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An informative Apple guide to font management System
There have been many hints concerning Extensis Suitcase bugs and general font management issues. However, I can find no link to a very helpful PDF from Apple called Using and Managing Fonts in OS X that contains key information about how OS X deals with fonts, where it puts them, and which fonts actually need to be installed for everything to function properly.

The PDF is chock full of marketing babblespeak, but is still helpful, especially the sections that address creative professionals whose font libraries may conflict with pre-installed system fonts. Note the screenshot (at the bottom of page 10) that shows the small number of Classic fonts that are really needed by system resources -- the document also advocates removing the dreaded Helvetica and Zapf Dingbats .dfonts!

As usual, tamper at your own risk, but I've found that establishing a minimal system font base greatly facilities setting up and maintaining Suitcase X1.

[robg adds: It took a bit of digging to find this link -- the one submitted with the story no longer worked. A few searches later, and I found that Apple had recently moved it from the "top level" of their site into an archive folder. As such, if you want the PDF, I'd suggest grabbing it quickly; I'm not sure what the lifespan of the archive folder might be...]
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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: cclauset on Jan 30, '04 11:35:51AM

The reason why the document is depreciated is because it is Mac OS X 10.2-centric, that's all. But, yes, I highly recommend removing all the fonts from both the ~/Library/Fonts and /Library/Fonts directories; replacing the Courier, Helvetica, Symbol, Times, and Zapf Dingbats .dfonts in the /System/Library/Fonts directory with TrueType, PostScript Type 1, or OpenType equivalents (and make sure that you use the same equivalents in the Mac OS 9 Classic System Folder/Fonts folder); and using Suitcase X1 as your font management solution.

On a side note, you can convert the .dfonts into TrueType format by using FontDoctor (bundled with Suitcase X1, or available separately from <http://www.morrisonsoftdesign.com>).



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: foobar104 on Jan 30, '04 01:20:03PM

On the subject of OpenType equivalents, it's worth mentioning that Adobe seems to have pulled a boneheaded maneuver. Their OpenType version of Helvetica is called Helvetica LT Std. Their OpenType version of Courier is called Courier Std. Their OpenType version of Times is called Times LT Std.

What this means is that the OpenType fonts are not one-to-one replacements for the Type 1 fonts.

I'm sure there's a good argument to be made for why this is so, but it annoys me anyway.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: DavidRavenMoon on Jan 30, '04 02:07:10PM
The problem I have found in replacing the system versions of some fonts, such as Helvetica, is that some of the PostScript versions display incorrectly. I have been able to fix this by opening the printer font file in Fontographer, and saving a new font suitcase.

It seems to be an issue with unicode support, and it effects such applications as Safari, iChat, Mail, etc. Using Suitcase X1 to turn on a PostScript version of Helvetica has crashed iChat on several occasions, and QuarkXPress 6 both displays and prints the fonts incorrectly.

Here is a screen shot of the malformed fonts in Suitcase. In this case it's AGaramond.

And here is Helvetica rendering wrong in the address line in Mail.

Anyone have any ideas?



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: Darukaru on Jan 31, '04 12:52:41AM

I've seen the same thing happen in Safari v100.1 with only the standard OS X .dfont fonts enabled.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: ajabu on Feb 04, '04 02:07:29PM

I had the same problem, and removed helvetica fractions from my user/lib/fonts folder.

At the same time, I checked that Times 13 and Andale Mono 11 as standard fonts in Safari (as I believe the two programs use the same font settings?). I'm guessing that some web pages look quite unreadable too (only in Safari)?

This solved my problem with mail. I furthermore disabled another font, Times Phonetic (in Font Book, running Panther).

I have decided not to use Suitcase for some time, trying to use Font Book. Don't think the problems are related to Suitcase specifically.

Seems that font IDs and names get mixed up. Happy to see that I wasn't alone re. this font / display problem, it was very anoying!



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: lheyward on Jan 31, '04 10:02:11PM

I keep seeing things about font doctor being bundled with Suitcase X1.

I'm running the trial of suitcase to check it out and I can't find Font Doctor. Is it included with the trial? If not, how would I get it after unlocking the trial version with the purchased access key?

I've checked the menus and the app folder and see font book, but not font doctor...



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: DavidRavenMoon on Feb 01, '04 12:46:53PM

I gave FontDoctor a whirl, it it said a bunch of fonts needed repair. After I let it repair them, Suitcase said every font it repaired was damaged beyond repair, and wouldn't display them. They were fine before that. I have also seen (even back with the classic version) it rename fonts in a very bad way, naming some of them just "M", and generally doing bad things to fonts.

I'd stay far away from FontDoctor! I even turned off Suicase X1's font checking, since it seems to flag otherwise good fonts.

.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: BradW on Feb 01, '04 07:56:02PM

I also tried the Suitcase X1 demo and wondered where FontDoctor was. I eventually figured out that I had to download it separately from Extensis' web site.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: mdouma46 on Apr 01, '04 05:26:38AM
"On a side note, you can convert the .dfonts into TrueType format by using FontDoctor (bundled with Suitcase X1, or available separately from )."

You can also convert .dfonts to TrueType format using dfontifier, which is free (though donations are welcome;-).

Also, if you've experienced problems with "garbage text" or the like, try Font Cache Cleaner. Hope this helps....

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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: amacaulay on Jan 30, '04 11:35:54AM

On a related note, does anyone know how to set things up so that PS converts to PDF properly? I download academic papers and often the font doesn't render well, regardless of where I gget them - am I missing a font?

Andy.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: imageworx on Jan 30, '04 11:45:52AM

More than likely, Apple is going to update the file. If you read the PDF, you'll notice its "10.2" specific. Now that Panther supercedes it, and some Fontbook and Application changes later, its likely time for an updated PDF.

I am still occupied with designers migrating from beige to silver and fonts/management are the #1 problem/delay.

#2 problem is a suitabe RIP replacement (other than keeping the older machine alive and running Epson's Stylus RIP).

I provide that pdf to clients and "ask" they read it and understand it. Then I refer them to Suitcase X1 as a font manager replacement to ATM Deluxe. (Font Agent Pro is ok, and Font Reserver (preferred) has been absorbed by Extensis...)

---
To BeOS or Not to BeOS



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: Darukaru on Jan 30, '04 01:24:52PM

I just wish Suitcase handled .OTF fonts a little more gracefully; unifying them into families automatically would be nice. Along the same lines, a replacement for Adobe Type Reunion (for applications that don't use the Font Panel) would be a godsend.



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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: harveyl on Jan 30, '04 04:05:07PM
Thanks for the pointer to the "Using and Managing Fonts..." document. It clarified many misunderstandings on my part that were not at all clear from the online help system for Fontbook. Resolving duplicates was especially confusing since I did not realize that if one needed a font for Classic as well as OS X, the copy needed to be in the Classic font folder and could be accessed from there by OS X applications. The description of the order of precedence of the different font folders was particularly useful.

Unfortunately, the document did not describe some of the newer features of Panther, particularly Fontbook which is, in my opinion, poorly documented in its online help. I did a search and found the following that supplement the previously cited link:

An overview of fonts in Panther may be found at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/fonts/

An overview of Font Book may be found at:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/fontbook/

Most useful, particularly in conjunction with the "Using and Managing Fonts..." document is the PDF file, "Fonts in Mac OS X", which describes the use of Font Book.

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An informative Apple guide to font management
Authored by: jamesflach on Jan 30, '04 08:18:25PM
Though named differently, this is same document I mentioned in a reply to a previous hint back in November. See Required Fonts

The document I referred to is available in Apple's support section, so it should remain available even if the file mentioned in the author's hint get removed.

Article 75494 is available at the following link: Mac OS X Font Handling and Management: Technology Brief

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