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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: hellmachine on May 07, '04 10:38:49AM

congratulations. now you can enjoy viewing destroyed websites because many systemfonts used by web designers to display content. if, for instance, verdana is missing, you will get some replacement font, but verdana and the like are specialized for screen reading. you will miss them for shure...
i never understood why people not just accept system stuff. all the oldschool os9 guys keep poking where they should not. your machine won't be snappier by removing some fonts...



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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: Anonymous on May 07, '04 12:14:05PM

This hint is not so much about removing fonts but about beeing able to manage them. I prefer to decide which font I want to use instead of ending up with a page of text all messed up just becuase the kerning in a "system shipped" font is slightly different.

Besides, what's so wrong in trying to do what you want instead of doing what the system wants. In the old OS 9 days the system was so cristaline and integrated that you hardly noticed it was there at all.

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Its impossible to create a foolproof device because fools are very ingenious people.



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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: Jaharmi on May 11, '04 03:08:20PM

I'm not sure what you mean by Mac OS 9 being so crystalline and integrated. In terms of font management, it had none. Okay, it had a folder named "Fonts" to which you could add up to 128 files (fonts, suitcases, etc.). But other than that, all management was typically done with a separate utility.

Now people want to continue managing Mac OS X -- a far more complex, but still quite approachable OS -- like it was as simple as Mac OS 9. This is not going to happen.

Each font folder in Mac OS X sits in a hierarchy and has a different purpose. The common font utilities still have no concept of this, or how to work on a multi-user computer. They want to manage everything in a user's home directory.



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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: ozzyrules on May 07, '04 12:23:31PM

Your point is noted. However, as many of us in the creative field who use lots of fonts know, OS X is a headache when it comes to fonts. There are so many conflicts that occur when we just let the system do what it wants.

This hint is a great help in managing fonts.



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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: dano on May 07, '04 12:41:01PM

One aspect of Mac OS X font management that seems to be overlooked is concept of location hierarchy. For example, if you have two fonts of the same name, the font used will be based upon it's location in the hierarchy. Apple has a useful document called "Using and Managing Fonts in Mac OS X" which explains this concept. Bases upon this, it is easy to predict which font would be used in the case of duplicates. My suggestion would be to reduce the number of font locations (if practical). One may also replace the .dfonts with postscript versions (if available). Lucida Grande and Helvetica are essential system fonts.



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Removing excess fonts
Authored by: montalvd on May 14, '04 01:33:38PM

the idea is to manage fonts through your font management program. an earlier post hit the nail on the head...each version of each font is different...so the goal MUST be to have complete control over what fonts are loaded.

in order to do this, you MUST trim down the number of absolutely necessary fonts. all the workstations we rollout at all the graphics/design/bureau shops we support have the following:

/System/Library/Fonts:
Geneva.dfont
Monaco.dfont
LucidaGrande.dfont
LastResort.dfont
Keyboard.dfont

/Library/Fonts:
...flushed clean...

~/Library/Fonts:
...flushed clean...

/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Fonts:
...flushed clean EXCEPT for the "Reqd" folder

we then load Helvetica.dfont and HelveticaNeue.dfont through Suitcase/FontReserve. before you get uptight about that...remember...you can enable/disable fonts ONLY through a font management program. so...if you need your own Helvetica, simply disable Helvetica.dfont and enable Helvetica (yours).

font management in osx is only different in that there are 7 necessary fonts (instead of four in os9)...out of which 5 MUST be in /System/Library/Fonts (where they CAN NOT) be managed...and of which 2 MUST be managed through your font management program (where you can enable/disable at will).

it's really not the big deal a lot of people on this forum are making it out to be. keep those 5 fonts in the right folder and manage the rest through Suitcase/FontReserve and move on with life...

;)
don montalvo, nyc

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Don, NYC



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