Text­Preview

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Free Public Beta, macOS 10.9+

TextPreview is an app for previewing fonts in native CoreText without installing them. It will show a menu offering all fonts in a watch folder set by the user, and the menu and fonts are automatically updated once a font is added or replaced in the folder. Circumventing font installation avoids font cache problems, and facilitates font testing on the Mac.

How to Use TextPreview

Setting a Watch Folder

Go to TextPreview > Preferences (Cmd-comma) and click on the Finder path. In the upcoming dialog, choose a folder that TextPreview will watch. We recommend reusing the Adobe fonts folder.

Previewing Fonts

Input text as you would in Apple’s TextEdit.app. Select text, choose font family, font style and size from the menus in the window title bar:

Via the gear menu in the top right, you can access OpenType features of the selected font. Once you move your mouse pointer out of the window, the window title bar disappears to allow an unobstructed view of your fonts:

Add New Fonts for Proofing

Simply add the fonts you want to test to the watched folder, and choose the respective fonts from the font menu in the FontPreview window. You do not need to restart the system, log out and in, or restart the app. The fonts are available immediately.

Installation and Requirements

TextPreview runs on any Mac with macOS 10.9 or later. To install it, simply download and unzip the app, and move it to the Applications folder.

Currently, TextPreview is available as a free public beta.