Windows fonts not immediately useable in application after installing?

Question

Whenever I install a new font on a Windows 2003 server, I can't use it immediately in my asp.net web application. The application gets the font through the CreateFontIndirect gdi32.dll win api, and then use this font to create a dynamic text image in my asp.net application. It seems like fonts get cached somewhere, because I will just get the default font returned.

The font cache gets updated after a reboot, and then I get the correct font, but obviously I wouldn't like to do a reboot on a production server just for getting a new font to work.

Is there a way to flush the font cache?

I install them by copying them into the windows\fonts folder. Windows shows the installing prgress bar and they appear correctly in the windows\fonts folder so it seems they are installed correctly. — Carvellis, Jun 03 '10 at 07:54
btw they are regular TT fonts that normally work in the application, just not immediately after installing them in windows. — Carvellis, Jun 03 '10 at 07:55

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 03 '10 at 08:03

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By default, when you install a new font, only the current session is notified of the change. So if you're logging into the server in a terminal services session (which seems likely) then the ASP.NET application (which will be running in a different session) will not see the change.

When you reboot, the system automatically scans the font directory and "registers" all of the fonts in there into the current session.

To "manually" register a new font, you will need to call AddFontResource and pass in the path to the font.

To make it slightly easier, you could make it so that your app scans the Fonts folder and calls AddFontResource on each file it finds there in it's Application_Start event. That way, when you install a new font, you can just recycle the site (e.g. edit the web.config file) and it'll re-scan all of the files.

Another option would be to put a directory watch (via FileSystemWatcher) on the Fonts folder and automatically re-scan it.

I guess it just depends how often you'll be installing new fonts...

answered Jun 03 '10 at 08:03

Dean Harding

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So there is no possibility to rescan the fonts from outside the application for that particular session? – Carvellis Jun 03 '10 at 08:23
`AddFontResource` adds the font to the system for the *whole* session, so you could run another program in same session as ASP.NET to re-scan the directory and call `AddFontResource`, but whether there'd be much benefit I'm not so sure. – Dean Harding Jun 03 '10 at 08:31
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[Well, Telerik certainly agrees with this post!](https://www.telerik.com/forums/install-new-font-and-need-to-restart-the-server#-HwkFar3hkes9GaVU77enQ) – Scott Jan 30 '18 at 18:18
This also applies to services. To get them to "see" a new font the machine has to be rebooted. Just restarting the service does not help. – PTBW Jun 28 '19 at 09:40

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '13 at 20:42

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Restart IIS. that should do the trick. rub iisreset from command line or use IIS manager.

answered Oct 19 '13 at 20:42

user1923248

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I can confirm that this doesn't work. Dean's explanation seems to be correct. – Heinzi Jul 09 '14 at 17:20
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This worked for my barcode application without a system reboot using System.Drawing.Font to create a graphic out of the barcode font. – Crob May 06 '16 at 15:23
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this answer could solve your problem, give it a try, it solved mine. – Hakan Fıstık May 23 '16 at 12:55
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IIS restart worked for me, as did recycling the appPool on another server. – GlacialSpoon Aug 26 '16 at 10:58

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 21 '19 at 06:48

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I recycle the application pool that use the fonts and it fixed.

answered Sep 21 '19 at 06:48

Mehdi Jannati

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Also make sure the font is installed for all users. The combination of app pool recycle and install for all users did the trick for me. – Rick Paul Nov 16 '22 at 23:34

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 03 '22 at 20:58

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When installing fonts on a server, NEVER double click them to install, otherwise it only installs for the current user. Instead you should right click the font file and select "Install for all users". The font will then be available right away for use in your web application.

answered Mar 03 '22 at 20:58

Randall

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This helped as I was missing 2 of the 10 fonts I installed. I had not used "Install for all users" That plus the Recycle Application Pool response above got the fonts to show up properly. – Rick Paul Nov 16 '22 at 23:33

Windows fonts not immediately useable in application after installing?

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