# "Small Font" Font issues with Windows 10 & 11 in Paint or Word **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 5, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145 "2023-12-05T20:31:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/1 "2023-12-05T20:31:08Z")
So my Win 11 PC has Small Fonts Regular loaded in the Fonts Folder. But neither Word nor Paint can access this Font. For 20+ years this was invaluable in Paint in making maps as a readable very tiny font. Size 6 was legible and even size 5 mostly work. Not sure if I am conveying my problem clearly, hopefully I am. For tiny fonts, I’ve been using OCR A Extended instead, but “Small Fonts” just worked way better. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/2 "2023-12-05T20:59:28Z")
Did this font work in Windows 10? Does the font preview correctly in the built-in Fonts control tool? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/3 "2023-12-05T21:01:48Z")
It previews correctly, it use to work in Windows 10 but stopped after the paint update I believe. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/4 "2023-12-05T21:26:28Z")
I suspect the font in question is a bitmap font. The one that came with Windows is definitely old enough, as I believe it came with Windows 95 if not 3.1. Unfortunately, Microsoft has deprecated those for quite a long time. DirectWrite, the GPU accelerated font engine, doesn’t support them at all. I think your options would be to either try and find a way to run the older version of Paint, use some other software like [Paint.NET](http://Paint.NET) 3.5, or find an equivalent font that is TrueType or some sort of web font (e.g. WOFF). I can’t speak for how good it is or how it compares to the original, but I did find this TrueType font when trying to confirm the font you are talking about is a bitmap font: > **[Small Font Regular font | Fonts2u.com](https://fonts2u.com/small-font-regular.font)** > > Small Font Regular ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/5 "2023-12-05T21:57:48Z")
Cool, I’ll try that when I’m back on my PC. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-font-font-issues-with-windows-10-11-in-paint-or-word/994145/6 "2023-12-06T14:41:41Z")
Thank you, that font works pretty well, better than OCR A Extended for fonts smaller than 8. Searching around, this is an excellent font for size 6 and works in Paint: > **[TI-83 Plus Large Regular font | Fonts2u.com](https://fonts2u.com/ti-83-plus-large-regular1.font)** > > TI-83 Plus Large Regular