FAQ: Multiple master fonts on OS X

I have found that the time it takes to save a document in InDesign is lengthened from a few seconds when using Type 1 fonts to between 25 and 35 seconds when using MM fonts.

Is this a bug? Is there something I can do to avoid this?

I have just discovered that MM fonts will embed correctly in PDFs that are made from Illustrator 10.0.3 if I use File menu > Print > Create Adobe PDF.

I find that going via that route allows you to embed MM fonts in a PDF; while "Save As an Adobe PDF" throws up the message about protected fonts not being embeddable.

However, I am using Mac OS 9.2.2 and I don't know if this will work on OSX.

Well, it's not exactly a fight--people like to get these bugs fixed when they come up!

Sorry for the trouble. Check back in for an update when the next versions of the affected Adobe products ship.

Regards,

T

Thomas: Thank you for your information about Apple and Adobe MM support. I am pleased and comforted to know that you are championing the cause of MM compatibilty at Adobe. Please accept my encouragement. Keep up the fight.

Perhaps there is still hope, though currently I find myself in the same position as Ken (3/17) although I have not yet decided that I must rebuild all my MM projects.

For the time being, I am willing to put all my MM fonts in the Adobe font folder so they are available to Adobe applications only. If I need them in Quark (in Classic), I will move them out of the Adobe fonts folder and into the Classic System Fonts folder. Very cumbersome, I know, but less time consuming than rebuilding these projects.

Hmmm.... I must say, if you're switching font formats today, I'd go to OpenType instead of Type 1. Certainly Type 1 will be supported for a long time to come, but support will some day be phased out in favor of OpenType.

T

My Apple retailer, with a large and active service crew in my local, says to "drop MM fonts, there is not a fix, it's old technology." I have several years worth of work into projects which all use MM fonts. I will now resign to doing 4 to 6 years of re-building these jobs to use conventional Adobe Post-Script type. It's a sad day in mudville.

When Apple fixed MM support at the OS level in 10.2, Adobe discovered that some assumptions we'd made about the OS level support were incorrect.

I'm not allowed to comment about features and bug fixes in future versions of Adobe applications, but I can say that we are still supporting MM fonts for quite a while yet, and acknowledge this as a bug.

All this was not due to any deliberate desire to have MM fonts stop working. Indeed, I personally lobbied my counterparts at Apple quite hard to fix/implement MM support in OS X in the first place, only to be quite chagrined to discover that Adobe's own applications still had an issue.

Regards,

T

Thomas Phinney
Fonts Program Mgr.,
Adobe Systems

Hi Neil and Thomas,

It's been a while and I have good news and bad news. The good news is that for a while all my multiple master problems went away. The combination of Extensis Suitcase X v.10.2 and OS X v.10.2.3 allowed all my MM fonts work in all applications: Adobe and non-Adobe, Classic and OS X. I was very pleased.

The bad news is that, since updating to Mac OS X v.10.2.4, Adobe appications only "see" the regular instance (and, curiously, one other instance in some cases) of multiple master fonts activated in Suitcase.

Microsoft Office applications, however, continue to see all instances of MM fonts as does Quark Xpress (in Classic). This is odd, don't you think? Quark and Microsoft presumably have no vested interest in MM technology and yet they can handle the acivation of MM fonts by Suitcase, but Adobe, the pioneer and champion of MM technology cannot.

Furthermore, the fact that Quark and Microsoft applications continue to handle MM fonts completely in spite of OS updates makes it appear that the incomplete perfomance of MM fonts in Adobe applications (when managed by Suitcase at least) is not due to lack of MM support on Apple or Extensis' part, but on Adobe's part.

And still, Adobe continues to be very unforthcoming and unhelpful to those poor souls who bought into their MM technology.

I appreciate Dave Saunder's discovery about the use of aliases and I may make use of it. The issue here is that fonts in Adobe application font folders are not easily activated and deactivated (not to mention auto-activated and auto-deactivated).

It seems clear that, as time goes on, there will be less and less support for multiple master fonts both from Adobe and Apple. This leads me to think that the best solution long term is to convert MM font instances to standard post script fonts.

What is the alternative to someone as heavily invested in MM fonts as I am? Remove them from Suitcase and install them (or aliases) in Adobe applications' font folders, activate and deactivate them in the Finder using a "Deactivated MM fonts" folder or some similar strategy? Then install duplicates in the Classic System Folder Fonts folder (to make them available to Quark)? In this case they will never be available to MS Word (or any other OS X application), of course.

You see the problem. If MM fonts cannot be managed by a Font management application, the workaround becomes so complex and convoluted that is begins to resemble a digital version of the old Rube Goldfarb devices!

Your comments are very welcome. Thank you for enduring my frustrations.

Kirk

Kirk:

Fonts installed in the Classic System: Fonts folder will be available to *all* your apps (both Classic and Carbon).

Of course, you need to be running ATM Light 4.6.x under Classic.

In general, I don't know of problems from having the exact *same* font installed in two different locations, though I won't swear there are none. The interesting thing to find out is if you put the MM fonts in the Classic fonts folder, and *also* in the Adobe app location, will this allow them to work in all your apps, and have all the instances show up in your Adobe apps under OS X? I haven't the slightest idea, but it's probably worth trying.

Cheers,

T

Dave,

Gotta remember that trick when I finally move over to X!

Kirk,

Thanks! Your comments are much appreciated. Personally, I like MM fonts and I'm sorry that they never got the respect and acceptance that they deserve. I still use them on a regular basis under Mac OS 9.2.2 and ATM Deluxe 4.6.2.

As far as information on Multiple Masters fonts, the "official" information about them is probably limited to the Adobe searchable Knowledgebase found elsewhere on the Adobe Website. For "unofficial" information, these User-to-User forums are a good bet. For type as it relates to a specific Adobe application, post there. For general type questions, your call -- either the ATM/Type forum or, for typographic issues, here.

My preference would be not to have to tear apart the MM fonts you have. They're supposed to work better under Jaguar.

Glad to see you here. Don't be a stranger!

Neil
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