mac font management
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- poomoo
can someone explain to me how mac fonts work?
a while a go i mistakenly installed the massive lino type library on my mac.
far too many fonts - bad idea.
anyway, for a while it all worked nice and dandy.
recently, fonts have gone missing. i open old pngs and have to substitute fonts - its a pain i the arse.
i use font book at the moment. but in my actual fonts folder, there are hardly any fonts.
can anyone please explain how fonts work and are managed on mac?
and yes, i will use font explorer instead.
cheers dudettes.
- rfc0
Same place that caused the problem holds the answer:
- Rand0
agreed
- madirish0
which directory are they installed in, and which are you looking for them in? if you are new to UNIX, remember that there is the root directory and then a user directory for every user created for the machine. you could have installed the library in the root, and are looking in the user?
and FontBook can cause issues, w/ either very large libraries (relative to disk space particularly) but if managed well, is not a problem. at least i never have.... and i got a grip.
- poomoo0
i dont use font explorer at the moment. im considering switching tho.
in my user home/library/fonts i can see some of the font that are missing.
i can also find these fonts through font book.
fireworks maybe the problem as it can find the fonts and prompts replacement. photoshop and illy has no such problems.
any ideas?
- poomoo0
i still havent been able to resolve this issue.
i have uploaded screen shots of font book/illy/fireworks with dont drop downs highlighted.
the font is in user>library>fonts
i have no idea what the issue is. just to repeat - the font(teetonic) did work previously, then one day just stopped showing up. this happens with a number of fonts.
can any one shed any light on this?
- Typographica0
Poo - The problem you're describing is often caused by poorly made fonts. The fact that "Teetonic" looks like something cobbled together from House Comprime fonts raises the suspicion factor. Where did you get that thing?
]
http://www.houseind.com/index.ph…
- poomoo0
hi typeo, cheers for responding.
as far as im aware it is some custom/modification font that the company i work for made for an in house project. i can find out exactly when i get back to work.
however, its not the only font that causes the same problem.
for example,
DIN 1451 Engschrift LT
DIN 1451 Mittelschrift LT
Rennie Mackintosh ITC
Vectora LTthe strange thing is that i have previously used these fonts to build fireworks files. When i open those files now, i get a font replacement prompt.
strange.
- poomoo0
VAG Rounded and Neo Sans can be added to the list.
- ian000
I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on FontExplorer vs Suitcase
- poomoo0
bump
- smith_barry0
Hello.
I used to use Fontbook on my iBook a couple of years ago but found that, quite often, it would literally "drop" fonts within my user folder. This happened whether I asked it to move or copy font files when importing them into Fontbook. Sometimes it even locked me out of my entire User library completely so I made the switch to Linotype FontExplorer...
I find FontExplorer to be far superior from both an ease of use & reliability point of view... I also find that it groups font families for you & has several features that are highly beneficial when compared to Fontbook's limited abilities...
My only criticism of FontExplorer would be that it can sometimes crash when you have a corrupt font but that's understandable & for the most part I have had no problems.
I take care of the IT side of things as well as working as a graphic designer for my company & I have integrated the Linotype software into the studio without any trouble at all...
My advice would be to make the switch & flip Fontbook the bird.
Eat the pudding.
- poomoo0
cheers for the advice - im going to make try out font explorer today.
this is probably a stupid question...
if a font is a windows true type font - does that mean that i shouldn't install it?
- rockdog0
nice article in apple discussions:
http://discussions.apple.com/thr…
- non0
Font explorer > Suitcase or fontbook IMO.
I classify all my fonts by foundry, wich takes a while to do, but its definitely worth it.
- poomoo0
for future reference, and if this actually gets archived, i have compiled how i resolved the issue, noting some points and links to references.
I removed all fonts from home/user/library/fonts and HD/library/fonts.
Displaying web pages became a problem after that so i reinstalled typical 'web fonts' into home/user/library/fonts.
System fonts are stored in /System/Library/Fonts and didn't need touched.
I then went through all my purchased fonts and reinstalled them into home/user/library/fonts.
everything is working fine again.
my only concren is that i have deleted (but saved in another folder) any fonts that come with photoshop etc.
here is the references i used:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/medi…
http://www.macworld.com/2006/07/…
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/…
http://docs.info.apple.com/artic…
http://discussions.apple.com/thr…other points to note:
OSX supports Windows TrueType fonts.
hope that helps someone in the future.
Can someone who is still using Fontbook tell me what fonts they have listed under Web collection?
I only have Arial, Arial Black, Georgia, Verdana, Webdings.
I know Times, Courier and helvetica are missing.
Cheers folks.
- Typographica0
Some thoughts based on my personal experience:
1. In order from best to worst:
FontAgent Pro >
FontExplorer >
Suitcase Fusion >
Font Book >
Suitcase (any previous version)2. Windows TTFs should work without any issue on OS X.
3. The majority of font problems come from PostScript. It is now an entirely unnecessary format. Use TT and OT whenever possible.
4. If you aren't sure what's causing your font woes, first see if the font is loaded in TextEdit. If it does, you know the system is reading the font fine and it's your third-party app that is the source of the problem. Contact the developer of the app or visit their support forums.
- poomoo0
thanks typo.
as always, a wealth of information!