All you need to know about font troubleshooting in OSX

Font-related support requests always seem to be present in support forums across the Web.

Below are the fonts that ship with OSX Leopard which are the minimum required by the system in order to function properly:

AppleGothic.ttf
Geneva.dfont
Helvetica.dfont
HelveticaNeue.dfont
HelveLTMM
Helvetica LT MM
Keyboard.dfont
LastResort.dfont
LucidaGrande.dfont
Monaco.dfont
Times LT MM
TimesLTMM

There are two rules that you must remember when dealing with fonts in OSX. First, never, ever, EEEEVVAAARRR disable, move, rename, spit-on or otherwise agitate AppleGothic.dfont or LucidaGrande.dfont. You're hosed if you do. Seriously!

Second, read up on fonts in OSX.

For more information about fonts in OSX and how not to shoot yourself when dealing with them, you can take a look at this fantastic (and lengthy) article by Kurt Lang; Font Management in OSX.

It appears that Kurt keeps this informative article updated with each new OS release, so you should probably bookmark it. It's by far the most in-depth, informative and balanced font article I've ever seen. If you find it useful, throw the guy a bone... his Paypal address is at the very bottom of the article.

I am getting an odd error

Wed, 06/25/2008 - 09:52 — Visitor (not verified)

I am getting an odd error screen about index files when I try the link. I am trying to email Kurt Lang to get it fixed.

TypeReunion for MacOS X?

Wed, 06/25/2008 - 12:28 — Francisco Hirsch (not verified)

Is there a program like Adobe TypeReunion, that can group font families in menus?

That's automatic

Thu, 06/26/2008 - 04:16 — James

OSX automatically groups font families together in every app I know of. But to answer your question; the only app I know of is YouControl: Fonts.

http://www.yousoftware.com/fonts/

I get the same error

Thu, 06/26/2008 - 04:58 — m1ck (not verified)

I get the same error message, even when i backtrack the url to supposedly the main page.

Extensis Font Management in Mac OS X Best Practices Guide

Thu, 06/26/2008 - 09:00 — jkidwell

I would also like to recommend that you check out our Font Management in Mac OS X Best Practices Guide. We keep this up to date for each release of the OS, and it contains all of the current information about issues related to Leopard (10.5).

http://www.extensis.com/fmbpg

Jim Kidwell
Extensis

Same Error

Thu, 06/26/2008 - 09:54 — theotherdwayne

I would love to read the article if the link can be corrected.