Fresh start, lets get my fonts where they belong.....

[mikebatho]

Hi guys.

My OS X fell down, went bye bye last night, so I've just done a re-install.

In the past I've had my fonts scattered around all over the place, so now I'm starting afresh, I'd like to get them all where they belong.

I don't use too many word processing packages, mostly only need fonts occasionally for Photoshop & Illustrator.

Where do I put all my fonts to make them work with everything, and not fire up annoying messages of duplicates.

PS, I don't have anything other than FONTBOOK.........

 

[iGav]

PS, I don't have anything other than FONTBOOK.........

Well there's your problem for a start.

Personally I run Suitcase, and in my 'Home' folder, I have a folder called 'My Fonts' and in that contains 9133 fonts and it works just dandy.

 

[Blue Velvet]

The thing about FontBook is that it physically moves the fonts from one folder to the other to activate and deactivate them.

I don't use FontBook myself but what you may find helpful is to initially put all your fonts into a folder on your desktop or onto a CD or DVD. Then, set FontBook's preferences to 'Copy fonts when installing' so that it copies them where it wants upon installing -- much like letting iTunes manage your music. From there on in, your fonts should be all in the same place where FontBook can deal with them.

 

[mikebatho]

Does it have to be so complicated...?

Why can't all apps just use fonts from one folder?

 

[mikebatho]

OK, lets say I install suitcase. Do I drag fonts into there from a disk and Suitcase puts them in it's own folder, or do the fonts still have to be archived on my mac somewhere...?

And what happens if I drag fonts into suitcase and there are duplicates from fonts installed with OS X? Will it start asking me questions...?

I have a disk with a lot of crazy fonts I use for graphics work, so if I installed suitcase, I'd probably just have it deactivated til I'm doing graphic work, then switch the whole lot on. I wouldn't have need to be switching fonts on & off regularly....

 

[Blue Velvet]

Does it have to be so complicated...?

Why can't all apps just use fonts from one folder?

Because there are a number of font folders in OSX -- it's just the way it is.
Doing it the way I suggested is actually the easiest way with FontBook.

Keeping fonts in sets or 'collections' within FontBook is the easiest way to manipulate them.

If you have that many fonts you'll find your machine having problems with activating your entire font library at once.

Suitcase does not have its own folder where it stores fonts -- the fonts still need archiving. If there are duplicates, it will warn you and help you clean them all up.

 

[mikebatho]

OK, from the top. Whatever I use to manage my fonts, where do they need to be archived....?

 

[Blue Velvet]

OK, from the top. Whatever I use to manage my fonts, where do they need to be archived....?

Read my first post again. Strictly speaking, it doesn't matter where the fonts are kept within your Home folder so long as FontBook's prefs are set to 'Always copy font files when installing'

This way, your master copy of your font remains untouched in the original folder which you have created and the copy is the one manipulated by FontBook.

You are making this out to be far more difficult and time-consuming than it is.

 

[mikebatho]

Read my first post again. Strictly speaking, it doesn't matter where the fonts are kept within your Home folder so long as FontBook's prefs are set to 'Always copy font files when installing'

This way, your master copy of your font remains untouched in the original folder which you have created and the copy is the one manipulated by FontBook.

You are making this out to be far more difficult and time-consuming than it is.

Hey, no fair!!! That's ok to say when you're good with computers!!

I'm not, as you may have gathered. You say it doesn't matter where the fonts are kept withinn my home folder? Well that's all I was asking - do they have to be in my home folder, on the hard drive, system...?

I'm not trying to be difficult here....

 

[Blue Velvet]

I'm not trying to be difficult here....

I'm sorry -- just tired, sore and irritable.

I've given you more or less everything you need to know to sort this out and can't bear to repeat it all again.

 

[mikebatho]

No problem, you don't have to answer every problem if it's making you cranky. I'm glad of the help.

I've been told on another forum that the best place to keep my fonts on my mac is in home, library, fonts.

I'm gonna go with FONTBOOK, and I've changed the preference as instructed. I need to know now if I need to delete all the fonts in there & drag them back in for that setting to apply...?

Anyone...?

 

[iGav]

If you've got lots of fonts, DON'T use FontBook, it's beyond crap.

If you're not wanting to pony up the £$€ for Suitcase, try Linotype's FontExplorer X it's free and looks very, very good... and AGAIN it's free.

If you decide to use Suitcase in the end, do exactly what I do in my first reply... works perfectly and you won't lose your fonts in god knows what folders.

Again, DON'T use FontBook, it's beyond crap.

 

[mikebatho]

Well, here's the thing.

I was advised to put all my fonts in a folder in HOME - LIBRARY - FONTS

This might have seemed like the most obvious thing in the world, but I don't like computers much, so I was glad of the advice....

With all of my fonts in there, they all work in the applicatios I use, Illustrator, Photoshop etc (without fontbook or suitcase)....

So everything seems fine!!

Sometimes people on here need to realise that there are others that don't know so much!!

 

[Macky-Mac]

Well, here's the thing.

I was advised to put all my fonts in a folder in HOME - LIBRARY - FONTS

This might have seemed like the most obvious thing in the world, but I don't like computers much, so I was glad of the advice....

With all of my fonts in there, they all work in the applicatios I use, Illustrator, Photoshop etc (without fontbook or suitcase)....

So everything seems fine!!

Sometimes people on here need to realise that there are others that don't know so much!!

well, people have different needs and it may be that you don't really need any "font management" at all ......if simply putting all your fonts in the same place will take of your situation then your needs are basic enough that you can ignore fontbook.....that'll work for a lot of people

perhaps the people offering help and advice thought your needs were more complicated than they turn out to be.......you did mention Photoshop, Illustrator and brought up Fontbook yourself and that might have lead them to think you were looking for a more advanced solution than you really were.....oh well

 

[mikebatho]

Yeah, that is true. The thing I wanted to know most was where is the best place to keep my fonts on my mac, it just took a while to get my answer.

i know there are different places for different needs now, and apparently people take it for granted that I'd know to put them where I put them, but I really didn't....

Sometimes I need advice for idiots, and get feedback that is way beyond me!

Thanks guys.

 

[Lau]

If you're not wanting to pony up the £$€ for Suitcase, try Linotype's FontExplorer X it's free and looks very, very good... and AGAIN it's free.

I'm giving this a shot now, it looks very nice. A bit like iTunes, but for fonts. Still working it out, as is a little more complicated than FontBook, and my fonts are in one hellish mess, but looks like a goodun.

Cheers.

 

[aalberto]

I thought I might post my question in this thread, as I think it is related:

I'm supposed to get Suitcase for my Mac today. I learned from using a Mac running OS 9 that only two or three system fonts need to remain in the system's Fonts folder and move everything else and let Suitcase manage the fonts. Is this true also in OS X Tiger? If so, which fonts absolutely need to stay in the Fonts folder for the OS to work? I'll be managing over 1,500 PostScript Type 1 fonts using Suitcase under OS X Tiger. Thank you.

 

[aalberto]

Never mind - I resorted to looking up what I needed away from this site, and found out what fonts need to stay in the System Folder in order to use a font manager like Suitcase with those fonts.

As I understand, only "Keyboard", "Lucida Grande", and "LastResort" need to stay in /System/Library/Fonts (the system's fonts folder) - all other fonts from this folder, as well as /users/~/library/fonts (~ being your user name) and /library/fonts, should be moved to a different folder so that Suitcase (or another font manager) can manage them.