Embodiments of the present invention are directed at providing a font similarity preview for non-resident fonts. In one embodiment, a font is selected on a computing device. In response to the selection of the font, a pre-computed font list is checked to determine what fonts are similar to the selected font. In response to a determination that similar fonts are not local to the computing device, a non-resident font list is sent to a font vendor. The font vendor sends back previews of the non-resident fonts based on entitlement information of a user. Further, a full non-resident font can be synced to the computing device. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.