Font Problems in Ill 10 in Mac OSX 1

[annadesigner]

Just changed over now to Mac OSX - and am using Font Book as my font manager (should I download a different one? - like Suitcase maybe?)

Anyway - for some reason - in Illustrator I have the font Gill Sans appear in one weight only (Bold Extra Condensed).

I don't have any other weight options in the list, although they are all appearing in Font Book. I find it strange aswell that in Photoshop I can see all the different weights no problem.

Can anyone tell me as well why with some fonts I am able to see a little black arrow next to the font name and all the weights are in a mini-list to one side, and then with other fonts the different weights are just listed one after the other in the main list?

Is this to do with some kind of different font-type? i.e otf, dfont?, postscript or TTF?

I'm so tired of font issues - why do I seem cursed with font problems?

 

[jmgalvin]

Fonts and OSX can be a PITA. It’s not Illustrator that can cause problems.

Unlike OS 9 and earlier, X allows fonts to be installed in a zillion places. OSX also uses fonts that you have installed in the fonts folder in the System Folder (OS9) if you installed the Classic for running non OSX apps. Classic apps will NOT recognize fonts stored in any of the OSX font locations.

To sort out all this silliness, here’s what I did. I used Find in Finder to locate various font folders. I’d then go to each of those folders and made a duplicate of each. Then I created a new folder called Font’s All.

Then I copied everything from all those duplicated fonts folders into Fonts All. You get asked if you want to replace a font that’s already there and I just click yes. That gives you one central location for all fonts. Since I still have to use a few OS9 apps, I replaced the fonts folder in System Folder (that’s Classic – not System in osx) with Fonts All and renamed that Fonts. By the way, I did not copy any of the Chinese or other oriental fonts that came on my machine since I cannot use them.

After I was sure I had everything I ditched all the present collections in Fontbook and started a new one using my new Fonts folder from the System folder. A number of people complain about Fontbook, but I have no real complaints. I used ATM under OS9 and earlier and Fontbook is quite similar.

To make matters more complicated, OSX creates font caches when you use a font. The idea is that only the cache can get corrupted, instead of the font itself – saving having to find and reinstall fonts. Adobe created its own caching system for OSX.

Unfortunately, Apple didn’t provide a way to clear these caches, even corrupted ones. The same applies to Adobe. Building up a lot of font caches can really slow down your machine – especially at boot. Following, see a little thing I keep on hand to post iwhen people have various OSX font problems.
10.3 does not rely on the original font but on a cache of the original to avoid corruption of the original. Under OSX Adobe apps have their own caching system. One solution is to trash the Adobe font caches.

In Finder go to Find. In the Search box type "AdobeFnt" without the quotes. You chould get a result with things like "AdobeFnt.lst" and/or Adobe07Fnt.lst.

Make sure that all your Adobe apps are NOT running. You can then trash everything with the .lst file name extension. DO NOT trash anything that does not have the .lst file name extension. A restart of the machine is recommended after clearing a font cache.

There are other font caches within the various OSX folders. It's a good idea to clear these once in a while. It helps speed up performance and avoid corrupted caches. I once found 15,000 different caches on my machine. It's easiest to just download the shareware program Font Finagler to do this rather than searching all through your machine. You can find it via

http://www.versiontracker.com.

Font Finagler does not clear the special Adobe caches.

 

[annadesigner]

i'm going to run through all that you've said,
cheers for all your suggestions jm, fingers crossed it might sort it out.

I'll keep you posted.
once again - seriously appreciate your time on this... I panicked a bit last night, when I realised after a rather slow reaction time from you, that it was infact sunday daytime in the US and so you weren't at work... ahh!

Guess some of us manage to organise ourselves better and don't work the weekends too!

cheers,
anna

 

[annadesigner]

well, you'll be able to have a good laugh at this one....
so I followed exactly as you did - copied all the fonts into one folder, then placed that in Classic System Folder, and then - like an idiot, thought "hmmm, when jm said 'Ditchall the present collections' I suppose he meant all existing stray fonts.... so I deleted them all from the various libraries and OSX's System... not very clever, because obviously then the computer isn't going to have any fonts to use when it starts up in OSX. doh.

So, it COMPLETELY refused to start up, not even from the cd, until I swapped the wireless keyboard for an old usb one I've got, and I am now reinstalling the system for the 3rd time today.

So, I guess you just meant- you ditched the font COLLECTIONS from within Fontbook - not any of the existing located fonts in other folders - right?

You haven't found it to be a problem having various other versions of fonts in dif folders - you just always base yourself on your renamed Fonts All folder Fonts in Classic System folder right?

Can you tell me - do you have a special extension in your illustrator Plug-ins that makes it understand Fontbook - I know there is one in there for ATM - and just figured that maybe that is what's missing for it to be able to communicate with fontbook?

x

 

[jmgalvin]

Yeah I meant turn off collections.

Fontbook works at the system level, not app level. Activationg and deactivating fonts makes them available/unavailable to all apps - depending on the fonts loacation.

Never had ILL10. Went from 9 to CS (11) as part of creative suite. I don't have any font problems with it. Creative suite does install fotns in an Adobe fonts folder. Again, I've found it easiest to stash everything in Fonts is System folder

For a very good explanation of fonts in OSX go here

http://www.jsmccarthy.com/tech_tips/JSM_TechNotes_Dec04.pdf

I suggest taht you print this out and retain it. I did.

 

[annadesigner]

thanks jm
will do.
x

 

[annadesigner]

jm,

can I ask you how many fonts you have in your font library in your system folder? I am running through the tech notes from JSM to try and sort out the problems I'm still having and he writes "Font Book handles font management for casual users with smaller font libraries"... do you not use that many fonts? I have hundreds and hundreds... just wondering if thats why it cannot handle them being in the 'System Folder'.

I now have this problem that none of the Mac OSX apps will launch, they all crash on opening (Safari, Mail, any installers, Bluetooth etc).

I can still use Illustrator, (and have changed over to CS now) but now I'm paranoid that if I start removing fonts from the 'System Folder' location that it's going to mess up the CS software now. Arghhhh.
any ideas? sorry to keep bugging you on this stuff.
anna