About Font Runner

Font Runner is the fastest and easiest way to preview and use fonts without having to install them.

Font Runner was created because of a personal need to manage large collections of fonts.  In 2001, we at Crux Technologies were in possession of a number of font libraries.  We felt having a large font collection was important in helping us find "just the right font" for any project.

In order to use fonts in various Windows applications, you must install them.  Unfortunately, installing thousands of fonts into Windows has two major drawbacks.  Firstly, they can really bog down your computer.  Startup times increase significantly and programs that attempt to list these installed fonts can experience lengthy slowdowns.  Secondly, it becomes very difficult to organize them.

Getting around these problems meant finding a way to make fonts available without having to install them all into Windows.  That's where Font Runner came in.

With Font Runner you can leave fonts in their neatly organized folders and make them available for you to view, test and use in any Windows program.  You don't need to install them.  What's more, Font Runner allows you to selectively install fonts you use regularly, so you don't have to burden your computer with hundreds or thousands of fonts you may never use.

Font Runner 1.x was pretty much the "quick and dirty" version we used internally to solve our font installation problem.  Realizing it could be helpful to other people, we cleaned it up, fixed some bugs and released it to the public.

Font Runner 2.0, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up as an application that would be released to the public.  Sleeker and more robust, Font Runner 2.0 improves on Font Runner 1.x while adding many features requested by a number of users.

For more information about the new features in Font Runner 2.0 see the section titled, "What's New in 2.0?"

For more information about what Font Runner can do, see our Features Section