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.

Error linking to my font article

Wed, 10/01/2008 - 19:40 — Kurt Lang (not verified)

As far as I've been able to figure out, the problem seems to occur only when someone is trying to access the page from where they work. Most likely, your company's firewall settings are blocking access to the site. Try again from home and you should be able to get through.

Sorry...

Mon, 10/06/2008 - 06:07 — James

Sorry to anyone having difficulty accessing the linked article. I've checked it again, and it IS working. As Kurt pointed out, it may be a firewall issue.

Issue resolved! I've

Tue, 07/21/2009 - 19:49 — Kurt Lang (not verified)

Issue resolved! I've switched hosting services and had a few people who could not access the font article (or any part of my web site) try again. With the new hosting service, all seems to be working as it should. Thanks to all for your patience in this matter.

It is possible to fix the

Sat, 09/26/2009 - 21:26 — Visitor (not verified)

It is possible to fix the missing LucidaGrande.dfont file by going to the FONT folder copy a close font type with the .dfont and change the name and re-paste it. Following there will be a window pop up saying there will be a conflicting issue, but just ignore it and agree to it. Tada no Hosing!