microsoft / microsoft/PowerToys
Installed Font Hider
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
- 139k
- Forks
- 8.6k
- PR merge metrics
- PR metrics pending
Description
### Description of the new feature / enhancement
There is a Windows feature which "[hide fonts](https://www.elevenforum.com/t/show-or-hide-fonts-in-windows-11.5361/)", except it does not act as expected and actually remove fonts from the list provided by any program's font-select drop down menu, whether microsoft or third party.
The minimum viable product would be a binary toggle in the Power Toys Program. Off, it'd do nothing. On, it would:
- Read what fonts a user has installed
- Note each fonts 'hidden' state
- Use that information to abridge a list of installed but NON-hidden fonts
- Replace the contents of any font-select drop down menu that pulls from installed fonts with the abridged list.
Additional features could include:
- Being able to manipulate the hidden status of fonts in Power Toys directly.
- Being able to define the order of the list other than alphabetical.
- Enabling users to define and switch betwixt 'font profiles' so that particular fonts are only visible when needed.
- Being able to assign fonts 'Nicknames' to be displayed in the menu instead of the fonts name.
- Being able to override windows default Display font's name in the font behavior of the drop down menu, either universally or for specific fonts.
### Scenario when this would be used?
Windows 11, by default, has 211 fonts installed across 69 families. In MSPaint, it's 12 pages to scroll through. It can take upwards of a minute to swap between Arial and Times New Roman on a middling-focus day because I have to scroll through a gross of Bahnschrift and Microsoft [Chinese Fonts (Various)] and Segeo UI (various), only to overshoot and need to scroll back up; by which point, Ive probably forgotten what font I wanted to pick when I opened the menu. On a bad day, it might take me 5 minutes.
It is a cluttered and overwhelming user experience that was out of date the day it went live. and that's before even considering the dozens of user-installed and user-created fonts I added mixed into the pile.
This requested power toy would be useful to artists, graphic designers, writers, type-setters, and anyone who has ever had the displeasure of scrolling past the "Microsoft" section of the default font-select drop down.
### Clarification of request's intent
To be clear, this isn't a request for a [font manager](https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/9704) that controls what fonts are and aren't installed on Windows. You cannot, [according to microsoft Independent Advisor DaveM](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5723542/fix-hidden-fonts-showing-in-mspaint-and-other-prog?page=1#answer-12520106), uninstall as many fonts as are unwanted on my machine without "caus[ing] system corruption."
This is a request for an immediary filter between what is installed and what is displayed in a font-select drop down menu. Something I feel is sorely needed, and judging by how times the ineffective tutorial to hide fonts on windows has been copy-pasted and rewrit across the internet, and how many times the question has been asked on reddit and/or microsoft support, I imagine others desire the functionality as well.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
The issue names no files, tests, or entry points; begin by determining whether PowerToys can intercept installed-font lists for other Windows applications without changing font installation state. Done requires a scoped MVP with a toggle and a reliable way to show only non-hidden fonts, with feasibility and affected components documented.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- desktop, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100