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Kill the font cache to resolve font problems System
If your font cache gets corrupted, (e.g. when Suitcase previews Fonts incorrectly, or Flash is unable to show antialiased fonts), open the Terminal and type:
 % cd /System/Library/Caches/
% sudo rm -f *
Helped eliminate a problem for me here.

[Editor's note: I tested this even though I wasn't having any font problems, and nothing bad happened, but I can't verify that it does anything useful until I have a font issue. If anyone else uses this hint to resolve a font problem, please let us know how well it worked.]
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Kill the font cache to resolve font problems | 8 comments | Create New Account
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GREAT !!!!! PostScript (type 1) fonts working again !
Authored by: cram on May 10, '02 01:32:06PM

Support for PostScript fonts wasn't working for ages on my iMac, and many hours of reseach in the filesystem or on the Internet couldn't help me to find the reason of the problem - which I wasn't obviously the only one to experience ! The only solution I had seen to this problem was a clean install, which seemed a little bit too radical for me.

I only removed the files, rebooted the system, and that was it !...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Yikes!
Authored by: mcramer on May 10, '02 02:05:26PM

As a long time Unix guy, I have to say, seeing "sudo", "rm", and "*" on the same line makes my blood run cold. Add "-f" and it's too much. If done right, yes, it would do what you expect...but "f" and "r" are right next to each other on my keyboard. And what if you mis-typed that "cd"? This is like playing with guns.

Anyway...just to keep me sane, would you mind changing the suggestion to something cleaner, like:

sudo rm /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.FCacheSystemDomain

That seems to be the file you *want* to delete. Remember. OSX is *Unix* and should be treated with the appropriate care and respect.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Yikes indeed...
Authored by: philby on May 10, '02 03:58:52PM

Thanks for pointing this out, mcramer.

I'm the one guilty (I submitted the original hint), and even though I've been working with SGI boxes a few years back, I still get that strange fearful feeling when I see any "rm".

I read about this hint in the german Macworld, and they said it came from a tech supporter at Apple, so that's why I thought this should work the way it was written (did for me!).

I'm sure your way of doing it is safer, and would recommend anyone to at least try this first.



[ Reply to This | # ]
No sudo needed
Authored by: cram on May 10, '02 03:54:28PM

To ease things a little bit, no sudo is needed, only an administrator account (the files belong to the group "wheel"). The commands needed are :

rm .FODB_System
rm .fontTablesAnnex

That's all...



[ Reply to This | # ]
Some confirmation
Authored by: russh on May 11, '02 08:17:22AM

I was having the problem with Type 1 fonts a few months back and called Apple. I can confirm that deleting these files is what the Apple Tech (level 2) had me do.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Font panel gone...
Authored by: jiclark on May 11, '02 01:38:20PM

Does anyone have any idea why my font panel is AWOL? I can't get it to open from any application. I have access to my fonts in any app that shows a font menu of it's own, but otherwise, no go. I tried this hint just to see if it did any good, and unfortunately, it didn't...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

John-o



[ Reply to This | # ]
This worked...
Authored by: davidj on Aug 06, '02 02:47:03PM

We were getting a permissions error when we tried to copy new Fonts into the Fonts folder (logged in as Admin or a regular user), and deleting the cache solved the problem. Thanks!

David
www.mediarights.org



[ Reply to This | # ]
Kill the font cache to resolve font problems
Authored by: shpoffo on Nov 10, '03 09:14:31AM
Wow - thanks! This worked for me - fonts in my web browser are displaying correctly again. The problem occurred initially for me when I dragged my entire font library into Font Book. There were many fonts I added which duplicated standard system fonts, and even disabling the dupes didn't resolve my browser display issues.

I agree, however, that a blanket "sudo rm" is scary dangerous. I probalby should have checked just what was in the cache folder before I ran it =) Everything seems to be clear, however.


-shpoffo

[ Reply to This | # ]