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Helvetica Wackiness

A

arsenalgear

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 17, 2007
100
1
Hi there,

I am having trouble installing the font Helvetica Narrow. I installed it once on two Leopard machines (10.5.4), but when I clicked on it in Font Book it didn't display a preview and I received a message that there was a problem with the font and that it has been deactivated. I would have written it off as a corrupted font, but it displays a correct preview in the Finder under Quick Look and it installed fine on my Tiger machine. In addition, it has no problems on a friend's machine. After OS X deactivated the font, I tried multiple times to reinstall it but was not successful.

Also, when I double click on Helvetica Condensed in the Finder, Font Book opens, but the window that lets you install the font doesn't display Helvetica Condensed in the pulldown menu, though it displays a preview in the Finder.

Any ideas on how I can install these fonts and be on my merry way?:confused:

Thanks!
 
Do you have any other Helvetica font sets installed?
There is an issue with the .dfont version of Helvetica clashing with type library versions in OS X 10.5 when using font management.
 
smurfjammer said:
Do you have any other Helvetica font sets installed?
There is an issue with the .dfont version of Helvetica clashing with type library versions in OS X 10.5 when using font management.
Click to expand...

I actually have the whole Helvetica family installed. Because of the Mac OS X issue I can't install the Postscript versions of Helvetica, Bold, Oblique, and Bold Oblique. However, this doesn't explain why there should be a problem with Helvetica Narrow.:confused:
 
Does your copy of Helvetica in Font Book not contain a Narrow style? The one I have does and Helvetica is protected by the OS so I know I didn't put it there myself.

In 10.5, Helvetica and even Helvetica Neue are considered protected system fonts by the OS and can't be modified or have any competing fonts installed to prevent the system fonts from being ignored. Adobe's current Folio fonts include files for Helvetica Std which can be placed alongside Mac's default Helvetica, but older PS fonts called Helvetica will get blocked by the OS.
 
flrazor said:
Does your copy of Helvetica in Font Book not contain a Narrow style? The one I have does and Helvetica is protected by the OS so I know I didn't put it there myself.

In 10.5, Helvetica and even Helvetica Neue are considered protected system fonts by the OS and can't be modified or have any competing fonts installed to prevent the system fonts from being ignored. Adobe's current Folio fonts include files for Helvetica Std which can be placed alongside Mac's default Helvetica, but older PS fonts called Helvetica will get blocked by the OS.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks for the response! My system copy of Helvetica does not have a narrow face. However, I did manage to get the PS version of Helvetica Narrow installed by deleting the font caches with Font Nuke, removing the PS Helvetica fonts, and then reinstalling them and disabling the ones that conflicted with the OS versions.:)
 
I am having the same problem with my Helvetica font on my system, as well. In fact, I am using Linotype FontExplorer and every time I start up my computer, I get that error message.

Apparently, even if you delete the system font, it will still come back. No way around it as it's pre-installed on Leopard I guess.
 
onegirlcreative said:
I am having the same problem with my Helvetica font on my system, as well. In fact, I am using Linotype FontExplorer and every time I start up my computer, I get that error message.

Apparently, even if you delete the system font, it will still come back. No way around it as it's pre-installed on Leopard I guess.
Click to expand...

The only way around that is to delete the file that tells your system which fonts are protected and instructs it to reinstall them when deleted. If you Google search you should find workarounds if you want to disable it. You run the risk that some programs will not function without these files or will not display correctly (I know Mail.app loves Helvetica and the Tiger version easily gets screwed up for display/printing if you have the wrong Helvetica installed).
 
flrazor said:
The only way around that is to delete the file that tells your system which fonts are protected and instructs it to reinstall them when deleted. If you Google search you should find workarounds if you want to disable it. You run the risk that some programs will not function without these files or will not display correctly (I know Mail.app loves Helvetica and the Tiger version easily gets screwed up for display/printing if you have the wrong Helvetica installed).
Click to expand...

Awesome! Good to know. Thanks, I'll research that.
 
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