Searching & Filtering fonts
Find exactly the fonts you need using the search field and font filters.
Font search field
The search field is located at the top right corner of the app window. Press CommandF to focus the search field and start searching. When the search field is in focus the filter panel will be visible. You can hide the panel by scrolling the grid, clicking outside the field, or by pressing the return key.
Press esc when the search field is in focus or click the × button to reset all filters and clear the search field.
Names
Type in the search field to find fonts by name. For example: type ‘helvetica’ to search for all fonts that contain ‘helvetica’ in their name. By default Typeface looks for both the PostScript name and the regular display name.
You can also search for font manufacturer or designer. To do that first choose the ⋯ button in the filter panel and enable the search scope items you want in the submenu. The app will use the selected properties to search fonts when entering text in the search field.
Tags
Besides searching for font names, you can also add tags to the search field. This allows you to filter fonts based on which tags are attached. The tag filters stay active while you’re browsing your library. If you switch to a different tag in the sidebar the app will continue to filter fonts based on the current search terms and filters.
The main difference between adding tags to the search field and choosing tags from the sidebar is noticeable when you start adding multiple tags. When you add multiple tags to the search field the app will only show fonts that have all of those tags attached. Each tag you add will reduce the number of results you see.
For example: add #typeface/activated and #style/serif to view fonts that are are both activated and serif.
When you select multiple tags in the sidebar on the other hand, Typeface will display fonts from either of the selected tags. Each selected tag in the sidebar will increase the number of results you see.
For example: select both #style/script and #style/serif in the sidebar to view fonts that are either script or serif.
The search field and sidebar combined allow you to enter queries of the following form:
(.. OR .. OR .. ) AND .. AND .. AND ..
To add tags to the search field type a # and start searching.
You can add any tag and tags will be suggested as you type.
For a full list of app tags you can enter see the tagging article.
Adding a tag to the search field makes sure the app only shows fonts that have that particular tag attached.
Typing #! inverts that, so you see fonts that do not have that tag attached.
For example #typeface/active shows activated fonts, while #!typeface/active shows deactivated fonts.
To quickly add a tag to the filters right click on a tag in the sidebar and choose . Or drag a tag from the sidebar and drop it onto the search field. The dropped tag will be added to the search terms. Hold down Option while dropping the tag to add the inversed tag to the search field.
Font filters
Use the filter panel to find fonts based on their properties.
Font weight A A A A A
The weight buttons allow you to filter fonts by their boldness. You can choose between Thin, Light, Regular, Bold and Black.
Font width E E E
Filter fonts based on their width. You can choose between Narrow, Normal and Wide fonts.
Font slant U U
Want to see strictly slanted or non-slanted fonts? Enable one of these slant filters: Normal or Oblique.
Height ratio h h h
Find fonts based on their x-height to full height ratio.
This compares the height of letters such as x, o and v, to the height of letters with ascenders such as h, k and l.
A higher ratio means there is a larger height difference between h and x.
Figures
Fonts can display figures (digits) in multiple ways, depending on what data you want to present. For tabular data you may want to use tabular lining figures, such that numbers line up vertically and are easier to compare. You may prefer proportional Oldstyle figures for inline digits, such that they flow better with the surrounding text.
Fonts support one style by default, and may support multiple figure styles using advanced typographic features (OpenType/AAT). If no specific OpenType feature is enabled each font determines which style is the default. Use > from the main menu to force displaying one style over the other. These styles can be mixed in any configuration.
Tabular and proportional figures 0 1 2
Tabular figures are monospaced and therefore neatly line up vertically when used in tables or for example when displaying financial data. Proportional figures are more appropriate in regular text, the 1 will be a bit narrower than a 7.
Lining and Oldstyle figures 1 3 6
Lining figures all have the same height and sit on the baseline. Oldstyle (traditional) figures extend above the x-height and below the baseline.
Typographic features
You can use the Typographic filters to find fonts that support advanced layout features. These features can be enabled and disabled to change the appearance of fonts. Typeface searches for both OpenType features and Apple Advanced Typography features.
Long press (or right click) on one of these filters for more fine grained control and filter fonts based on individual layout features. To inspect which features a font supports go to the detail tab. Enable the rendering of features using the menu.
Ligatures fi
Ligatures merge certain combinations of characters into a single shape. Common examples are fi, fl and ff. This filters fonts that contain standard, discretionary, contextual or historical ligatures.
Alternates Aa
Alternates allow you to choose between different shapes for the same character. For example you can choose between a single story or multi story a, or characters with or without swashes.
Small caps Tt
Small caps are smaller variants of uppercase characters. You can use this to scale down uppercase characters (uppercase small caps), or transform lowercase characters to their smaller uppercase alternatives (lowercase small caps).
Fractions ½
Find fonts that support creating vertical or diagonal fractions.
Superiors and inferiors x2
Find fonts that support superiors (superscript) and inferiors (subscript).
Display
Variable v
Variable fonts allow you to freely change certain visual properties of a font. For example weight, slant, serifs etc. You can adjust these variables in the detail tab.
Color O
Color fonts are fonts that are colorised. Typically you decide a single color for your typography, but color fonts can have multiple (predefined) colors in a single character.
Bitmap B
Most fonts use vector data to specify glyph shapes. That means that characters can be scaled up and down without losing quality or detail. Fonts may also use bitmap data, which is a pixel-based format. Use this filter to find fonts that contain bitmap data.
Languages and character support 文A
Fonts are designed to support a specific set of characters. To support a particular language, a font needs to include the characters that are commonly used in that language, including letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other symbols. If a font does not include a character, that character will not be displayed correctly when the font is used.
You can use the language filters in Typeface to find fonts that support a specific language. For example choose the language to find fonts that support all characters used for the Greek language.
If you just need support for some specific characters, for example when you’re designing a logo with predefined text, you can also instruct the app the filter based on your preview text. This makes sure that the app only shows fonts that can display the text you’ve specified as preview text.
Learn more about filtering by language and character support
Advanced ⋯
The advanced filters allow you to filter fonts based on general support for typographic features, glyph outlines and file types. You can hold down the Option key to invert these filters.
Typographic Features
Filter fonts containing any typographic feature such as ligatures, alternates, fractions etc. Both Apple Advanced Typography and OpenType features are considered.
AAT Tables
Filter fonts containing Apple Advanced Typography layout tables. AAT tables provide support for typographic features, such as ligatures, alternate, fractions etc.
OpenType Tables
Filter fonts containing OpenType layout tables. OpenType tables provide support for typographic features, such as ligatures, alternate, fractions etc.
CFF Outlines
Filter fonts containing Compact Font Format glyph outlines. This determines the internal representation of glyph curves. CFF outlines use cubic bezier curves.
TrueType Outlines
Filter fonts containing TrueType glyph outlines. This determines the internal representation of glyph curves. TrueType outlines use quadratic bezier curves.
PostScript Type 1
Filter fonts stored as a PostScript Type 1 format. Learn more
WOFF
Filter Web Open Font Format 1 fonts. These fonts support data compression to reduce file size and are typically used for websites.
WOFF 2
Filter Web Open Font Format 2 fonts, the successor to WOFF. WOFF 2 fonts feature improved compression over WOFF formats and are typically used for websites.
Hide fonts missing glyphs
Filter fonts by language/character support. Fonts that don’t support all the characters you’re currently previewing will be hidden when this is enabled. Learn more
Search Scope
Change which font properties are searched when using the search field. You can search for font names, foundries and designers.
Reset
Remove all current filters. Keeps the current search query.