Using the normal drawString method of the Graphics object on a JPanel, I render different fonts (no fancy characters, just your basic abc). They can be selected by the user from a list of fonts obtained from the GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment().getAvailableFontFamilyNames() method. Now some fonts can be rendered and some fonts only display squares. The same fonts can be used without problems by other programs (Word, Photoshop, ...). Is there an additional requirement for a ttf font to be displayable by Java?