

I'm Susan!

I’m Susan Morrow and I help overwhelmed teachers create thinking classrooms where students discover the joy in learning and achieving.

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