How to install fonts in indesign cs5 mac

[craigpmhere]

My designer sent me some fonts for a document they created for me, but I have been unable to figure out how to install the fonts. Google search and adobe search and still I am not able to figure this out. I am using macintosh os 10.64.

Can someone provide any guidance?

[Joel Cherney]

If you've already searched Google for something like "install fonts on mac 10.6" and have followed the instructions on the first link (under "Locations where fonts can be stored") then you'll have to post more details for us to help you. For example:

Which fonts are they? (Not all fonts can be used by a Mac, like Type 1 fonts for Windows. Give us the complete name of the font, hopefully with a file extension.)

How do you know they are missing? (Sure, when you open up the document it gives you a missing font warning, but it might just be a font naming problem, like InDesign is looking for "Helvetica Neue LE Regular" and your font is called "Helvetica Neue Regular." You can use Find Font under the Type menu to find & replace if necessary. If you don't see the missing font warning when you open the file, how do you know the fonts are missing?)

Where have you tried to install them? (There's quite a few places to install a font on a Mac; have you tried any of them? It's worth pointing out that installing multiple copies of fonts in multiple locations can cause fonts to not be read in some circumstances.)

What version of InDesign are you using? (If it's CS5 and there's a "Document Fonts" folder in the same folder as the InDesign document you're trying to open, then InDesign is supposed to be able to read them, but sometimes it borks up and you have to move or delete the Document Fonts folder in order to get it to work.)

and there are other minor possibilities like

What languages are the fonts supposed to support? (InDesign puts its Chinese, Arabic etc. fonts all the way at the bottom of its window)

and

Are you sure that the fonts aren't damaged? (What size are the files? Are they still in a zipped folder? Maybe they were broken when you downloaded them from your email.)

et cetera

[Scott Falkner]

Joel Cherney wrote:

Which fonts are they? (Not all fonts can be used by a Mac, like Type 1 fonts for Windows. Give us the complete name of the font, hopefully with a file extension.)

All true, except for the parts that aren’t. That would be all of it.

Windows .ttf fonts install on a Mac just fine. Have been for years, even before OS-X. The only fonts that are tricky are Windows PostScript fonts, which usually have the extensions .pfm and .pfb. You cannot install these in Mac OS-X, but you can add the files to Adobe’s own font folder and they will work in InDesign. [Your user name] / Library / Application Support / Adobe/Fonts

[Joel Cherney]

All true, except for the parts that aren’t. That would be all of it.

Care to explain this, Scott? Am I wrong in assuming that "Type 1 fonts" and "PostScript fonts" are not synonymous? Because, certainly, what I was trying to say was "If you see .pfm file extensions, they won't work if you drop 'em into OS X font folders."

[Joel Cherney]

It's also worth mentioning that, if you don't own licenses for the fonts, you're probably violating that license by getting your designer (for shame!) to send you copies of the fonts. But heck, even if you had just bought 'em yourself, you'd still need to be able to install 'em correctly.

[craigpmhere]

Hello and thank you both for your help with this.

I just found this video, which solved my problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfs-ZjVFgdM

[Scott Falkner]

The font is not installed in your system. You need to obtain a licence for the font as well as the files, then install it using Font Book. You can find the font here.

[craigpmhere]

I am no longer getting the error message in my document, so it is installed in as much as it needs to be. Is this an issue of it's not allowed unless I purchase it from Adobe? Is it not OK for people to send fonts to each other? Or to download free fonts from the internet?

[Joel Cherney]

Is this an issue of it's not allowed unless I purchase it from Adobe? Is it not OK for people to send fonts to each other? Or to download free fonts from the internet?

It really depends on the font. Some fonts have licenses that allow you to embed your fonts in PDFs, others do not. Some fonts have licenses that allow you to install your fonts on up to n computers, others don't. Some font licenses allow one user to install it, others one computer, and so on. Free fonts from the internet are sometimes genuinely free - and sometimes they're fonts with restrictive licenses that are being put up for download by someone who is ignoring the license.

[Guest]

Hi I am taking over a job and just to clarify upfront the license is covered. I have both the pfm & pfb files and I only really need to use it for indesign (cs5) I have tried installing it in the application support/adobe/fonts and even created a fonts folder in the indesign CS5 folder it is not working in either place. Has something changed in CS5 should I be putting this someplace else?

thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer.

Please Respond to swrlygrl at her other thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4224650

Message was edited by: Peter Spier