Quick Look for fonts on macOS.
Select a font file in Finder, press Space, and see the whole font.
Font Preview is a free, open-source Quick Look extension that previews fonts in Finder. Press Space on a font file and you get a full type specimen, no Font Book and no installing.
Out of the box, macOS shows one line of sample text for a TTF and nothing at all for a WOFF2. Font Preview shows:
- The family name set in the font itself, with its format, glyph count, version, designer, and file size.
- Sample text from 72 pt down to 12 pt.
- The character set, showing only the characters the font actually has.
- Every glyph in a grid.
- A menu of faces for collections and variable fonts. It opens on Regular, not Thin.
- A light and dark switch, so you can check the font on both.
It previews TrueType (.ttf), OpenType (.otf), font collections (.ttc, .otc), Mac suitcases (.dfont), and WOFF and WOFF2 web fonts. It needs macOS 14 or later. A preview uses about 20 MB of memory and no CPU while it sits open.
Run this in Terminal:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/emSoumik/font-preview/main/scripts/install.sh | bashThe script downloads the latest release, copies Font Preview to Applications, and turns on the Quick Look extension. When it prints ready, select any font in Finder and press Space. To read the script before running it, open scripts/install.sh.
If you'd rather click through it, download the DMG from Releases and drag Font Preview into Applications. macOS asks for a few things the first time. The install guide shows each screen and what to click.
Paste this into Claude Code, Codex, or any agent that can run Terminal commands:
Install the Font Preview Quick Look extension on this Mac from
https://github.com/emSoumik/font-preview.
1. Run: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/emSoumik/font-preview/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
It downloads the latest DMG from GitHub Releases, copies FontPreview.app to
/Applications, clears the quarantine flag on that app only, opens it once to
register the extension, and turns the extension on.
2. Verify: `pluginkit -m -i com.soumik.FontPreview.Extension` must print a line
that starts with "+". If it starts with "-" or prints nothing, run
`pluginkit -e use -i com.soumik.FontPreview.Extension && qlmanage -r`, then check again.
3. If it still isn't on, tell me to open System Settings > General >
Login Items & Extensions > Quick Look and switch on Font Preview.
4. Tell me that macOS may show "Background Items Added" for Font Preview.
That's the once-a-day update check, and it's safe to leave on.
Rules: don't use sudo, and don't turn off Gatekeeper system-wide
(no `spctl --master-disable`). Don't run `qlmanage -p`; it opens a window and waits.
When you're done, tell me the installed version:
`defaults read /Applications/FontPreview.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString`
Font Preview asks for as little as macOS allows. Here's everything you might see:
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Apple could not verify Font Preview" | Releases aren't notarized by Apple yet. You only see it if you download the DMG in a browser. | Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. Steps |
| Font Preview is off under Quick Look extensions | macOS sometimes leaves new extensions off. | Switch it on. Steps |
| "Background Items Added" | The once-a-day update check. | Nothing. Leave it on, or turn it off. |
It never asks for Full Disk Access, Accessibility, or Screen Recording. The preview runs in Apple's sandbox, reads only the file you press Space on, and has no network access. The app connects to GitHub only to check for updates, and collects nothing.
Font Preview checks GitHub once a day and asks before it installs anything. To check now, open Font Preview and choose Font Preview > Check for Updates. Every update carries a signature, and the app refuses any download whose signature doesn't match the key built into it.
You need Xcode 26 or later and XcodeGen.
brew install xcodegen
git clone https://github.com/emSoumik/font-preview.git
cd font-preview
scripts/build.sh
ditto build/Build/Products/Release/FontPreview.app /Applications/FontPreview.app
open /Applications/FontPreview.appproject.yml is the source of truth for the Xcode project, so edit it and run xcodegen generate rather than changing the .xcodeproj. To see how the code fits together, read CONTRIBUTING.md. To ship a release, see docs/releasing.md.
How do I preview a font on a Mac without installing it? Select the file in Finder and press Space. Font Preview reads the font straight from the file, so nothing gets installed and Font Book stays untouched.
Can Quick Look preview WOFF and WOFF2 files? Not on its own. macOS doesn't recognize web fonts, so pressing Space shows only a generic file icon. With Font Preview, WOFF and WOFF2 files preview like any other font.
Does it work for variable fonts and font collections? Yes. A menu in the corner switches between named instances or faces, and the preview opens on Regular.
MIT. The screenshots show Geist, which uses the SIL Open Font License.