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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps System
Here's another "WOW! I can't believe I missed that" hint. I don't know when this was introduced (10.3, 10.4,?), but it seems that you no longer need to restart applications when you install new fonts.

For those of you new to the Mac, I'll give some background. Back in the day, if you were using a program and suddenly discovered that you didn't have the font you needed installed, you had to save your work, quit the app, and add the font to your system. If a font was not in the Fonts folder when the application started up, it would not be loaded. All of this was a pain, especially for those of us who do graphics work. But it seems this has changed.

Today, while at work, I though I'd try installing a font and see if it came up in the app while it was running. To my surprise, it worked! So far I've tried it in After Effects, Photoshop, and Microsoft Word. For the Adobe apps, it did take a second for the new fonts to appear, but when I pulled the fonts out of my font folder, they stopped showing up in the applications. Word did not update its font list, but when I typed in the name of the font, it did change the text in my document. I'm not totally sure this works in all apps, but it looks promising.

[robg adds: I also hadn't realized that font changes were dynamic; I've been quitting/relaunching apps whenever I made a font change. I did some testing, and this seems to work in both 10.3 and 10.4 (I can't test anything earlier than 10.3), and it does seem to work, in some fashion, in most every application.

As noted above, Microsoft apps are a bit more difficult about it. I tested Excel 2004, and when I chose a 'removed' font, the cell appeared blank (though the text was still there -- changing to another font made the text visible again). When I re-added the removed font, sometimes I could use it right away, sometimes it took a few minutes, and at other times, I had to change the font size in the cell to make the text visible again.

Cocoa apps worked great; if you have the font panel open, the removed/added fonts will disappear/appear almost instantly when you make the change in the Finder.]
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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: bigbold on Aug 03, '05 11:52:19AM

How bizarre. I installed a new font just yesterday while PhotoShop was open.. then opened a new document, and all the fonts failed. Looked at the drop down and only three fonts were available. Restarted PhotoShop, all fine.



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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: jjmarcus on Aug 10, '05 01:57:27AM

Photoshop has always been an exception. Not even Suitcase, until recently, was able to activate fonts dynamically in Photoshop. (I just checked, and that problem's gone in CS2.)



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Duplicate fonts
Authored by: bonkydooky on Aug 03, '05 12:21:54PM

Something I noticed is that when you have multiple versions of the same font installed, like a Truetype, a dfont, and a Postscript one, some flaky programs (like Illustrator CS) won't see the entire family. So I have to go into Font Book and try disabling certain ones. Frustrating, but at least there's a workaround.



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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: jfranusic on Aug 03, '05 12:58:40PM
The ADC has more information on Apple Type Services.

I was also able to find more details on activating new fonts without restarting applications.

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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: mayo2ca on Aug 03, '05 01:18:38PM

This works since 10.3. 10.2 didn't do this, if I remember correctly. I recall reading up on the changes they did to the font server when 10.3 was released, and this was one of them.



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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: Twist on Aug 03, '05 01:26:56PM

Yes this wasn't a feature in 10.2. We got this feature at the same time we got FontBook. Dynamic loading of fonts can be a bit wonky in some applications though, especially Adobe ones.



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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: UberFu on Aug 04, '05 03:11:32AM

mayo2ca - you're right - except it wasn't a stanard function until 10.2 came out_

10.1 never had the function - at least as a default_ There may have been some unix command to activate it - who knows_ Since 10.0 came out I've been pissed that Adobe refused to port ATM Deluxe to OS X - but since 10.2 - font management has gotten easier and easier_ 10.3 they improved it more and 10.4 so far seems to be even better_ But I haven't jumped into any layout projects since I upgraded to 10.4 - so I haven't had a chance to play with it yet_



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Install and remove fonts without restarting apps
Authored by: unresort on Aug 05, '05 05:43:12AM

WTF people!!!!!!!!!!!

why are you using FontBook when there are so many apps out there that do the job much better? seriosuly, i want a reply. i signed up just b/c this thread pissed me off so much. why are you using FontBook?

Suitcase has had this feature since 10.2 at least, or sooner.

why are you even letting FontBook touch yer fonts? you are asking for trouble.



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