blog: Windows FOD font support

blog/2026-05-03-windows-fod-fonts.md

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+---
+title: "Installing Windows supplementary fonts with Features on Demand"
+description: "Fontist 3.0 can install over 100 Windows supplementary fonts — Japanese, Korean, Pan-European, and more — using Windows Features on Demand, automatically via PowerShell."
+authors:
+  - Ronald Tse
+date: 2026-05-03
+---
+
+# Installing Windows supplementary fonts with Features on Demand
+
+<BlogByline />
+
+Windows 10 and 11 ship with a large catalog of fonts, but many are not
+installed by default. These supplementary fonts — covering Japanese, Korean,
+Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Pan-European, and many other scripts — are
+available as Features on Demand (FOD) but require manual installation through
+Settings or PowerShell.
+
+Fontist 3.0 now installs these fonts automatically. A single command is all it
+takes:
+
+```sh
+$ fontist install "Meiryo"
+```
+
+## The problem
+
+Windows does not install all available fonts by default to save disk space.
+Fonts like Meiryo (Japanese), Batang (Korean), Arial Nova (Pan-European), and
+Plantagenet Cherokee are available as optional Features on Demand but require
+either navigating through Windows Settings or running PowerShell commands with
+admin privileges.
+
+For CI pipelines running on Windows, this is especially inconvenient.
+Documents that reference these fonts fail to render correctly when the fonts
+are missing.
+
+## How it works
+
+When you install a Windows FOD font through Fontist, it:
+
+1. Checks whether the required Windows capability is already installed using
+   `Get-WindowsCapability`
+2. If not present, installs it using `Add-WindowsCapability -Online`
+3. Verifies the font files are now available in `C:\Windows\Fonts\`
+
+This uses the Formula v5 schema with a `source: windows_fod` resource type,
+which tells Fontist to handle installation through the operating system rather
+than downloading an archive.
+
+## Installing a font
+
+Install any Windows FOD font by name:
+
+```sh
+$ fontist install "Meiryo"
+```
+
+```sh
+$ fontist install "Arial Nova"
+```
+
+```sh
+$ fontist install "Plantagenet Cherokee"
+```
+
+Use `--accept-all-licenses` for non-interactive installs:
+
+```sh
+$ fontist install "Meiryo" --accept-all-licenses
+```
+
+## Using in CI
+
+On GitHub Actions Windows runners, FOD font installation works out of the box
+since the runners have admin privileges:
+
+```yaml
+- name: Install fonts
+  run: gem install fontist && fontist install "Meiryo" --accept-all-licenses
+  shell: pwsh
+```
+
+## Requirements
+
+- Windows 10 (version 1607) or later
+- Administrator privileges (required by `Add-WindowsCapability`)
+- Internet connectivity (Windows downloads the font capability on first install)
+
+To check which FOD font capabilities are available on your system, run:
+
+```powershell
+Get-WindowsCapability -Online -Name "Language.Fonts.*"
+```
+
+## Available fonts
+
+Fontist supports 24 Windows FOD capability groups containing 100 font families.
+
+<details>
+<summary>Click to expand the full list</summary>
+
+### Arabic Script Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Aldhabi
+- Andalus
+- Arabic Typesetting
+- Microsoft Uighur
+- Sakkal Majalla
+- Simplified Arabic
+- Simplified Arabic Fixed
+- Traditional Arabic
+- Urdu Typesetting
+
+### Bangla Script Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Shonar Bangla
+- Vrinda
+
+### Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Euphemia
+
+### Cherokee Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Plantagenet Cherokee
+
+### Chinese (Simplified) Supplemental Fonts
+
+- DengXian
+- FangSong
+- KaiTi
+- SimHei
+
+### Chinese (Traditional) Supplemental Fonts
+
+- DFKai-SB
+- MingLiU
+- MingLiU_HKSCS
+- PMingLiU
+
+### Devanagari Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Aparajita
+- Kokila
+- Mangal
+- Sanskrit Text
+- Utsaah
+
+### Ethiopic Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Nyala
+
+### Gujarati Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Shruti
+
+### Gurmukhi Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Raavi
+
+### Hebrew Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Aharoni Bold
+- David
+- FrankRuehl
+- Gisha
+- Levenim MT
+- Miriam
+- Miriam Fixed
+- Narkisim
+- Rod
+
+### Japanese Supplemental Fonts
+
+- BIZ UDGothic
+- BIZ UDPGothic
+- BIZ UDMincho Medium
+- BIZ UDPMincho Medium
+- Meiryo
+- Meiryo UI
+- MS Mincho
+- MS PMincho
+- UD Digi Kyokasho N-B
+- UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B
+- UD Digi Kyokasho NK-R
+- UD Digi Kyokasho NP-B
+- UD Digi Kyokasho NP-R
+- UD Digi Kyokasho N-R
+- Yu Mincho
+
+### Kannada Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Tunga
+
+### Khmer Supplemental Fonts
+
+- DaunPenh
+- Khmer UI
+- MoolBoran
+
+### Korean Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Batang
+- BatangChe
+- Dotum
+- DotumChe
+- Gulim
+- GulimChe
+- Gungsuh
+- GungsuhChe
+
+### Lao Supplemental Fonts
+
+- DokChampa
+- Lao UI
+
+### Malayalam Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Kartika
+
+### Odia Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Kalinga
+
+### Pan-European Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Arial Nova
+- Arial Nova Cond
+- Georgia Pro
+- Georgia Pro Cond
+- Gill Sans Nova
+- Gill Sans Nova Cond
+- Neue Haas Grotesk Text Pro
+- Rockwell Nova
+- Rockwell Nova Cond
+- Verdana Pro
+- Verdana Pro Cond
+
+### Sinhala Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Iskoola Pota
+
+### Syriac Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Estrangelo Edessa
+
+### Tamil Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Latha
+- Vijaya
+
+### Telugu Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Gautami
+- Vani
+
+### Thai Supplemental Fonts
+
+- Angsana New
+- AngsanaUPC
+- Browallia New
+- BrowalliaUPC
+- Cordia New
+- CordiaUPC
+- DilleniaUPC
+- EucrosiaUPC
+- FreesiaUPC
+- IrisUPC
+- JasmineUPC
+- KodchiangUPC
+- Leelawadee
+- LilyUPC
+
+</details>
+
+## What else is new in Fontist 3.0
+
+Windows FOD support is part of the Fontist 3.0 release, which also includes
+these improvements:
+
+**Formula v5 schema.**
+Formulas now support multiple font formats (TTF, OTF, WOFF2), variable font
+metadata, and import provenance. See our earlier post on Formula v5 for the full details.
+
+**Platform-aware font selection.**
+Manifests now validate operating system compatibility before attempting to
+install platform-specific fonts, preventing errors when a font is only
+available on one platform.
+
+**Skip license prompts for already-installed fonts.**
+If a font is already present on the current operating system, Fontist skips the
+license confirmation step, reducing friction when re-running installations.
+
+**Lazy formulas initialization.**
+The formulas repository is no longer cloned at startup. Fontist defers this
+until the first operation that actually needs formulas, making initial startup
+faster.
+
+**Index rebuild speedup.**
+The index rebuild process has been optimized for large formula repositories,
+reducing the time needed to refresh the font index.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Windows FOD font support rounds out Fontist's platform coverage. Together with
+macOS supplementary fonts, Google Fonts, SIL fonts, and Microsoft Office fonts,
+Fontist now provides automated installation of openly-licensed fonts across all
+major platforms.
+
+Install Fontist and try it:
+
+```sh
+$ gem install fontist
+$ fontist install "Meiryo"
+```