Times New Roman Font messed up

Question

I am working on a manuscript and the Times New Roman font has gone whacky, particularly in italicized text which shows up very faint. I called the support number and got no help. I have an older laptop synchronized with this one and it shows up fine. on that screen. I'm wondering if I might be better off reinstalling the software on this laptop. Any suggestion will be welcome.

Answer 1

Hi @Brce Davis,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

I would like to provide you with the following information:

If the font displays correctly on your old computer, you can follow the steps below to copy the font files from the old computer to the new one.

Step 1: Open Control Panel

Step 2: Select Appearance and Personalization > Fonts

Step 3: Locate the Times New Roman font on the old computer > copy the four font files, then paste them into the Times New Roman folder on the new computer.

The steps above are intended to fix font-related issues in the application.

If the issue still persists after completing the steps above, the problem may be application-related. In that case, please follow the steps below:

Step 1: Press Windows + I

Step 2: Select Apps > Installed apps > locate the Project application

Step 3: Click the … icon > select Modify > Repair (Online)

 

I hope this information is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you. If not, we can work together to resolve this.   

Thank you for your patience and your understanding. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please feel free to share them in the comments on this post so I can continue to support you.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

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Answer 2

Times New Roman appearing faint or “whacky,” especially in italics, is typically a font/display issue rather than something that requires reinstalling Office.

Try these steps in order:

1. Check if the issue is font-specific

• Open another Office app (for example, PowerPoint or Excel) and type some Times New Roman italic text.
• Also try another common font such as Arial or Calibri in italics.
• If only Times New Roman (or a small set of fonts) looks wrong, it points to a font problem rather than general display scaling.

2. Change the font or size as a quick test

• In Word, select some of the problematic italic text.
• Change the font temporarily to another common font (for example, Arial) and see if it displays normally.
• Also try reducing the font size slightly (for example, from 12 pt to 11 pt) to see if the faint appearance improves. This helps confirm whether the issue is tied to a particular font/size combination.

3. Check for font corruption or multiple versions (if using macOS) If this laptop is a Mac (your older one may be as well), Times New Roman may have multiple or damaged versions installed.

• Open Font Book.
• Use Font Info (the “i” button) to inspect Times New Roman.
• If multiple versions exist, resolve duplicates and make the latest version the active copy.
• If the font appears damaged or is a legacy “PostScript-Type1” version, replace it with a newer OpenType version.

4. Clear font caches (macOS scenario) If fonts in general are behaving oddly:

• Quit all Office apps.
• In Font Book, use Edit > Select Duplicated Fonts, then Edit > Resolve Duplicates.
• Remove disabled duplicates if needed, then restart the computer so the system and Word rebuild their font caches.

5. Adjust font smoothing / display settings (Windows scenario) If the problem is that italics look faint or blurry on this laptop but not on the older one, display tuning can help:

• Use ClearType/Display calibration tools to improve how fonts render on this screen.
• Ensure any system font-smoothing setting is enabled and configured for clarity at the sizes used in the manuscript.

6. Compare with a different user profile or machine

• Since the same document looks fine on the older laptop, copy the file to that machine and confirm it prints or exports to PDF correctly. This verifies that the document content itself is fine.
• On the problematic laptop, if possible, test under another user account to see if the issue is profile-specific.

Reinstalling Office is usually not necessary unless all fonts and apps are misbehaving. Focus first on Times New Roman itself (version/duplicates/corruption) and on display/font-smoothing settings on the problematic laptop.

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References:

• My fonts have changed
• Issues with fonts in Office for macOS
• Third-party installed font doesn't appear in the font list in Word for Mac
• Fonts appear blurry in my apps
• Some characters missing or cut off when displayed on screen in Word
• Fonts in a 2007 Office program may not appear as clear as expected