Fonts...font manager....font book

Hi,
Okay....I know that quite a bit has been written on this subject in these forums, but finding the exact problem I have, has been quite difficult. Here's the scoop-------
1) Situation: I want to install Font Agent Pro. In fact I bought it and it is already done deal. To me this is a very cool app.
2) Problem: I need/want to disable Font Book.
3) Why it seems to be a problem: When I follow the steps to disable font book......well frankly it just doesn't work. The darn thing is STILL there working!
4) Other things I have tried: I trashed font book (as recommended in these forums). Unfortunately this caused a beachball from Hades to spin eternally near the Spotlight menu bar area.
5) What to do: I just want to disable font book w/o any problems. Any ideas????????
Just some suggestions would be really welcome. Thanks
jabberwock

Hi jabberwock,
The only way to disable Font Book is to delete it, which you did. While the issue with Spotlight certainly seems to be related, since it started right after you trashed Font Book, that just shouldn't happen.
When you say trashing Font Book caused the spinning beach of death, did you then put Font Book back on your system? If not, it could be that OS X is trying to enable/disable the fonts that were being controlled by Font Book's database. But can't because the main application is missing.
Follow the steps in Undoing Font Book. This will remove/reset Font Book's database. Doing this will also clear the system's font cache files.

Similar Messages

Font Book: Managing Fonts, Duplicates, Warnings etc... Need Help!

How this all started...
I have a lot of fonts. I use them for design purposes, and recently added a bunch of new ones.
As a result, I had a problem with an Adobe program and the font displayed in the workspace.
I figured out which one caused it and deleted it. (I've never used it before, and it wasn't a common font, so I didn't really care).
Problem with that solved.
So I figured that I ought to go through Font Book and check everything else and started Validation (under User).
I had several Errors, Duplicates and Warnings.
I (maybe naively) allowed Font Book to "Resolve Duplicates".
QUESTION 1 (a) (b): Could letting Font Book resolve duplicates create any problems? and how does it decide what to trash?
I also let Font Book move all the Error fonts to my empty Trash Folder.
- I then moved all those to an empty folder on my desktop.
I then moved all the Warning Fonts to another empty folder on my desktop.
So now, in User fonts, there are currently no problem messages.
This is where it gets a little trickier...
In "All Fonts" or "Computer" there are no caution symbols adjacent to any fonts, but if I run Validation, I get a lot of duplicate fonts.
For example... Arial exists in:
Library/fonts
User/Library/fonts
Library/Fonts/Microsoft
QUESTION 2: Do I need to address these? and if so, will that have an effect on any programs that use those fonts?
* I did some research on this, and found an article at Mac World, discussing this, but I don't feel any better/wiser after reading it or the comments...
"Problem" since resolving duplicates and/or moving warning and error fonts (from User):
Since I resolved duplicates, and moved the error and warning fonts, I've noticed some "minor" changes in appearance with websites.
Such as in Hotmail, and a website that I'm a member; the font displayed is now just slightly different.
Albeit, the difference is very subtle, (but as a designer, I noticed this right away) and my concern is how this may affect any design work I do, if somehow the change I'm seeing is more of an error.
* I have to make an assumption that its a font used in scripts (like Arial, Helvetica, etc, etc) that use my fonts for display.
QUESTION 3: So the big question is, how the heck do I address that now???
About the Warning Fonts:
For the most part, the fonts that came up as "minor warnings", showed the message 'kern' table structure and contents.
- I know that "kern" is suppose to be the spacing between characters.
QUESTION 4: So, why does Font Book care and warn about the "table structure and contents" of font spacing between characters, for any font???
QUESTION 4b: If that's NOT what that means, then I'd appreciate a plain English definition (perferably a source from Apple directly).
Caches:
I'm seeing changes on the fly with fonts (and the display on websites), if I try and move fonts that had warnings like Arial styles or Helvetica styles back to my User Directory, so I'm guessing that Font Caching isn't affected by this.
If anyone is going to suggest that I deal with the font cache (since I've read several questions on this topic already), I'd appreciate some explanation about WHY I would need to address font caches and HOW they might be affected in respect to your suggestion and the problems I'm having.
Additional Information:
I use a MacBook, Mac OS X 10.6
~ If there's some other information that you may need from me, then please ask away... I need to figure this out, and Font Book is driving me crazy!!!

Yes hindsight is 20/20. I realize now that I should not have allowed FB to do what it asked. (But that's a moot point now).
Having a large number of fonts is something I've always had for design purposes. I never had issues with fonts on a PC, and didn't expect these sorts of problems on a Mac. And how is someone suppose to know NOT to trust a pre-installed program that's suppose to MANAGE your fonts???
I don't touch the system fonts. I am well aware that they can't be deleted, nor do I add any fonts to that directory.
I agree... I need to narrow down the issue. That was the whole point of posting this!
I do keep backups of my system and files. I have considered just replacing the font folders with what I had before, but it just brings me back to where I had all the warnings, errors and duplicates... And I'm not entirely sure if and how that could affect the font caches, and if I would need to then address those. I've been researching this quite a bit, but so far, all I've found is complaints or questions from people with similar problems. For whatever reason, very few people seem to want to offer help with this kind of problem (but I thank you for at least trying)...
With Dreamweaver, its not quite that simple. If it was, then I wouldn't need the help. Even if we disregard the issue I have with Dreamweaver, the problem also exists on some websites, webmail, etc. Websites (and Dreamweaver) use standard font families and display their fonts from YOUR installed fonts. The font problems I'm have online are not missing fonts, they are just not the same font in size or appearance that they were before (and no, my webmail, and these websites didn't change. I had someone give me some screenshots to confirm). But I can't figure out exactly where the problem is, because it appears that I DO have the standard fonts. It could be that FB removed a version that was better than what was left behind, or it could be something else.... I have no idea anymore. I'm just getting more frustrated.

Shared network font library - using Font Book

I'm a trying to set up a "font server" on my company's OS X Server. I have created a folder within the SHARED ITEMS folder called Library, and placed all the fonts within a FONTS folder. I can now mount the folder on a clients/artists desktop just fine, so the shared point is working.
The problem is, I don't want to have to mount another "drive" to the artists desktop. I want the artists to use Font Book with a "Network" globe to which they can use the fonts.
I've been trying to figure out how to do this....and I think it may have somthing to do with the /Network/Library....it's an alias that seems to be broken. Shouldn't the "Library" alias be a folder???
Here is the Library alias info:
Kind: Alias
Size: 1kb on disk
Where: /Network
Server: nfs://automount%20-nsl%20%5B142]
Original: /automount/Library
It's interesting that it says "nfs://" because I've got it set up as "AFP" on the server.
Any suggestions?
PowerMac G5 Dual Mac OS X (10.4.8)
PowerMac G5 Dual Mac OS X (10.4.8)

If you use Workgroup Manager and your clients are bound to the server via LDAP - try this, it works for us.
On your server, put a folder called "Library" wherever you wish (outside of System and Library for the Server itself and not inside another shared item). Put a folder called "Fonts" in the new "Library" folder
Open WGM
Go to Sharing
Select "All"
Find and Select your "Library" folder
Under General select "share item and contents"
Under Access set permissions - ours are Root rw, Admin rw, Everyone read only. Propogate permissions to the contained folders.
Under Protocols disable any protocols you don't plan to use. With AFP make sure it is called "Library" and that guest access is possible. We have all other protocols disabled.
Under Network Mount select "enable network mounting," choose AFP as protocol and make sure that the mount is Used for "shared library"
If your clients are bound to the server via LDAP, reboot them and the client machines will connect to the server and use your new shared "Library" there as an option after the "Library" folders in the client machine itself. The new library will not need to be mounted on the users desktop as it will already be mounted by the client itself. The fonts will show up in Font Book under Network.
Put your fonts in the "Fonts" folder in the new "Library" folder on the server and all clients should now be able to access them. You can put other Library items in the network accessable folder just like the fonts and have them accessable to all bound clients.
hope this helps
- erich

How do YOU manage fonts in OSX?

I have not yet found the magic solution that lets me reliably manage large font libraries in OSX.
If anyone has got a solution, or is even merely coping, please pass on some tips.
Thanks,
P.

I have tried Font Book more than once. It is extremely slow, last shot a few days ago it sat hours without showing any signs of progress until I force quit it. This totally screwed my fonts, particularly in Safari.
This is consistent behavior for Font Book when you're trying to handle a lot of fonts. It just isn't very good at that task. Every single font you open with Font Book gets copied to the Fonts folder you chose in its preferences. Since both are considered "always on" folders by the underlying Unix system, Font Book also keeps a database of all installed fonts to determine which should be enabled and which are not. If this database gets damaged, fonts that Font Book says are enabled still don't show up in lists, causes long hangs at startup and other problems.
I did an archive and reinstall of OSX which introduced further problems, now some fonts are missing that were there before and others that aren't part of v10.5.6 seem to be installed.
You can reinstall just the fonts that came with OS X without having to resort to an Archive and Install. See my article which baltwo first linked to above. Any other fonts you've added should have remained where they were. They probably are still there, but a damaged Font Book database is likely keeping them from appearing. You can reset Font Book. Follow the steps in Undoing Font Book. Note that you will lose any font collections you have created. Doing this will also clear the font cache files for your user account. Since Font Book's database is reset, all fonts will in your Fonts folders will be active, regardless of their state beforehand.
I have also tried Suitcase (not for a while) it was also slow and somewhat unpredictable.
Versions X and X1 weren't the best, but Fusion is very stable.
Linotype Font Xchange looks nice but I can't figure out how it is interacting with fonts in Font Book and there seems to be issues with open fonts not showing up in applications.
I have to assume you mean FontExplorer X, since there is no such title as Font Xchange. Big mistake though that a lot of people make. Font Book is just another font manager. It has no special ties to the OS. If you do decide to use a different manager, delete the Font Book application from your hard drive. It's always best to have one, and ONLY one font manager on your system at a time.
Truth to tell I have never overcome the problems of font management in OSX. Is there no way of at minimum just coping with the problems of OSX fonts and at best getting back to the relatively smooth management of Mac Classic?
I find font management just as easy in OS X as OS 9 was. Well, once I learned why there were so many different folders all called Fonts, and why they are separated the way they are. Once you get that, it's a piece of cake.
I believe that is what we are supposed to have, which is the fonts linked (via a Font manager), but not open, and either opened as we need them manually or automatically as the application calls for them.
Agreed. Both Suitcase Fusion 2 and FontExplorer X work that way (actually, you need to tell FEX to use that method). While FEX is free, I still much prefer Suitcase. The biggest reason being that it ensures the same version of a font will be used the next time you open a document in an application that supports auto activation. That I know of, FEX can't do that. It has an auto activate feature, but if you use a different version of Bookman, it can't tell the difference. It sees Bookman and assumes all is okay.
Also there is no way of knowing in some apps whether you have just opened a TrueType .otf or PostScript .otf.
Almost all professional apps tell you the difference. TrueType fonts will be shown with a blue double T icon. OpenType with its green and black letter O. Type 1 PostScript with a red letter A. The only confusion comes from OpenType. Those can be created in TrueType or PostScript versions. The PostScript ones have .otf as their extension. TrueType versions have the same .ttf extensions as the original TrueType fonts of years ago. While you can of course see the difference between them by file name, programs don't differentiate them. They both get the same green/black letter O icon in font lists. There's no way to tell if it's a TrueType or PostScript OpenType font from there.
I can not do what I did in Classic which is have all the font variations in one suitcase and open and close them in one click.
Both Suitcase Fusion 2 and FontExplorer X will open complete sets in one click.
You can download FEX and play around with it as much as you want, being free. If you want it to open fonts in place, just make sure when you first launch it to choose the option "Don't manage fonts" (or something like that). It's kind of a strange way to state the option, but that's the one you want. Suitcase Fusion 2 can be downloaded and used as a fully functional demo for 30 days. It's only method is to open fonts in place. That or open in place and add the fonts to its Vault (the default). I personally see no use for the Vault and use only the open fonts in place option.

HT2509 i could use Burmese font with Zawgyi font in my previous iMac with Lion. Now I have a MacAir with Mountain Lion and i can not properly view Burmese fonts. Font book has 3 types of Burmese (myanmar) related fonts. Please help me to get proper displa

I could read Burmese font with Zawgyi Font in my previous Mac Book with Lion. I have MacAir Retina display with MountainLion and could not read Burmese fonts. Font books have 3 fonts for Burmese font and all are enable. Please help

pyoneaye wrote:
Font books have 3 fonts for Burmese font and all are enable.
What are the names of those fonts? Have you downloaded and installed the special Zawgyi font?
What is it exactly that you cannot read? Can you provide the url?

Changing Font Size in Address Book 6.1

This seems like such a basic question to ask but I can't figure it out: How can I change the font size in Addres Book 6.1? There no longer seems to be a way to do this in Address Book Preferences.

Address Book offers three choices: small, medium and large!
Address Book Preferences/General/Font Size.

How do I get fonts in my font book to a place where I can use them?

I have some Hebrew fonts in my font book but I don't know how to make them useable. I don't even know how to ask 'help' how to get them out. Meanwhile the Japanese fonts and the Chinese fonts are readily available.

I have a similar problem except I can't use any other fonts other than roman characters- all I want is to type in simplified chinese.
As with any other language, and just explained above for Hebrew, you go to system prefs/international/input menu and check the box for the simplified chinese input method you want to use, plus the box for Show Input Menu in Finder. Then in the "flag" menu at the top right of the Finder you select Chinese and type.
For full info on the various SC IM's, see the HELP in OS X or this site:
http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/osx5.html#start
If you have any questions, just ask again.

Windows True Type font fine in Font Book but not in some apps

I got a Windows True Type font from a guy having some issues with it when printing website on Windows XP and I thought I'd try the font on Mac OS X 10.4.4.
It imports fine into Font Book and previews fine. When I opened up TextEdit the font can be seen in the list of fonts, but when one selects it changes to the Monaco font instead of the "real" font seen in Font Book.
In Word the font don't show up at all but in Photoshop it seems to work fine.
The font is validated fine according to Font Book.
How come it behaves like this?

Thanks for your reply.
"OCR-A BT" is the name of the font.
The origin I don't know about. I just got it from a guy I barely know.
I know there can be various problems with fonts. Just thought it was interesting that Font Book validated and showed it fine, but still it didn't seem to be all healthy since it doesn't work in all app.

Purchasing and Licensing Fonts for use in Book (Garamond Pro)

I'm planning to design a book in InDesign and I'd like to use Adobe's Garamond with all of its special extras (titling capitals, small caps, italic alternates etc.)
I was about to buy the font package at myfonts.com, then sign up for InDesign, but I'm wondering if this font is already included in InDesign and, if so, is it complete?
Also, if I use the Creative Cloud can I use any fonts in it that I've already purchased licenses for?
Finally, do I need a special license for a printed book or is that included in the desktop license?

Hi Badmonkeyart,
Please confirm the version name of InDesign.
However, for CS6 you can refer the following page which having the detailed information about default fonts included.
Font related documentation for Creative Suite 6
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sumit Singh

How to find the location of a particular font in the framemaker book?

Hi All,
please help me in finding the location of a particular type of font in the framemaker book. I was using the following procedure to find out earlier:
Find > Character Format > (set the character format) > Search.
Now I am unable to locate a particular type of font using the mentioned procedure.
Please help me out.
Thanks in adnavce,
Mindevil

This assumes that the font instance being searched for is an override:
Click in some text in one of the book files.
Edit > Find/Change
[ Character Format ...]
This pops up a Character Format dialog.
Assuming you are on Windows:
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F8] to set everything to As-Is/blank.
In Family:, select the font being sought. [Set]
Back in the Find dialog...
Look in: <*> Book
[Find]
If the font instance is part of a Paragraph Format or Character Format, you can search by Para Tag name or Char Tag name (which is yet another reason why overrides are a problem).
Or you can save out all the book files as MIF and search with a plaintext editor, but that requires a nominal knowledge of MIF.
I might add that steps 1-3 above are covered in FM7.1 Help (and presumably the printed manual back then), but are absent for FM9, and I'm guessing that they never returned in later versions either.

Managing fonts in OSX Mavericks-

Kurt Lang had an awesome tutorial on how to manage fonts in previous versions of OSX. Has he done one for Mavericks?

Yes, find it here: http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html

Fonts missing in Font Book ( empty )

Hello
Around the time I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard I realized I started having problems whith my fonts until I realized the whole Font collection from Font book was missing.
When I try to access fonts from TextEdit, the process takes a good 30 sec before the Fontbook content is visible.
As mentioned in the forum, I tried to dump the fontbook.plist in preference - with no results.
any help would be appreciated
Thanks

I have the exact same problem! Won't render in Keynote, either. I'm using Lion (10.7.5).

Managing fonts in Adobe CS6 and Windows 7

Previously I had students add their fonts to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts. This worked well. I gave them write access to this folder and they would drag their fonts into this folder and they would be available to all products from the Creative Suite. This was when our school was on CS5.5 and Windows XP.
Over the weekend we reimaged the machines to have Windows 7 (64-bit) and CS6. Students can no longer add fonts to Adobe, as I am unsure of where the fonts folder is. They also cannot add fonts system wide, as they are not given admin access to these folders (which makes sense). I have tried to add fonts to the folder found at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts" but this does not make the font available to Adobe CS6 applications.
Is there a way to have fonts added to Adobe? I know that there are manny different applications that can manage fonts; can the Adobe forum users recommend one? I don't want students to be able to affect system wide fonts. I have dealt with the repercussions of giving students access to the Windows fonts folder.
Help in this would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Blake

I have been hodling off upgrading to CS4 for a year now, since Adobe has not make any statements about Windows 7 support. If adobe has release some statements, can someone point me to the statement?
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/faq/ See "Support for Windows 7"
What is the possible release schedule for CS5, I am thinking May 2010?
That's as good as anyone else's guess.
CS: Sep 2003
CS2: April 2005 (19 months)
CS3: April 2007 (24 months)
CS4: Oct 2008 (19 months)
CS5: May 2010 would be 19 months - but only Adobe knows the real date.

My desktop Manager font's was turned "boxes"

hallo guys.....anyone can help me?
my desktop Manager font's was turned "boxes"
I have remove it and reinstall, but its not working....and all the font turned "boxes" .

I have helped others with this before. It is usually due to Desktop Manager requiring a font you do not have installed on your computer.
1. Please thank those who help you by clicking the "Like" button at the bottom of the post that helped you.
2. If your issue has been solved, please resolve it by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!

How can I change the fonts in my address book? I'd like to change them to make fun mailing labels.

How can I change fonts in my address book so I can print clever mailing labels?

Hello, I think you'll have to Export them & use another Application...
How to Export Your Mac OS X Mail Address Book Contacts to a CSV File...
Export Your Mac OS X Mail Address Book Contacts to a CSV File
To save your contacts from the Mac OS X Address Book to a CSV (comma-separated values) file, which lets you import the data to many other address books:
Download and install AB2CSV.
Open AB2CSV.
Select Mode | CSV from the menu.To configure which fields will be exported, you can select AB2CSV | Preferences… from the menu and go to the CSV tab.
Now select File | Export from the menu.
Go to your Documents folder.
Click Choose.
The exported address book contacts are saved to a file called "everyone.csv" in your Documents folder.
http://email.about.com/od/macosxmailtips/qt/How-To-Export-Your-Mac-Os-X-Mail-Add ress-Book-Contacts-To-A-Csv-File.htm
Then again, AB can be imported into...
Might look into NeoOffice...
http://www.neooffice.org/
Or Open Office...
http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/index.html
And most likely MS Office.

Font Book does not recognize fonts in /library/fonts

I just did an erase and install. I chose to install extra fonts into the system and this wierd problem just started yesterday. Font Book will not recognize the fonts in the /library/fonts folder. Font book will not even install additional fonts in this state. I restarted the computer and that seemed to fix the problem. But now it's back again. I think it happened after I woke the computer from sleep mode, however the problem does not appear everytime I wake the computer up. I noted the following entries in the system log that seem to coincide with the problem after waking the system.
(after the system is waked)
Jan 2 15:41:35 (name) crashdump[991]: configd crashed
Jan 2 15:41:36 (name) crashdump[991]: crash report written to: /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/configd.crash.log
Jan 2 15:41:36 (name) launchd: Server 0 in bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[981]: exited abnormally: Hangup
Jan 2 15:41:38 (name) kernel[0]: SIOCPROTOATTACH_IN6: en0 error=17
Jan 2 15:41:38 (name) configd[992]: LINKLOCAL: inet6attachinterface(en0) failed, File exists (17)
Jan 2 15:41:38 (name) kernel[0]: SIOCPROTOATTACH_IN6: fw0 error=17
This is the console entry I get when I attempt to install a font from /library/fonts when the Font Book is "blinded".
2006-01-02 17:20:48.784 Font Book[1480] Failed to deactivate container 34, with status -45.
2006-01-02 17:20:49.246 Font Book[1480] ATSFontActivateFromFileSpecification w/Validation options failed -120
2006-01-02 17:20:49.246 Font Book[1480] file://localhost/Users/~/Library/Fonts/Zapfino.dfont
2006-01-02 17:20:49.246 Font Book[1480] ATSFontActivateFromFileSpecification failed -120
2006-01-02 17:20:49.247 Font Book[1480] file://localhost/Users/~/Library/Fonts/Zapfino.dfont
Does anybody know what the problem is and how to fix it?

Well, I'm glad trashing the fonts cache fixed that problem. Font conflicts have been known to totally screw up things like MS Office. Whether or not it could screw up launchd, I don't know. But, if the problem doesn't resurface, then it definitely did.
However, I'd send a bug report on the launchd crash to Apple and include the crash report. Send bug reports and enhancement requests to Apple via its Bug Reporter system. Go to <https://connect.apple.com/MemberSite> and join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Then, go to <https://bugreport.apple.com/>, click on the Login to the Apple BugReporter link (using your ADC username and password), and file your bug report/enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering. If your item isn't fixed with a new update, you can fire a follow-up on your original, via e-mail.

Fonts...font manager....font book

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