Section
Last updated on
Oct 27, 2025
Learn about the font browser in Adobe Illustrator and the options it provides to find, preview, and organize fonts.
Illustrator lets you stylize text using fonts installed on your computer and those added from Adobe Fonts. The font browser gives you various options, including filters, to find and preview fonts from both these sources and organize them using Creative Cloud Libraries.
To access the font browser, select Window > Type > Character, and in the Character panel that opens, select the Set the font family dropdown. You can also access it from the Properties panel, the Control panel, and the Contextual Task Bar when you select text on the canvas.
A. Quick filters B. The Your Fonts tab C. The Libraries tab D. The Discover More tab E. Set the font family field F. Global Font Settings G. Filters H. Font-specific options
Your Fonts and Discover More tabs
The Your Fonts and Discover More tabs give you various options to help you find the font that meets your design requirements.
Your Fonts
The Your Fonts tab is what you see when you open the font browser. It shows all the fonts installed on your computer and those added from Adobe Fonts, arranged in sections.
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Fonts shown |
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Recently used |
Shows the fonts you recently used in Illustrator, with the most recently used ones at the top. To control how many recent fonts to see, adjust Global Font Settings . |
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Your fonts |
Shows all the fonts installed on your computer and those added from Adobe Fonts. |
Discover More
The Discover More tab lists all the fonts from Adobe Fonts, arranged in sections.
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Section |
Fonts shown |
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Explore Styles |
Shows various categories of font styles that are available in Adobe Fonts. |
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Trending fonts |
Shows the fonts currently trending on the Adobe Fonts website. |
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New releases |
Shows the newest fonts from the Adobe Fonts website. |
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Browse all Adobe Fonts |
Shows the entire catalog of fonts from Adobe Fonts. |
The filters, including the quick filters, let you narrow the font list based on different criteria. Both tabs share the same set of filters. When you apply filters in one tab and switch to the other, the filters remain active, and the font list refreshes to show relevant fonts from that tab. Illustrator automatically clears the filters when you restart it.
You can apply multiple filters at the same time. When you do so, they don't work independently, and so will show only the fonts common to both.
Filters allow you to filter fonts by categories:
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Filter |
Function |
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Languages & Writing Systems |
Shows the fonts available for the language you select from the dropdown. |
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Font Technology |
Shows the fonts that use the font file type you select. |
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Classification |
Shows the fonts that use the font classification you select. |
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Weight & Width |
Shows the fonts that use the properties you select, such as weight, width, height, contrast, case, or figures. You can select multiple attributes at once. |
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Quick filter |
In the Your Fonts tab |
In the Discover More tab |
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Show Favorite Fonts |
Shows all the local fonts and those added from Adobe Fonts that you marked as favorites. |
Shows all the fonts from Adobe Fonts that you marked as favorites, both those you added and those you didn't add to your account. |
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Show recently added |
Shows the fonts recently installed on your computer and those added from Adobe Fonts, with the most recent one at the top. |
Shows the fonts recently added from Adobe Fonts. |
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Show Local Fonts |
Shows all the fonts on the computer available to your user profile and for Illustrator. |
— |
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In This Document |
Shows all the local fonts and those added from Adobe Fonts used in the current document. |
Shows all the fonts added from Adobe Fonts used in the current document. |
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Show Added Fonts |
Shows all the fonts added from Adobe Fonts. |
Shows all the fonts added from Adobe Fonts. |
Options upon hover
When you hover over a font in the Your Fonts or Discover More tab, you get font-specific options and details.
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Option or detail |
Function |
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Add to Favorites or Remove from Favorites |
Adds the font to the favorites list, or removes it from the list. |
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Show Similar Fonts |
Shows other fonts that look similar to this font. |
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Add to Library |
Adds the font to a Creative Cloud Library. |
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Added or font file type (Your Fonts tab only) |
Indicates whether the font is from Adobe Fonts (shows Added ) or is a local font (shows the font file type). |
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Add , Adding , or Remove (Discover More tab only) |
Adds the font from Adobe Fonts to your account and makes it available across all Creative Cloud apps, or removes it. |
Having familiarized yourself with the options in the Your Fonts and Discover More tabs, learn how to find and apply fonts to stylize text.
The Libraries tab in the font browser lets you organize fonts using Creative Cloud Libraries. You can use existing Libraries or create new Libraries within the Libraries tab. For contextual font management, the Libraries tab:
- Shows all the Libraries created within the font browser, including those without fonts.
- Shows only those Libraries you created in the Libraries panel of Illustrator, other apps, and the Adobe Fonts website that contain at least one font. For a Library currently without fonts to appear in the Libraries tab, you must add fonts from the Adobe Fonts website.
- Shows only the fonts within each Library and hides any other assets.
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Option |
Function |
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New |
Creates a Library to which you can add fonts from the Your Fonts and Discover More tabs. |
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Sort Font Libraries |
Sorts the Libraries by Date modified or Name . |
Options upon hover
When you hover over a Library or a font within any Library, you get Library-specific or font-specific options and details.
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Option or detail |
Hover target |
Function |
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Rename Library |
Library with edit permissions |
Renames the Library. |
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Delete |
Library with edit permissions |
Deletes the entire Library or all its fonts, depending on the types of assets it contains. |
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Add to Favorites or Remove from Favorites |
Font inside any Library |
Adds the font to the favorites list, or removes it from the list. |
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Delete font from Library |
Font inside any Library |
Deletes the font from the Library. |
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Add , Adding , Added , or Font Technology |
Font inside any Library |
Indicates that the font was added, is being added, or was not added from Adobe Fonts to your account, or the technology used to develop the font if it's a local font. |
Having familiarized yourself with the options in the Libraries tab, learn how to organize fonts using Creative Cloud Libraries.
Global Font Settings provides key font settings, including those for font preview and recently used fonts.
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Section |
Setting |
Function |
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Preview |
Sample size |
Applies one of the three standard text sizes to preview the sample text. |
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Preview |
Select from the sample text options |
Uses the text you select from the dropdown menu for the sample text preview. To turn off the sample text preview, deselect Illustrator > Settings > Type > Enable in-menu font previews (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > Type > Enable in-menu font previews (Windows). |
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View |
Recently used |
Shows or hides the Recently used section in the Your Fonts tab. When checked, the dropdown menu next to it allows you to set the number of recently used fonts to be shown. |
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— |
Show font names in English |
Controls whether language-specific font names appear in English or their native language. A change in this setting requires an Illustrator restart for activation. |
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Auto-activate missing fonts |
Controls the automatic addition of those Adobe Fonts used in the open document that are missing from your account. |
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