List System Fonts and Resolve by Culture

This recipe is useful when you want a quick picture of what the current machine can actually provide through SystemFonts, whether for diagnostics, UI pickers, or culture-aware name resolution.

System fonts are environment-dependent. A font that exists on a developer workstation may be missing from a container, CI agent, Linux server, or customer machine. For predictable rendering, ship the fonts you require and load them into a private FontCollection. Use SystemFonts when the goal is to use what the host operating system already provides.

List installed families

using System;
using SixLabors.Fonts;

foreach (FontFamily family in SystemFonts.Families)
{
    Console.WriteLine(family.Name);
}

Show the searched directories

using System;
using SixLabors.Fonts;

foreach (string directory in SystemFonts.Collection.SearchDirectories)
{
    Console.WriteLine(directory);
}

Resolve a family by culture-aware name

using System.Globalization;
using SixLabors.Fonts;

CultureInfo japanese = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("ja-JP");

if (SystemFonts.TryGetByCulture("Yu Gothic", japanese, out FontFamily family))
{
    Font font = family.CreateFont(16);
}

This is especially useful when a family's localized name differs from the invariant name you would use elsewhere.

Culture-aware lookup is about names, not shaping. After you resolve a family, still use the correct TextOptions.Culture, fallback families, and layout settings for the text you are measuring or rendering.

For the fuller system-font API surface, see System Fonts.

Practical guidance

• Use system font enumeration for diagnostics, not for deterministic rendering guarantees.
• Log search directories when investigating missing fonts in production.
• Prefer private font collections for document generation, tests, and server-rendered assets.
• Treat culture-aware resolution as name lookup; shaping still depends on TextOptions and font support.