kmosx3: Fonts & Apple Type Services, part 1

Files related to Apple Type Services and fonts

Mac OS X fonts are installed in three locations:
/System/Library/Fonts (for System, user should not alter this folder)
/Library/Fonts (fonts shared between all users)
~/Library/Fonts (users personal fonts)

See list of default fonts from FAQ "Mac OS X fonts and fonts not to remove" Chapter 10.

Font Book preferences location:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Fontbook.plist

Apple Type Service preference file:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ATS.plist

Note: this file maintains also list of disabled fonts. So if you have installed thousand fonts, disabled 950 of them and then delete this file you might have all your fonts active! That will cause slow reboot and applications respond slowly. You need to disable fonts again.

Font caches are used to speed up fonts. If font cache is corrupted or isn't up to date, cache may cause problems.

Font caches can be removed from:
/Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS

Note: this folder may contain several subfolders, named after each users numeric value. First user created during Mac OS X install is 501. If you are using Fast User Switching, make sure before removing caches there's no other users logged in. After removing caches it's useful to reboot immediately.

Font Book collections location and default collection names:
~/Library/Font Collections

Chinese.collection
Classic.collection
Fixed Width.collection
Fun.collection
Japanese.collection
Korean.collection
Modern.collection
PDF.collection
Web.collection
com.apple.Recents.collection

com.apple.Recents.collection is a special collection autogenerated as one uses fonts in apps, this collection is not shown in Font Book.

Deleting font collections should no affect anything else but predefined collections are not shown in FontBook. Fortunately it is only an cosmetic issue.

Complete reset of fonts and ATS is achieved by deleting user installed fonts, all preference files and caches listed above.

Juha


Fonts and Apple Type Services, part 2

Mac OS X fonts and fonts not to remove

Installer package /BaseSystem.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom installs these fonts:

/System/Library/Fonts/Apple LiGothic Medium.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/AppleGothic.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/AquaKanaBold.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/AquaKanaRegular.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/Courier.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Geneva.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Helvetica.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Keyboard.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/LastResort.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/LucidaGrande.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Monaco.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Symbol.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Times.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/ZapfDingbats.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????����?�??? Pro W3.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????����?�??? Pro W6.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/����?���Ȫ?.ttf

Installer package on the OS X installation CD:s /Essentials.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom installs these fonts:

/Library/Fonts/AmericanTypewriter.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Apple Chancery.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Apple Symbols.ttf
/Library/Fonts/Baskerville.dfont
/Library/Fonts/BigCaslon.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Chalkboard.ttf
/Library/Fonts/Cochin.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Copperplate.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Didot.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Futura.dfont
/Library/Fonts/GillSans.dfont
/Library/Fonts/HelveticaNeue.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Herculanum.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Hoefler Text.dfont
/Library/Fonts/MarkerFelt.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Optima.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Papyrus.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Skia.dfont
/Library/Fonts/Zapfino.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Geeza Pro Bold.ttf
/System/Library/Fonts/Geeza Pro.ttf
/System/Library/Fonts/Hei.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/Osaka.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/OsakaMono.dfont
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????��?????? Pro W4.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????���?�? Pro W3.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????���?�? Pro W6.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/??ɩ????����?�??? Std W8.otf
/System/Library/Fonts/����?Ȫ???.ttf

Installer package on the OS X installation CD:s /MicrosoftIE.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom
/InternetExplorer522.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom installs these fonts:

/Library/Fonts/Arial
/Library/Fonts/Arial Black
/Library/Fonts/Arial Narrow
/Library/Fonts/Arial Rounded Bold
/Library/Fonts/Brush Script
/Library/Fonts/Comic Sans MS
/Library/Fonts/Courier New
/Library/Fonts/Georgia
/Library/Fonts/Times New Roman
/Library/Fonts/Trebuchet MS
/Library/Fonts/Verdana
/Library/Fonts/Webdings

Fonts that should not be deleted from the system are at least: Geneva, Keyboard, LastResort, LucidaGrande, Monaco and possibly some others.

Fonts many applications use as default font are: Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Monaco and maybe some others

Fonts Classic mode needs at least, fonts must exist in Classics System Folder are: Charcoal, Chicago, Geneva and Monaco

Juha
Weird application crashes and font problems

One of the most common problems with Mac OS X Panther is fonts causing application crashes or font issue prevents application start totally. If repairing permissions, checking disks and re-installing application can't help, problem may be font related. Usually problem origins from conflicting, corrupt or missing font. There's also font cache related problems.

For example Apple supplied applications like Safari, Address Book, Mail etc. rely on certain fonts, like Helvetica and Helvetica Neue Datafork fonts supplied with OS. It's very easy to render problems for those applications just by installing Postscript Type 1 Helvetica or Helvetica Neue. On the other hand removing certain fonts can cause similar problems. If you are experiencing these kind of problems, verify with the FAQ document "Mac OS X fonts and fonts not to remove" you haven't installed a conflicting font or removed some fonts used by applications.

If this is not the case and you still suspect a font problem, it might be a corrupted font. If it's a 3rd party font not supplied with Mac OS X, just remove those fonts and reinstall them from original disks. If it's a default OS X font corrupted or missing, you might use utility like Pacifist and install font from the original Mac OS X installation CD:s.

Font caches might also cause various problems with applications. You might consider cleaning those caches manually or using one of the cache cleaning utilities available. Some examples of utilities are:
Panther Cache Cleaner
Cache Out
DeepSix.

It's very important that you close all other applications before cleaning caches. Also reboot your computer immediately after cleaning caches. Manual remove is a simple file deletion from /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS

Note: this folder may contain several subfolders, named after each users numeric value. First user created during Mac OS X install is 501., move cache files to Trash and reboot. After reboot, empty trash.

Problems with Adobe applications may be related to AdobeFnt*.lst files. Those are Adobe applications generated font lists containing information about installed fonts in a folder. If file is removed, it's re-created next time an Adobe application is started. Broken AdobeFnt*.lst file can crash Adobe applications and in rare cases problems to whole OS. Font caches utility DeepSix can remove them. There might other utilities too. Alternatively you can do that job using Terminal and following command:

sudo find /Library -name "AdobeFnt*.lst" -exec rm -fi {} \;

Type in you admin password when asked. You'll be prompted about each file. If you do want to delete file, press "y" and if you want to keep file, press "n".

Fonts shown poorly or weird fonts in applications

These are common with Apple "iApps" and, Safari, Address Book. Well known problem is Helvetica Fractions fonts causing Safari to show some sites corrupted. Remove Helvetica Fractions if you have it installed, reset Safari caches, that should do. If doesn't help, check other possible font conflicts and/or clean also font caches.

There's also couple problems around that may look like a font problem but actually they are not. In System Preferences Universal Access is possible to Enhance display contrast. That will also render fonts more jaggy on the screen, so it might look like it's a font problem. Another is font smoothing, which seems to be problematic with some LCD displays. Font smoothing is set in Appearance System Preference.

Juha