English | 简体中文

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📖 Table of contents

• Why FontManager?
• Feature guide (step by step)
• Plugins, local API & MCP
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Translations
• Getting FontManager
• Platform notes
• Privacy
• Building from source
• Credits
• License

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💡 Why FontManager?

FontManager started from ZFontManager 0.8.0 and has since grown into a project
of its own: its own code, its own release track, its own plugin platform. Beyond that
starting point it has no shared roadmap, maintenance, or upstream.

What FontManager adds:

• Automation, first-class. An opt-in local HTTP API, an out-of-process plugin system
  with per-plugin permission tokens, and an MCP server — so agents and scripts can query
  fonts, toggle families and manage snapshots without touching the interface.
• A Windows-first release track — NSIS and MSI installers, up to 3 library
  folders with one-click switching (each badged with its own folder icon), and
  interface refinements across all nine languages.

Everything that made the original good is still here: live previews everywhere,
one-click activation, and the iron rule that your font files stay on your machine.

[!NOTE]
Where this project spends its effort. The app itself aims for enough, comfortable,
fast — no feature bloat: startup, scrolling, search and activation get polished first.
The plugin ecosystem, local API and MCP are where new features, new experiences and
deeper extensibility live, so the core can stay small and stable while the edges grow.

[!WARNING]
System fonts are protected. Fonts your operating system needs to draw its own
interface can't be deactivated or trashed from FontManager, so you can explore
fearlessly. Their cards show a small OS lock badge instead of a toggle, with
the reason on hover.

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🎯 Feature guide (step by step)

Every feature below is written as "follow the clicks". After this section you
know what every button in the app does.

1. First launch: get fonts into the library

1. Drag a font folder or a ZIP straight onto the app window
   (or: Settings → Library folders → "Add folder…" and pick a folder)
2. The scan runs, and every card is then previewed in the font's own letterforms
3. Want a second library? Settings → Library folders → "Add folder…"; click a row to
   change its directory, and the "switch" button at the end of a row makes it the
   active one (see section 17)

A ZIP mixing several families? It is rejected as a whole with a reason —
by design, so your library never fills with junk in one drop.

2. Know the main window

Find your way first: the window has five regions

Region	Where	What you can do there
Title bar	the thin strip on top	drag the window · minimize / maximize / close · Settings · send it to the QuickBar (Alt+`)
Sidebar	the left column	switch views: Library / Favorites / Recent imports / Activated / Activate-until-quit / Deactivated / System fonts / Collections / Snapshots; at the bottom: Online · Trash · About · Shortcuts
Toolbar	above the content	search · preview text · size slider · filter · sort · compare · rescan · three view switches
Content	the middle	cards / list / specimen views; click a card to select, right-click for the full menu, drag into a collection
Detail panel	slides in from the right when a card is clicked	multi-size specimen · metadata · license · notes & tags · export · drag its left edge to resize

Sidebar (top to bottom):

Item	What it shows
Browse → Library	all families (the number = family count)
Browse → Favorites	families you starred
Browse → Recent imports	what arrived last
Activated	toggles currently on
Activate-until-quit	temporary ones (restore themselves on exit)
Deactivated	toggles currently off
System fonts	Windows' own fonts (locked)
Collections	groups you build (+ to create)
Snapshots	saved activation sets (see §8)
Online / Trash / About / Shortcuts	downloads · removed fonts · about · key list

Toolbar: search · preview-text box (type anything, the whole library previews
it) · size slider (8–96px, eight steps) · filter · sort · compare · refresh ·
three view buttons (cards / list / specimen).

A font card: format badge (TTF / OTF / VAR = variable) · family name · live
preview line · license badge (free-commercial / personal / unknown…) ·
★ favorite · toggle (activate/deactivate).

3. Activate / deactivate in three steps

1. Find the family (search or scroll)
2. Click the toggle on the card — it writes to the system immediately
3. Open any app's font menu — it's already there; switching off hides it
   from every app (the file stays safe in the library)

• Just need it temporarily? Right-click → activate until quit: everything
  restores itself when you exit
• Bulk: Ctrl/Shift-select cards → right-click → "Activate N" / "Deactivate N";
  an interrupted bulk run offers to resume on next start
• System fonts wear an OS lock badge — they render Windows itself, so nobody can
  disable or delete them

4. Three views: cards / list / specimen

The three icons at the toolbar's right edge:

• Cards (default): one card per family, live previews

• List: a compact table — family / styles / format / size / toggle — best for
  sweeping a big library

• Specimen: a multi-column specimen wall — every cell keeps the full card
  header (format / name / license / ★ / toggle) and spreads the sample text large
  underneath; pick a face per cell (remembered); its own size control — best for
  judging a typeface's character

5. The detail panel: everything about one family

Click any card and the right panel opens:

• Live multi-size specimen (large "Aa" down to small text, all real glyph
  rendering); variable fonts get axis sliders (weight and friends)
• Metadata: style count · format · class · script · the true charset numbers
  (N characters · M hanzi — "does it have Chinese?" becomes a fact, not a guess)
• The full copyright text with its automatic verdict; name conflicts
  (several files claiming one identity) warn in red here
• Header: toggle · ★ · export all — zips the family's whole folder, license
  files and readme included, so a colleague receives the terms along with the
  fonts (a font sitting at the library root exports just its own files); drag the
  panel's left edge to resize, double-click to reset

6. Favorites & ratings

1. Click the ★ on a card: favorite the family and record one star
   (click again to clear)
2. For 2–5 stars, open the detail panel and pick a value on the rating control
3. The QuickBar's ★ works the same; the sidebar "Favorites" view filters instantly
4. Ratings are purely your own "daily / backup" markers — the app adds no limits

7. Organize: collections, tags, notes

• Create a collection: "+" next to Collections in the sidebar → name it →
  drag cards in (or right-click → Collections → add)
• Tag: multi-select cards → right-click → add tag; tags show on cards and in details
• Notes: write directly in the detail panel (e.g. "Client A brand fonts,
  licensed through 2027"); plugins can write notes for you too

8. Snapshots: photograph "which fonts are on"

1. "+" next to Snapshots in the sidebar → name it → the current activation set is saved
2. Toggle fonts freely afterwards; click a snapshot to apply (restore exactly) /
   merge into current / switch
3. Export a snapshot: right-click it → export → a .S-FontManager file —
   send it to a colleague and they double-click to import
4. Right-click also offers: clear all fonts inside / delete the snapshot

9. Installing new fonts: four ways

How	What to do
Drag a ZIP	drop it on the window; it unpacks and imports
Double-click	double-click a .S-FontManager / .P-FontManager / .L-FontManager file — the app opens and imports it (file associations registered at install)
Online panel	see below: filter by category / license, one-click add
Local API / MCP	automated imports (see Plugins, local API & MCP)

How to use it: sidebar "Online" → filter by category (sans / serif / display /
handwriting / mono / icons) and license (OFL / Apache / UFL), or just search;
cards show style · styles count · license (VAR badge = variable font); click a card
for details and add to library downloads it — the license text sits right next
to the download button and license files come along. Data: the Google Fonts
catalogue, 1,984 families.

10. Export: every way out

What you want	Where
A single face (.ttf/.otf file)	right-click the face → export font file
A family / many families	right-click → export family… / export N families… (pick a folder)
A font list (metadata only)	right-click → export font list…
A specimen image (PNG)	right-click → export specimen…; or the specimen view
A snapshot	right-click the snapshot → export (.S-FontManager, re-importable by double-click)
Curation data (tags/collections/favorites/notes/manual verdicts/expiry dates)	Settings → export library data (merge on another machine)
Everything (curation + all fonts)	Settings → tick "include font files" → export pack → a .P-FontManager pack (auto-split above 2 GiB; import any one volume)

Importing is always: double-click the file, or drop it on the window.
Files are recognized by content, not extension.

Every FontManager-specific file carries a sticker-paper icon (torn edges +
a handwritten caption), easy to spot in Explorer: the app icon (a TYPE
FontManager wordmark) · snapshot export .S · pack-with-fonts .P ·
data-only export .L · library folder .F:

11. Trash: regret is allowed

1. Right-click a family → move to trash (bulk works too) — uninstalled from the
   system but the files are kept
2. Sidebar "Trash" → restore (back exactly as it was) or delete forever
   (double confirmation)

12. Licenses & duplicates: no browser needed

• Every family gets an automatic license verdict: personal / paid /
  free-commercial / unknown, with an evidence sentence (which documents were read)
• Badges show on cards and in the QuickBar; the full text lives in the detail panel
• No license file is ever generated. Folders that already have a license file
  are simply read; when there is none, your folder is left untouched and
  FontManager falls back to the copyright embedded in the font file itself
  (shown as such in the detail panel); two contradictory licenses in one folder →
  verdict "unknown", for you to check
• Wrong verdict? Override it manually in the detail panel; it's remembered
• Duplicates: files claiming the same font identity are flagged and resolved
  from the detail panel

13. Apply fonts in Photoshop / Illustrator / CorelDRAW / Affinity

Right-click a family → "Apply in {app}…":

• Photoshop / Illustrator — driven over COM scripting, no menu hunting
• CorelDRAW — FontManager drives CorelDRAW's COM object model directly
  (Chinese fonts matched by localized names)
• Affinity — with auto-activation on, fonts missing from your open documents
  are activated from the library automatically

With the official “Font Apply (PS / AI / CDR)” plugin installed there are two
faster routes:

• Double-click any copyable spot in the QuickBar (a whole row or an expanded
  face row) — the font is applied to the design app you used last;
• Right-click the plugin row → “Double-click: pick a window” → after the
  double-click, click the target window (within 15s; the taskbar counts too).
  Switch between the two modes right from the plugin's context menu.

14. ⚡ The QuickBar: switch fonts in 1 second, anywhere

1. Press Alt+` anywhere — the main window collapses into the
   docked QuickBar (change the hotkey under Settings → System → "QuickBar
   hotkey", see below)
2. It lists only activated fonts: click a name to copy, double-click to apply
   it to your design app (needs the “Font Apply” plugin), ★ to favorite,
   the toggle to switch off, "> 3" to expand a family's faces, right-click for
   the full menu (type right in that menu to search fonts — enabled by
   default, Tab for all; see section 16)
3. Top bar: activated count · search · preview text & size · a pin ·
   "full window" to morph back
4. Done? Drag it back to the top edge and it collapses to a hairline that
   expands as your mouse approaches — or press Alt+` again

15. Compare

1. Click "Compare" in the toolbar (or multi-select → right-click → compare N)
2. Pick 2–4 families
3. See the same text set side by side; remove and re-pick any time

16. Keyboard first: command palette & shortcuts

• Ctrl+K: the command palette — type to jump (views, toggles,
  compare, apply-in-app, snapshots…)

• Type-to-search in any context menu: with any right-click menu open
  (cards / list / specimens / QuickBar / detail panel), just start typing —
  a search box appears on top and filters the whole library live.
  ↑↓ to pick, Enter or click to jump: the app
  switches to the right view and scrolls the family into view.
  Esc clears the query first, then closes the menu

• Tab toggles the search scope: while searching, Tab (or the
  badge next to the box) switches between "enabled ↔ all fonts" — the QuickBar
  searches enabled fonts by default (picking one scrolls the QuickBar list;
  picking a disabled one returns to the full window and locates it), the full
  window searches all
• ? (or the sidebar "Shortcuts" entry): the full shortcut list —
  navigation / selection / actions on selection / snapshots

17. Multiple libraries: up to 3 folders, one-click switching

Fonts scattered across folders? Settings → Library folders:

1. The default library is the "字体库" folder next to the install directory; flip on
   "Use custom folders" to add your own
2. "Add folder…" takes up to 3 library folders, each badged with FontManager's
   dedicated folder icon — easy to spot in Explorer
3. The "Switch" button at the end of a row makes that library current; the scan
   follows instantly. The folder button opens it in Explorer, the ✕ removes it
4. The library list travels with the app — export your data on one machine and it
   comes along

18. Look & language

In settings: light / dark theme · interface sounds on/off · reduced motion
(calmer animation, less transparency) · nine interface languages
(简体中文 · 繁體中文 · English · 日本語 · Deutsch · Español · Français ·
Português (Brasil) · Русский).

19. Go further: plugins / API / MCP

Want the app to work by itself? Next section.

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🔌 Plugins, local API & MCP

FontManager opens its core to automation — opt-in, local-only, permission-scoped:

Layer	What it does	Docs
Local HTTP API	127.0.0.1-only REST API: list/search fonts, activate/deactivate, snapshots, curation. Custom port, resettable token, every route permission-checked	—
Plugins	Separate processes that talk JSON over stdin/stdout plus a restricted token — a plugin crash can never take the app down. Plugins may ship their own interpreter (interpreterPath) or a self-contained .exe	docs/PLUGINS.md
MCP server	Wraps the local API as MCP tools so agents (WorkBuddy, Claude, Cursor…) can drive your library in conversation	mcp/README.md

📥 Installing ready-made plugins

The official plugin collection lives in the FontManager-Plugin
repository. Two ways to install (1.4.4+):

• Drag & drop: drag a plugin ZIP anywhere onto the window — FontManager
  detects it by its plugin.json and installs it (regular font ZIPs keep
  importing as fonts; the two never get mixed up);
• Button: Settings → Plugins → "Install from ZIP".

Or the manual way: unzip and drop the folder into the plugins folder
(Settings → Plugins → "Open plugins folder"), then toggle it on.

Interpreters: the installer ships no interpreters (since 1.4.11) —
what to download is entirely the user's call. In Settings → Plugins each
runtime shows what's on the machine (version, disk usage, which plugins use
it), a one-click download (Python 3.13 + Pillow + fontTools, ~19 MB; or
Node.js 22 LTS, ~32 MB — pulled from the official GitHub release with a live
progress bar), and a delete button to reclaim space when no plugin needs
it. Deleted runtimes can be re-downloaded anytime. Resolution order:
plugin-bundled interpreter (interpreterPath) → app-folder runtime → user
override → system interpreter. Plugins with heavy dependencies may still ship
their own runtime/ — see docs/PLUGINS.md for the full
story, the plugin template
(template-hello)
for a 5-minute start, and troubleshooting.

Manual steps (any version):

1. Grab a plugin ZIP from the plugin releases
2. Unzip it (e.g. the specimen-export folder)
3. FontManager → Settings → Plugins → "Open plugins folder", drop the folder in
4. Toggle the plugin on in Settings → Plugins (or hit "Rescan")
5. Right-click any family → Plugins › to use it. The plugin's own row in
   Settings → Plugins is an entry point too: the gear at the end of the row
   opens the plugin's settings panel (when the plugin declares one), and
   right-clicking the row lists its no-family-needed actions (open export
   folder, change save location…)

🖥️ Using the local API

1. Turn on Settings → Local API — the address chip shows the actual base
   (e.g. 127.0.0.1:58202); set a custom port in the field below it
2. The token is masked by default; click the eye to reveal, or reset it (old token dies instantly)
3. Send Authorization: Bearer <token> on every request
4. Try it (PowerShell):

$cfg = Get-Content "$env:APPDATA\FontManager\api.json" | ConvertFrom-Json
curl.exe -H "Authorization: Bearer $($cfg.token)" $cfg.base/health
curl.exe -H "Authorization: Bearer $($cfg.token)" "$($cfg.base)/fonts?q=noto&limit=10"
curl.exe -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $($cfg.token)" -H "Content-Type: application/json" `
  -d '{"family":"Noto Sans SC"}' $cfg.base/fonts/activate

Handy endpoints: GET /health · GET /fonts & GET /fonts/families ·
POST /fonts/activate & POST /fonts/deactivate · POST /fonts/scan ·
GET/POST /snapshots & POST /snapshots/{name}/apply · GET/PUT /curation*
(notes, ratings, favorites, tags).

Permissions — where 403 comes from

Every route sits behind a permission gate. A plugin's token only carries the scopes
listed in its own plugin.json → permissions; step outside them and you get 403
with the missing scope named in the body.

Scope	What it allows
read:fonts	Read font / family lists and enabled state
write:fonts	Enable / disable / rescan — changes system-wide state; the one to scrutinise
read:snapshot / write:snapshot	Read / create / delete / apply setting snapshots
read:curation / write:curation	Read / modify your notes, ratings, favorites, tags
export / import	Start a pack export + poll progress / import a font pack

The order is 401 (no token) → 403 (scope missing) → 422 (malformed body): the gate runs
before the body is parsed, so a missing scope never shows up as 422.

Missing a scope? Add it to the plugin's own plugin.json and hit Rescan — tokens are
minted at enable time. No FontManager change needed. To see what you actually hold, read
permissions from GET /health (allPermissions is the full catalogue).

Full scope table, plus the rule for adding a new route (routes() and perm_for(),
or the route is silently open), is in
docs/PLUGINS.md § 权限 (Chinese).

🤖 Hooking up MCP

1. Enable the local API (MCP runs on top of it)
2. Add an entry in your MCP client's config (use your own absolute path):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fontmanager": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\mcp\\index.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

1. Done — the MCP server reads %APPDATA%\FontManager\api.json automatically
   for port and token, so resetting the token never breaks your config.
   WorkBuddy: connector manager → custom MCP → paste → "Trust"; Claude Desktop and
   Cursor work the same way.

Then just ask in conversation — "list my Noto fonts", "apply the work snapshot".
All 10 tools are documented in mcp/README.md.

What can an agent actually do with it?

MCP hands the agent a small set of verbs — list, activate, deactivate, annotate —
the imagination is the agent's own. A few things that genuinely work:

• Identify a font from an image: drop a poster, logo or chat screenshot into the
  chat and ask the agent to study the letterforms (serifs, weight, stroke endings…),
  then compare them against the fonts in your library — "do I already have the font
  in this image, and what is it called?" The agent can pull each candidate's file
  path via font_detail, render real specimens from those files to verify, and
  answer with evidence instead of a guess
• Heal missing fonts: hand the agent the font list a document or design file
  needs — it tells you which ones your library lacks and activates the ones it has,
  no more digging through font menus one by one
• Curation at scale: "tag everything imported last week as pending review",
  "deactivate every family rated below 3 stars" — dozens of clicks become one sentence
• Scheduled checkups: give the agent a recurring task to scan for new fonts,
  apply a named snapshot, and report the state of your library

Image-based tricks need an MCP client that accepts pictures in chat
(WorkBuddy and Claude Desktop both do).

Nothing here is enabled by default, and every layer dies the moment you switch
the local API off.

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⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in the app for the full, always-current list — search,
activation, snapshots, the command palette and the QuickBar are all covered.

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🌍 Translations

Nine languages ship in the box: 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · English · 日本語 · Deutsch ·
Español · Français · Português (Brasil) · Русский.
Want to add one? docs/TRANSLATING.md — no code required.

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📥 Getting FontManager

Grab the latest installer from
Releases:

• FontManager_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe — NSIS, per-user, no admin rights needed
• FontManager_x.y.z_x64_en-US.msi — MSI, per-machine, into Program Files

Both are unsigned builds; SmartScreen may ask for confirmation. Verify the
SHA-256 in the release notes before running.

Uninstalling

The NSIS uninstaller's confirmation page has a "Delete app data" checkbox:

• Unchecked (default) — only the program itself is removed. Font library,
  plugins, runtimes, state.json, caches, notes and snapshots are kept, so a
  reinstall picks up right where you left off.
• Checked — everything this app created is removed as well: 字体库,
  plugins, python-runtime and node-runtime inside the install folder,
  %APPDATA%\FontManager (plus the ZFontManager folder left behind by 0.8.x),
  %LOCALAPPDATA%\FontManager\字体库, the three file-association registry keys,
  and HKCU font-registry values whose data points into those font libraries.

Cleanup is a strict allowlist: system fonts, system font-registry entries, fonts
in user-selected library folders, unrelated files in the install folder, and
snapshots/samples you exported elsewhere are never touched. Upgrades never
trigger cleanup. MSI uninstalls have no such checkbox and always keep the data.

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🪟 Platform notes

FontManager is built on Tauri v2 and ships Windows binaries (NSIS + MSI),
tested on Windows.
System-font protection, activation and the trash all use Windows' own
mechanisms (registry + GDI) — never by modifying font files.

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🔒 Privacy

Short version: out of the box, nothing is sent anywhere.

• ❌ No account, no sign-up, no telemetry, no crash reporting
• ❌ Nothing about your fonts, tags, collections or notes is ever uploaded —
  there is no feature that does this, switched on or off
• ✅ Everything lives in local files on your machine
• ✅ The only optional network feature is the online font browser (off by
  default), which contacts the Google Fonts catalogue and GitHub release
  assets — your IP and the fonts you download, to those hosts only, and
  nothing about your existing library

The local API listens on 127.0.0.1 only and stays disabled until you turn it on.

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🛠 Building from source

pnpm install
npx vite build
npx tauri build --bundles nsis,msi

Rust (MSVC) 1.85+ and Node 20+ are required. Rust unit tests run with
cargo test --lib, interface tests with npm test.

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🙏 Credits

FontManager is built by IIEOzo, and started from ZFontManager 0.8.0.
That starting point is the only thing the two projects share today.

If FontManager is useful to you, a ⭐ genuinely helps others discover it.

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📄 License

FontManager is free software, released under the
GNU General Public License v3.0.

In human terms: you may use it, share it, and change it — and if you
distribute a changed version, it must stay just as free for the next person.

The copyright notice of the 0.8.0 code FontManager started from is kept in
LICENSE, as the GPL requires.

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