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Missing Helvetica fonts in Pages, Numbers and Keynote

This posting is aimed at those who find Pages, Numbers and Keynote reporting that a missing Helvetica or HelveticaNeue font has been replaced with a substitute. This can happen whenever you open a template or existing document and gets very frustrating.

The problem stems from iWork '08's apparent inability to find the right Helvetica font when other versions of Helvetica or Helvetica Neue have been added to Fontbook, an application which you'll find in the Applications folder.

The problem is solved by inserting the OSX install disc into the computer. Open the disc by double clicking its icon and in the window scroll down to a folder called System. Double click to open and double click Library. Select and open a folder in there called Fonts.

From your Applications folder, open Fontbook and delete any Helvetica and Helvetica Neue fonts. To do this, find and select the fonts under the User collection and then select File > Remove fonts.

This puts the confusing fonts in the trash.

Now, from the Fonts folder on the CD, drag any fonts called Helvetica into the All Fonts part of Fontbook (in fact, you can just drag all of them over - it shouldn't be a problem).

Once these have copied over, you should now find that Pages etc open without a problem.

A possible downside to this is that it may affect design software that uses a wider range of Helvetica fonts than those found on the OSX install disc. If such a situation arises, it seems that the only choice at present is to stop using iWork and revert to Office...

Hopefully, Apple will come up with a fix for this bug...

Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 5 GB Ram

Posted on Oct 9, 2007 3:58 AM

50 replies

Jerry D

Level 1

64 points

Dec 20, 2007 2:01 PM in response to bristlybadger

I have a variation - in that every Numbers Doc that I open now says "Helvetica Narrow is Missing" and it is missing. It doesn't exist anywhere on my system. I'm not sure when this started, it just popped up one day on both of my systems. I have tried the "Replace font with..." routine about 100 times to no avail. In one case I replaced every cell on the spreadsheet with a non-helvetica font and it still gives the same error. I think the new Apple Phone Company has lost site of releasing Quality Mac Software. This among many other design issues continue to be disgusting at best. I don't expect new releases to be error free, but Leopard seems to be hitting in areas that are particularly "User Annoying".

Oddly, I can go over to the Bootcamp/Vista side and have yet to encounter any anomalies.

Dec 27, 2007 11:42 AM in response to Lukas

The best approach to fix it for good is actually the same as above, it's just slightly more complicated: <snipped>

I just figured out this all by myself, and came here all excited to share my discovery, only to find you beat me to it by a couple months. Don't know how I missed it, but this is the fix that worked for me.

I might suggest renaming index.xml.gz rather than overwriting it, just in case something goes amiss, but it seems pretty safe either way.

Message was edited by: Robert Saecker

Jan 4, 2008 6:17 AM in response to Jerry D

I suffered the same thing. I read all the various suggestions. Nothing worked! BTW, my Dual G5 had been a 10.0 upgraded with every OS X there has been.

In the end I discovered many of my fonts were deemed damaged by Apple's Font Application (the yellow flag not the red one in my case).

I think iLife and iWorks have since Leopard or perhaps since the 08 versions become far more picky about damaged Fonts where as other applications are still working with them.

It was as many have mentioned impossible to remove System Fonts as 10.5 simply replaces them. I worked around this by simply booting off of a back up drive, then deleting every **** font on my internal hard drive, both Library and user Libraries. Then in my case I dragging the fonts from a new MacBook I had mounted using Apple Remote Desktop to the correct places. I had first checked and on this MacBook Font Manager reported all fonts were perfect (green flag).

Then I ran Repair permissions on my internal drive while still booted externally (obviously all newly copied font folders needed fixing and I would not want to try booting before running repair permissions having messed with System Folders). After a reboot all my iWorks and iLife application are happily working with no missing Font error messages.

If you do not have access to a second working Mac as I did then install Leopard on a fresh external and scavenge fonts from there. Note their locations in both main Library and user Library.

Hope this helps.

Jan 4, 2008 6:19 AM in response to Digitalclips

Note my last post incorrectly showed Tiger, I was indeed using Leopard 10.5.1 for my Font issues.

FoxyOrb

Level 1

4 points

Jan 17, 2008 1:31 AM in response to bristlybadger

Here is what i have noticed for what it's worth. In numbers '08, keep an eye on the font name in the first popup menu at the left in the Format Bar. It will on occasions become blank even if a cell is selected. That's when you should save/quit/and reenter Numbers.
I have not experienced the missing font problem since I have been checking this. Could this be a memory allocation problem. It does occur after a lot of heavy cut/copy/paste actions and a long work session.

Old Toad

Level 10

207,643 points

Jan 27, 2008 5:44 PM in response to Digitalclips

You can use Pacifist to locate, extract and install the font you need on the system install disk that came with your Mac.

OT

WWJD

Level 6

15,830 points

Jan 27, 2008 6:31 PM in response to Digitalclips

What does Fontbook say regarding these fonts? I had some issues with duplicate fonts and had to leave some duplicates or I got the same error messages when duplicates were "resolved."

Regards,

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jan 28, 2008 8:35 AM in response to WWJD

Hello

Is one of you aware of which product installed Helvetica narrow ?

I searched on three machines and found no such font (even with an added N)

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 28 janvier 2008 17:35:40)

Jerry D

Level 1

64 points

Jan 28, 2008 9:52 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Here is what I observed:
I converted several Excel files using a previous iLife on my iMac and they worked fine.
Once I upgraded to iLife 08 the "Missing Helvetica-Narrow" started.
This occurred only on converted files, any New Numbers files work okay.

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,807 points

Jan 28, 2008 10:26 AM in response to Jerry D

Hello

May you send me a sample file ?

koenig PERIOD yvan AT tele2 PERIOD fr

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 28 janvier 2008 19:26:00)

Old Toad

Level 10

207,643 points

Jan 28, 2008 11:51 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I just checked and don't have the Helvetica Narrow font anywhere on my HD. It's not on the Tiger or Leopard install disks either. I've found no 3rd party application disk that includes it either.

Peggy

Level 8

41,607 points

Jan 28, 2008 12:15 PM in response to Old Toad

I vaguely remember having Helvetica Narrow at sometime, but it's not anywhere on my iMac now, not even in the old Classic System Folder on a second drive.

Jerry D

Level 1

64 points

Jan 28, 2008 12:22 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

I have already removed the reference to Helvetica-Narrow per the suggestion above wherein you open the Package Contents etc... So I have no longer failing files.

Jan 30, 2008 12:19 PM in response to A A P L

I too get this error in Numbers:

Substituted Font - The font “HelveticaNeue-UltraLight” was substituted for the missing font “HelveticaNeue.”<<</div>

This is the updated numbers as of yesterday. I used the FontExplorer font cache cleaner and restarted. No change. What is the current suggestion?

Jan 30, 2008 12:33 PM in response to Eddie Strauss

To add to my comment above, I have two Macs. I try to keep their contents pretty much identical. This missing Helvetica font error message (even though the font is listed as being there) only occurs on one of the Macs.

I replaced the Helvetica.dfont of the error computer with the font file from the non-error computer. No difference.

Missing Helvetica fonts in Pages, Numbers and Keynote