From Apple and Extensis: Font management under Mac OS X

Report · Feb 20, 2003

Apple Computer and Extensis have free PDF documents aimed at answering many questions about using and managing fonts under Mac OS X.

Click on this link for your copy of Apple's: Using and Managing Fonts in Mac OS X -- A Guide for Creative Professionals.

This technology overview covers:

Best Practices for Font Management
Managing fonts manually
Using a font manager
Organizing fonts for a font manager
Useful font utilities
Preparing Your System
Removing nonessential fonts
Appendix A: Fonts of Mac OS X
Appendix B: Font Support in Mac OS X
Appendix C: Font Locations in Mac OS X
Appendix D: Mac OS X and Unicode

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Click on this link for your copy of Extensis's: Best Practices for Managing Fonts in Mac OS X

From Extensis: "This document contains detailed recommendations and instructions that can help you work efficiently with fonts in OS X, configure your system to minimize font problems, enhance your workflow."

Feel free to post feedback/augmentation/corrections specific to these two documents here.

However, for all other ATM/Type issues, please search the forum or start a new topic -- do not daisy-chain them here.

Thanks.

Neil
Forum Host
[text amended May 23, 2005]

Report · Apr 29, 2003

I went through the links but it is no longer at Apple. Any ideas where else it could be?

Report · Apr 30, 2003

Simon,

It's there; currently the link is at the right side of the same page -- I just checked it.

Neil

Report · Apr 30, 2003

Hi Neil,

Did you actually get to the .PDF file when you clicked the link on the right side of the page? I got a page not found error when I tried it yesterday and the same thing today.

Lance

Report · Apr 30, 2003

Hi Lance, What? Apple.com with a broken link? Impossible! <vbg> I'll admit that I just went back to the page and got the same error you did! So, I just put on an old pair of jeans, pulled off the control panels, blew out the dust, found the loose wires and fixed the link. OK. Fixed for the moment. Ain't duct tape wonderful? Thanks for letting me know! And please let me know if this one doesn't work for you. Neil

Report · May 01, 2003

Thanks Neil!

Lance

Report · Jun 19, 2003

Okay. I have a question. I am a die hard PC guy (Please forgive me). My wife, an artist, went back to school for Graphic design and has been doing kick azz. She has a mac g4 running OSx and while I'm a PC man by heart, I know computers and software in general.

She asked me the following question, and in all my years of computer fun (Now running on my 23rd year of it), I've never understood how ATM works, why it works, etc. I have printed out the OSx link mentioned above, but is there a tutorial on the ATM and how it works, and how it is suppsoed to work for you?

Thanks.

Frumpy Jones
Frumpy_Jones@hotmail.com

Report · Jun 19, 2003

Frumpy,
ATM Deluxe does not work under OS X. ATM Lite provides rasterization of
postscript fonts for Classic mode (OS 9 emulation running under OS X) in the
same way as ATM Lite does under Windows 9x.

...Mike

Report · Jun 29, 2003

FJ,

As Mike says.

ATM Deluxe provides font organization and management under Mac OS 9.2.2 and earlier. If your wife is using a lot of fonts and needs font management under Mac OS X, she needs to purchase and install Suitcase, Font Reserve, or Font Agent.

Neil

Report · Jul 12, 2003

Hi,

I have a Mac font management question. Adobe Garamond is ragged on my Mac. The edges are obviously not rasterized. This font is, I am informed, a type 1 font and is the only ragged edged font on my Mac.

I don't mind restarting in Legacy to use PageMaker with this font, so does that mean ATM Lite would solve the problem there? But what about in OS 10.2.6? Is there a setting there which I am missing?

The Adobe Garamond came with my Illustrator in a book. There are two suitcases: Adobe Garamond (1-4), and Expert (9-12). I wonder if there is something wrong with the font, some in these forums say its my computer.

Thanks,

Garrett

Report · Jul 12, 2003

Garrett -- Please stick to one thread in the forum. Multiple threads can cause mixed messages.

Report · Jul 15, 2003

I have read that Panther (MACOS 10.3) will have a font management.
What do you think?

Report · Jul 15, 2003

I think I've read it too.

Aandi Inston

Report · Jul 15, 2003

It looks like the "FontBook" software that's built into Panther is pretty lightweight compared to the commercial applications. For example, I understand it works by physically moving fonts to the system font locations.

However, it may be sufficient for many moderate-volume font users.

T

Report · Aug 05, 2003

Neil suggested that some of the Photoshop Forum people should wander over here after I reported that I have just murdered my .dfonts -- and am delighted with the results.

Ann Shelbourne "Darling, I just shrank the .dfonts" 8/5/03 2:11pm

Some of you might want to do the same thing.

Report · Dec 03, 2003

Problem with .dfonts: I use Futura with Agency Fit screen fonts. That puts me in conflict with Apple's Futura.dfont. When my Futura is turned on using Apple's Font Book I Adobe InDesign and Illustrator believe my Futura Medium is missing it's font outline and reports it as a bitmap font and will not stroke the type. When I put an alias of my Futura into Adobe's Font Folder the same thing occurs. It is only when I disable Apple's .dfont that Adobe's programs recognize the legitimacy of my Futura Medium. This only happens with 3 of the overlapping Futura fonts, not all of them. Also, when both are enabled, I cannot access all of the .dfont variations. I am currently using duplicate versions of Gill without problems and without having to place the font in Adobe's font folder. I thought Adobe was supposed to have tackled this with the Creative Suite edition of its programs; but, apparently some problems still remain. Comments?

Report · Dec 03, 2003

Another question: Do you think Adobe will incorporate somehow Apple's Font Sets into the next release of the cs apps? Or, even before. That would allow me to keep many, if not most, of my fonts installed and not make me scroll through thousands of faces to find the four I need for a project. BTW, does Illustrator still read all of the open fonts as it starts up? That would make things very slow if many fonts are activated...

Report · Dec 03, 2003

Correction: All is not well with Gill, either. When both my Gill with Agency Fit and Apple's .dfont Gill are enabled with Font Book, Both show in AI, but only mine shows in ID. If I put my Gill in Adobe's font folder, only my Gill shows in AI. Aaugh!

Report · Dec 06, 2003

Bob,

Short answer: don't have conflicting fonts activated at the same time. Adobe does not support such configurations, and STRONGLY RECOMMENDS against having them.

Regards,

T

Report · Dec 06, 2003

But, Adobe made marketing claims that all was now well, what Adobe's programs now listed fonts by type; ie, TrueType, T1, OpenType, etc... Guess they forgot about .dfonts (which are USUALLY listed as TT). Thanks for the advice, though!

Report · Dec 08, 2003

Bob,

Neither Adobe nor Apple have said that it is OK to activate duplicate or same-named fonts simultaneously, even if they are different formats.

Neil

Report · Dec 08, 2003

Oh, I believe I've read where Apple says that the fonts in the User space are activated first, then the main Library, then the System Library, etc... And Adobe claimed that their new programs would list all fonts and add a TT for True Type and T1 for Type 1, etc. If that is not TRYING to manage multiple fonts of the same name, I don't know what is. Trouble is, they do do as THOROUGH a job as need be. Maybe they can keep working at it.

In the mean time, if what you say is true (which it may well be) why in the world would Apple put HELVETICA in the System Library Fonts?!!! Crazy! Same with Times. Crazy!

Report · Dec 08, 2003

Helvetica and Times (along with Courier and Symbol) are legacy fonts, pretty much going back to the earliest days of the Macintosh. If you have ANY other version of these fonts (or any other fonts automatically installed), choose one version or the other.

Neil

Report · Dec 09, 2003

Bob,

I'll note that dfonts ARE TrueType fonts, which is why they show up as TrueType fonts. They're just wrapped up in a new way, so Apple can build them on a Unix file system without worrying about resource forks.

I would love to see a reference to this "Adobe claimed that their new programs...." But in any case, Adobe's different applications deal with font conflicts with varying degrees of success. It is possible for example to end up with a font family where you have the regular and bold from the TrueType version and the italic and bold italic from a Type 1 version. It's true that you can access all four styles, but....

It's true that Apple has a new scheme in OS X for prioritizing fonts based on location. For the time being, Adobe has continued to use its previous methods of choosing between conflicting fonts, which apply to both OS X and older OSes (and to Windows, for that matter).

In any case, speaking for Adobe's type group, it is our strong recommendation that for many Adobe applications on OS X, and for all applications on OS 8/9 and Windows, you should never have more than one font installed with a given menu name or PostScript name. In most applications, you have to use one or the other, anyway, so you should pick which one you want, and deactivate the one you don't want.

Regards,

T

Thomas Phinney
Fonts Program Mgr.
Adobe Systems

Report · Dec 10, 2003

>>>I would love to see a reference to this "Adobe claimed that their new programs...."

Sure. From a PDF on Adobe's web site:

>>Dont be bothered by font name conflicts because InDesign CS now lists all active fonts that share a font name but have different PostScript® names. You can differentiate them because the font names are listed in all Font menus with the font technologies abbreviated in parenthesesfor example, ITC American Typewriter (TT) for the TrueType version and ITC American Typewriter (T1) for the PostScript Type 1 version.

And:

>>Avoid font conflicts: Easily view all fonts and identify different font technologies thanks to InDesign CS softwares ability to report this information on the Font menu.

I see those items as indicating I can have various fonts of the same name but different formats available at the same time.

Adobe Community

From Apple and Extensis: Font management under Mac OS X