Use Windows XP to Find Similar Fonts

You’ve found a font that you basically like, but you’re still not entirely happy. Some letters just don’t look quite right to you. Somewhere, there’s another, better font but how do you search your entire “fonts” folder without taking the entire day?

Or maybe you’re trying to find a font that you’ve seen elsewhere, but can’t name. You found a font on your computer that’s close, but you know you haven’t found the perfect match.

For whatever reason, you need to find fonts that look similar to one that you can name. This is where Windows XP’s “Similarity” feature can help.

Go to the “Windows” folder it’s typically on your C: drive. Double-click on the “Fonts” folder and then scroll until you find the name of the font that you want. Single-click so that this font’s icon is highlighted.

Now click on the “Similarity” icon at the top of the window. This icon is labeled “AB”.

Windows will take you to a list of fonts that are listed in order from the most similar to the least.

The only problem is that Windows still uses the default font for displaying this list. So, you can’t see an example of the actual font in this screen. Double-click on the font’s listing to bring up a new window with sample text in the font that you’ve selected.

If the on-screen display isn’t enough for you, you can print the icon’s example layout. Put a few of these pages side-by-side for a detailed look and you’re bound to find the perfect font.