Where fonts are stored on a Mac and how to find a font file

11 October 2026 · 6 min read

Fonts you install on a Mac go into one of two folders: ~/Library/Fonts, for your account only, or /Library/Fonts, for every account on the Mac. The fonts that come with macOS live in /System/Library/Fonts, which is part of the read-only system and cannot be changed. The quickest way to a particular font file is to open Font Book, Control-click the font, and choose Show in Finder.

The three Fonts folders

~/Library/Fonts holds fonts installed for your account. Nobody else who signs in to the Mac sees them, and you can add or remove them without an administrator password.
/Library/Fonts holds fonts installed for everyone on the Mac. Changing it needs an administrator.
/System/Library/Fonts holds the fonts that come with macOS. It sits on the sealed system volume, which macOS protects from changes, so you can look but not edit.

The tilde means your home folder, and the Library folder inside it is hidden by default. To open it, choose Go, Go to Folder in Finder (Shift-Command-G), type ~/Library/Fonts and press Return. The Library folder is missing on a Mac covers the other ways in.

There is one more source. Font Book also lists fonts that Apple makes available to download rather than installing up front. macOS keeps those in a location it manages itself, not in any of the three folders above, so treat them as part of the system.

Jump to a font file from Font Book

Open Font Book from the Applications folder or with Spotlight.
Type the font’s name in the search field, or find it under All Fonts.
Control-click the font and choose Show in Finder.

Finder opens with the file selected. A family is often several files, one each for regular, bold, italic and so on, but it can also be a single collection file that holds every style. Font files usually end in .ttf (TrueType), .otf (OpenType), .ttc (a collection of several fonts in one file) or, for older Mac fonts, .dfont.

Font Book’s information view, reached from the info button in its toolbar, shows details such as the version and the kind of font, which is the quickest way to tell two similar copies apart before you open Finder at all.

Find font files with Finder or Terminal

Font Book only lists fonts that are installed. To find font files anywhere on the Mac, including ones that arrived in Downloads and were never installed, search for them directly.

In Finder, press Command-F, set the first criterion to Name, choose “ends with” and type .otf. Run it again with .ttf if you need both. Typing kind:font in the Finder search field is a shorter way to ask for every font file Spotlight knows about. Find files by extension on a Mac covers the rest of Finder’s options for file types.

In Terminal, this lists what is installed in the two folders you control:

ls ~/Library/Fonts /Library/Fonts

And this lists every font file Spotlight has indexed, wherever it is:

mdfind "kMDItemContentTypeTree == 'public.font'"

Spotlight does not index every folder, so treat that second list as a strong start rather than a full inventory. Double-clicking any font file opens a preview in Font Book with an Install button, which is also a safe way to see what an unfamiliar file is before you install it.

Fonts that Font Book does not show

Three situations explain most “I know it is on here somewhere” moments.

An app keeps its own fonts. Some apps carry fonts inside their own folders for their own use. Those fonts appear in that app’s font menu but not in Font Book or in other apps, and they are licensed for that app, not for copying elsewhere.
The font is installed for another account. Fonts in another user’s ~/Library/Fonts are invisible to you. If several people on the Mac need a font, install it in /Library/Fonts instead. Font Book’s settings let you choose which of the two it installs to by default.
The font is turned off. Font Book can deactivate a font without removing it. The file stays where it is, Font Book shows it as off, and apps stop offering it. Control-click it in Font Book to find the option that turns it back on.

If you have just installed a font and an app does not list it, quit the app and open it again. Many apps read the list of fonts only when they start.

Duplicates and damaged font files

Two copies of the same font, often one in your folder and one in /Library/Fonts, or two versions of the same family picked up over the years, can mean an app uses a different version from the one you expected. Font Book marks duplicates with a warning symbol and offers to resolve them, usually by turning the extra copies off. It can also check a font for problems: select it and choose File, Validate Font, and it reports anything that could make the font misbehave in an app.

Duplicates on disk can go further than Font Book sees, for example a folder of fonts copied from a previous Mac and never installed. Find every copy of a file on a Mac covers the general approach, including how to be sure two files really are the same before deleting one.

Everywhere is a Mac file search app that catalogs every file on the Mac once, then answers as you type. Typing ext:otf or ext:ttf lists every font file of that type across the disk, and adding path:fonts narrows the list to folders with “fonts” in their path. Select a file and press Cmd-D to see every other copy of it, Cmd-Return to reveal it in Finder, or Cmd-C to copy its full path for Terminal. It searches file names and paths rather than what is inside files, and it asks for Full Disk Access so it can see every folder; if you decline, it works on what it can reach and tells you which folders it is missing. It is a one-time purchase, free for a day with nothing held back. Font Book and Finder are enough for one font; a catalog helps when you are sorting out a few hundred.

Questions

Should I install fonts for just me or for everyone? For just you, unless another account on the Mac needs the font. That keeps /Library/Fonts for fonts everyone shares, and you will not need an administrator password to add or remove them.

Can I delete fonts from /System/Library/Fonts? No. That folder is on the sealed system volume, which macOS protects. If a system font gets in your way in a font menu, Font Book can deactivate many of them, though not the ones macOS relies on for itself.

Is it all right to send a font file to someone? Check the font’s license first. Many fonts may be installed on your own computers but not passed on, and the fonts that come with macOS are licensed for use on the Mac.