From Apple and Extensis: Font management under Mac OS X

[Neil_Keller]

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]

[_Colleen_Post_]

What means does OSX use to indicate when a font is corrupt?

[JustBob]

Sorry. Don't know the answer to that...Don't know if it checks. I know the system gets messed up and Apple programs will not launch if, say, there are 2 Palatino Suitcases containing Type 1 Screen Fonts and only one Type One printer font available...but, that is not a font corruption problem. Are you having problems?

[_Colleen_Post_]

I was getting corrupted font error messages erratically from various files. However, using this managing fonts guide, I am reorganizing my fonts and already one font that looked corrupted on the screen has righted itself. So I think it is like the conflict you described above and it will look better when I get it sorted out. It is very confusing telling which Type 1 suitcases might be missing printer fonts because sometimes they are with the suitcase and some fonts don't show any printer fonts outside the suitcase at all, but are working fine. In the old days I used to easily be able to see if I had a printer font for each screen font, but no more.

I'm trying to understand the difference between using OS9 and Suitcase and OSX and Fontbook. Could you backtrack a bit and check my questions that appears before the one where I asked about corrupted fonts?

Thank you so much. You have no idea how hard it is to get real help with font problems.

[JustBob]

>>In the old days I used to easily be able to see if I had a printer font for each screen font, but no more.

That is true. You can no longer open a Font Suitcase. ( Me thinks Apple should change this. ) You can, however, start up from OS 9 and then you can still open your font Suitcases and make sure that you have one screen font for every printer font for your Type 1 fonts.

>>> some fonts don't show any printer fonts outside the suitcase at all

Those might be TrueType fonts. Apple also supports Open Type fonts and PC fonts. The open type fonts appeared one file at time, that is say that there is one file for bold, one file for regular, one file for italic, etc.. Fortunately, Font Book recognizes that these or all of the same type family and will organize and under one heading for you.

>>I'm trying to understand the difference between using OS9 and Suitcase and OSX and FontBook.

You know, there is an update for Suitcase which works under OS 10. I'm using Font Book though because it is free. Actually, that is not entirely true. I bought a copy of Suitcase and abandoned when Apple came out with Font Book.

>>>I get page layout files from outside my company that I work on or revise, and they come with their own fonts.

Aagh! I hate working on other people's files. BTW, if you ever change to Adobe InDesign, Adobe uses a special font folder which generally takes precedence over fonts in other locations, making your situation easier. Sorry, I got ahead of myself...let me re-read your question...

>>> Every time I opened Suitcase to work on that project, it would activate the fonts kept in the brochure folder.

Suitcase makes the System think the font is installed, or something like that, yes.

>>> they have to be installed on my computer. I can't do what I did with Suitcase, right?

Suitcase virtually installs the font. But it sort of does that remotely, without the font having to be in a specific location.

>>>But I could install the borrowed fonts on my computer, put them in a collection in Font Book

In order to keep your fonts and your "borrowed" fonts separate, you might want to place the borrowed fonts folder in one of your font folders manually, say, your home/Library/Fonts folder. That way you would know they are not yours and you can dump them later. If you double click on a font suitcase and say Install, so that Font Book installs the font, Font Book will mix the fonts up with your other fonts. That is what a Microsoft program did and I was so angry at the company.

Now, I don't know how QuarkXPress decides which font to use. I believe that Adobe does not use the same convention that Apple uses. Apple says that the fonts in your home directory are used first, then the fonts in a Library/Fonts, and the fonts in System/Library/Fonts, and finally the fonts in your old System Folder. But, Adobe chose to ignore the convention. I believe he uses fonts found in Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts first. Then it uses the other folders. But, still, if it finds to duplicate fonts it will compare the fonts and use the one with more characters thinking that he wanted more characters are newer fonts. That drives me crazy, sometimes. Apple has a Gil and I have a Gil and sometimes the Adobe programs will only see one so I often have to uninstall the Apple font for the Adobe program to see mine. It is slowly getting worked out, though, I think. (Anybody from Adobe reading this is sure to correct my errors.)

Assuming that core is the Apple convention of guess that you could dump a folder full of fonts in your home fonts folder. Oh! Did I say? Apple fonts folders will read fonts inside of folders. Also, if you ever switch to InDesign, the Adobe fonts folder will read aliases of fonts; so, you can stick an alias of the fonts for your job inside the Adobe fonts folder. I don't believe Apple font folders will read aliases, still.

[tlmurray23]

>> In the old days I used to easily be able to see if I had a printer font
>> for each screen font, but no more.

> That is true. You can no longer open a Font Suitcase. ( Me thinks Apple
> should change this. ) You can, however, start up from OS 9 and then you
> can still open your font Suitcases and make sure that you have one screen
> font for every printer font for your Type 1 fonts.

Turns out that good old FontD/A Mover works in Classic, although I think it's just plain silly that you can't open a suitcase. The one place where it messes is if you open a suitcase that it in Classic's System Folder : Fonts folder, it shows you the contents of the suitcase as well as active fonts.

Just wanted to clarify something. Bob said, "You can, however, start up from OS 9 and then you can still open your font Suitcases...." This sounds like you need to be in Classic, but that's not the case. Suitcase for OSX examines this condition on fonts that reside in both Classic and in OSX.

[JustBob]

Aach! I thought I was at an Apple forum site. I'm at Adobe's site! I'm sure there are others much more knowledgeable here, that I. But, I think what I said is correct.

[Neil_Keller]

> Every time I opened Suitcase to work on that project, it would activate the fonts kept in the brochure folder. This way I was not "stealing" the font by installing it on my computer, just borrowing it to use in the piece it came with. Have I understood this correctly?

Aandi beat me to it. He is right. And I'm not a lawyer either, but...

Fonts are licensed software, just as QuarkXPress or Photoshop are. Technically, "borrowing" fonts as you described is stealing the font. You need to have the license to use fonts on your machine. Some foundries (but NOT Adobe) allow for fonts to temporarily be used by service bureaus and prepress houses for output or plating only. Other fonts may have licenses that allow for "x" number of computers to use the fonts simultaneously (Adobe does), but only as long as they are connected to the same printer. Other foundries may have other more stringent or less stringent licenses. There is no industry-wide "standard" for font installation and usage.

Yes, it's complicated and not easy to sort out. Consider doing an organization's magazine with advertising. Unless the ads are provided with fonts converted to outlines or as PDFs with embedded fonts (and even with PDFs there can be licensing restrictions), you've got a nightmare on your hands sorting through the licensing from the various foundries, if you are to remain completely legal.

Neil

[Neil_Keller]

That said, update to the current version of Suitcase -- it's far better than Apple's fairly remedial FontBook. It allows for sorting out duplicate fonts and damaged fonts as well as auto activation of fonts as they are needed. Check the Extensis.com page: http://www.extensis.com/en/products/product_family.jsp?locale=en_US&id=1054

Neil

[Neil_Keller]

That said, as this topic is open for comments specific to Apple's PDF Font Management document (not to how fonts are used by QuarkXPress or Suitcase), please create a new topic. It would make your concerns a lot easier to find and follow up. Thanks.

Neil

[JustBob]

BTW, Apple's Font Books checks for duplicate fonts, too, just as Suitcase does...

[_Colleen_Post_]

Thanks Bob, for taking the time to answer my questions. You've been very helpful.

[_Colleen_Post_]

Are there different licensing allowances when fonts are shared for educational use?

[Thomas Phinney]

Very few licenses I've seen had different terms for educational use, so it's possible, but rare.

A few foundries, including Adobe, offer either special packages available only to the education market, or discounts for educational purchases. Adobe's answer is "Type Classics for Learning."

Regards,

T

[_Colleen_Post_]

After reading the above document from Apple, I have reorganized my fonts, putting all of my fonts in the System 9 fonts folder, as I run both OS9 and OSX.

I am having an issue now with both my ITC Garamond and my Adobe Garamond fonts. Both have a few family members that are showing incorrectly on screen with odd symbols and ligatures, as if a different keyboard configuration were applied to them. And each font shows slightly different wrong characters for the same sentence. I did some sorting out of the fonts, removing them from the fonts folder, eliminating some duplications and generally making sure the pairs of screen and printer fonts were intact, then reinstalled them in the OSX fonts folder so I could deal with them separately from my other fonts. This time the same thing happened but with different family members. Two that were wrong before were right now, and two others were now wrong on the screen. All of these fonts have printed correctly by the way.
Any clue what is going on here?

[tlmurray23]

If you have the same-named font in both .dfont and in Type 1, you don't need
the .dfont at all.

[JustBob]

I experienced a similar problem once. I used Zapf Dingbats in a job...I think I used one of Apple's .dfonts. I took the job to a service bureau which was running OS 9. They eitehr could not use or did not have teh .dfonts. The characters mapped differently. Or rather, did not show up...choosing a TrueType font of Type 1 maped different characters...

I don't think there are .dfonts of teh ones you are having the trouble with, but...

[_Colleen_Post_]

thanks Bob. This may account for the fact that I get "font may be corrupted" errors for my Zapf Dings and Helvetica when going to print. The system is going to the dfont first. I don't have admin access to remove them.

But my Garamonds are both PostScript type 1 fonts. So at least you can say that they are mapping differently? Not sure what that means or what I can do about it, any ideas?

[JustBob]

You can replace the .dfonts by booting into OS 9. but, I think you should not remove them without adding a replacement. Since your Garamonds are all Postscript, I am not sure what to recommend. The problem occurs in Quark?

[MarkDouma®]

If you're going to use any of the .dfonts, I'd recommend converting them to a regular Mac TrueType font form using my dfontifier application. That way, OS 9 will actually be able to make use of them when you place them in the Classic /System Folder/Fonts/ folder, or you can provide them in a form that's usable to service bureaus like the one you were using.

Hope this helps....

[_Colleen_Post_]

Been away from this forum due to workload, but am back still trying to resolve a conflict with my Helvetica and Zapf Dings fonts. There is a dfont version of these in the OSX System/Library/Fonts folder, which I cannot alter. I removed my versions, which I have in the OS9 System/Fonts folder (that is what is recommended in Apple's Guide since I am running both OSs). But I guess dfonts are only for the use of the OS because they don't show up in my Quark menu. So I had to add mine back in. Can't seem to avoid this conflict, if that's what it is.

[JustBob]

You can alter the fonts in System/Library/Fonts by booting into Mac OS 9 (System Preferences > Start up Disk). You could always update to an OS X version of Quark, I suppose. Or, switch to InDesign (no, I am not an Adobe employee).

[_Colleen_Post_]

Bob, I run OS9 and OSX together all the time. I'm afraid I don't understand your first sentence. I always have OS9 running, how would that effect whether I can alter that fonts folder in OSX? (I don't have administrative access) I already have Quark 6.1 for OSX. I'd like to try InDesign, but my employer is not going to buy it.

[JustBob]

Running Classic isnot the same as booting into OS9. I don't know if you can do this is you do not have admin privileges...I can open System Preferences and choose Start Up Disk. Then, I can select my OS 9 System. I heard rumors that this might not be possible with newer Macs...So, you have Quark 6.1...that program doesn't get it's fonts from OS X? Is the problem when the files fo to the printer and they are running OS 9 still?

[_Colleen_Post_]

Quark goes to OSX Library/Fonts first to look for fonts, then to Classic. There are two font folders for OSX, the one named above, and the System/Library/Fonts folder which is where the system fonts are, the dfonts, which I cannot alter. so it should look there first and find the dfonts, then look in Classic and find my versions. But when I took my versions out of Classic, trying to avoid this conflict, the dfonts were not available for my files. Yet Zapfino is a dfont and it is always available in my menus.

[JustBob]

One more place to put fonts in OS X: user/Library/Fonts.

Doesn't Quark 6 run natively under OS X? Why are you runnning Classic, too? If Quark does run under OS X, then why don't you remove the offending fonts from the System Folder (OS 9)?

So, did you check, can you boot into OS 9 to change the dfonts?

Finally, you might wish to check with Qaurk about this. Adobe had similar issues...there being several types of fonts of the same name and the program not knowing which to use. Illustrator seems to have solved the problem...ID sloves it partially, I think...it has been awhile since I have complained...I try not to use Helvetica anymorew, though...