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Upgrade from Version 4

Have you used Font Awesome 4 on the desktop and are ready to upgrade?

What’s Changed?

There are some differences between Versions 4 and 5. In Version 5, we introduced the 3 styles or weights for each icon - solid, regular, and light. We also separated out brand icons into their own style/category for easier use.

Icon StyleAvailabilityFont Files in the Download
SolidFreeFont Awesome 5 Free-Solid-900.otf
RegularFreeFont Awesome 5 Free-Regular-400.otf
BrandsFreeFont Awesome 5 Brands-Regular-400.otf
SolidPro onlyFont Awesome 5 Pro-Solid-900.otf
RegularPro onlyFont Awesome 5 Pro-Regular-400.otf
LightPro onlyFont Awesome 5 Pro-Light-300.otf

We also cleaned up our icon naming conventions. There are a number of Version 4 icons that have been renamed with that in mind.


Remove Version 4 Fonts and Assets

Firstly, through your operating system’s font management software, find and remove any of Font Awesome 4’s assets (as they can cause confusion and rendering issues). Look for, deactivate, and delete a font named “FontAwesome”.

Deactivating Font Awesome 4's .ttf in Font Explorer X on Mac OS X Deactivate the Version 4 Font

Deleting Font Awesome 4's .ttf in Font Explorer X on Mac OS X Delete the Version 4 Font

Install and Use Version 5 Ligature-based Fonts

Find and install the new fonts found in the /use-on-the-desktop folder of the Font Awesome Desktop download. Make sure that you include brands as well as solid and regular weights to match with Version 4. For Macs, that is often Font Book or Font Explorer X. Also, depending on your operating system and management software, make sure you activate/enable the new fonts in the Font Manager once they are installed.

Font Awesome 5 Free installed and being activated in Font Explorer X on Mac OS X Install and activate the Version 5 Fonts

Check out these articles for installing fonts on PC and installing fonts on Mac to get more details and guidance on installing and activating fonts for your machine.

Updating and Proofing Existing Documents

We recommend visually checking your existing documents that were using Version 4’s icons. On top of that, you’ll need to change the typeface used in those documents to be “Font Awesome 5 Free” or “Font Awesome 5 Pro” if you are a Pro license holder using Pro icons. We’ve tried to map any existing unicode and glyph values Version 4 icons had to the correct Version 5 icon, so you shouldn’t have to do much if your document has text layers with copied + pasted glyphs from Version 4.


Next Steps

You’re ready to get going with Version 5’s icons. Head on over to how to reference icons using ligatures or using glyphs.