So you’ve discovered a cool OpenType font somewhere – for example “League Gothic” by The League of Movable Type

So you download the ZIP file and extract the contents …

And then seeing that there is only one font file there (with the extension “.otf”) you right-click to install it …

A quick inspection of the Fonts Control Panel reveals it has been installed correctly

You can even use the font in Microsoft Word 2010

And in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

But with Visio 2007 and Visio 2010, you can’t even select the font!

So, what is going on?

As you can see from these links, the bad news is clear.

* Microsoft Answers: Visio 2010 not working with OpenType fonts?

* Microsoft Support: Fonts that are not TrueType fonts are not recognized by Visio 2003 and later Visio versions

Visio simply does not work with OpenType fonts onlyt TrueType. Although disappointing, all hope is not lost. An OpenType font can be converted to TrueType font.

CONVERTING OPENTYPE TO TRUETYPE

Fortunately, there is a free online resource that converts fonts: http://www.freefontconverter.com/

Simply select Choose File

Select the OTF file

Then select the output format

And click Convert

And in your downloads folder you’ll see the TrueType version

Now uninstall the OpenType version if it is still on your system. By going to the Fonts Control Panel and selecting Delete

And then install the new TTF version

Restart Visio and then create a new document and you will see that the font is now available.