Missing Helvetica fonts in Pages, Numbers and Keynote

bristlybadger wrote:
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...

Not at all...
I need to use Helvetica Neue PostScript for lots of graphic work, so the HelveticaNeue.dfont always got into my way and I turned it off long ago. Most apps which rely on it can deal with it, they either use the PostScript version or Helvetica.dfont or LucidaGrande.

For those apps/documents which don't, there's usually the option to change it the "hard way":
For example regarding Dashboard Widgets: you can open the widget package and modify the *.css file with TextEdit. Search e.g. for "Helevetica Neue" and replace it with "Helvetica". That's it. Just leave a copy of the unmodified *.css file inside the package, rename it e.g. to "Weather~.css".

In case of iWork documents the problem is that the offending font names are stored in the templates and replacing a font in the Warnings dialog doesn't replace the font in unused instances of a document. Those are e.g. preformatted tables which you can insert into a document but you didn't yet.

The best approach to fix it for good is actually the same as above, it's just slightly more complicated:
1. Close the document and open its package (if you don't know how to open a package you shouldn't be messing with these types of things anyway...)
2. Double-click index.xml.gz to decompress it.
3. Open index.xml in your favorite text editor (TextEdit is OK, TextWrangler is better, a dedicated XML editor would be the best since you'll have a better view at the document structure and you might learn something about it for future use)
4. Search for e.g. "HelveticaNeue" and replace all occurrences with "Helvetica" (usually Helvetica.dfont should do almost anything that HelveticaNeue.dfont does and you won't even notice...)
5. Save the file.
6. Now comes the most difficult part: we need to compress index.xml back to the *.gz format. The best way is to use the Terminal.app.
7. In the Terminal window type "gzip " (without the quotes!) and drag&drop the saved index.xml file into the window to get its path. Press Return.
8. Terminal will ask you: "/Users/your name/your_folder/yourfile.numbers/index.xml.gz already exists; do you wish to overwrite (y or n)? "
9. Press "y" and Return.
10. Close the package window and open the modified document.
11. No more HelveticaNeue warning for this very document.
12. You can apply it for your custom templates, too.
13. In theory, this method should also work for templates in /Applications/iWork '08/Numbers.app/Contents/Resources/Templates/, but it doesn't. I have yet to find out why.

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

This is not necessarily a "bug". I prefer to call it a "design flaw"... 😉
Still, it's already better than in the previous iWork version where you were only informed about missing fonts without a chance to actually +do something+ about it.

Lukas wrote:
13. In theory, this method should also work for templates in /Applications/iWork '08/Numbers.app/Contents/Resources/Templates/, but it doesn't. I have yet to find out why.

OK, I found out:
14. Besides of having to modify two index.xml files in each package (index-iso.xml and index-trad.xml), you also need to modify them inside the XYZZY_AppleMagic_XYZZY.nmbtemplate. As its name says, it does the magic...

I had to get my Font Caches repaired then all fonts "reappeared." I used "Font Finagler" to fix the caches. I had about 500 fonts installed but only 137 showed up in Font Book. Some of the fonts that appeared to be installed and were visible in Font Book were being reported as missing. I also had several fonts that Font Book reported as "serious damage."



Regards,

bristlybadger wrote:

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

Is there a way to report bugs to Apple? Other than posting on a discussion board?

Hello

Posting on the discussion board *doesn't report to Apple*.
Here we are not Apple employees but Mac users.

One way to report is: go to "Provide Numbers Feedback" in the "Numbers" menu and describe what you met, what you wish …

You may also register as a developer (for free) and then you will have access to Radar, a protocol allowing you to post bug reports.

<http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/>

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 29 octobre 2007 21:58:47)

KOENIG Yvan wrote:
One way to report is: go to "Provide Numbers Feedback" in the "Numbers" menu and describe what you met, what you wish …

You may also register as a developer (for free) and then you will have access to Radar, a protocol allowing you to post bug reports.

Thank you. I found the menu item. I was looking under the help menu by mistake. I see it now in other apps as well.

I am already registered as a developer. I will check out the link you posted.

I, too, have had the problem described in this forum. However, I think I've found a fix; but first a brief background.

The Helvetica font appeared in the "Computer" fonts folder but not in the "user" fonts folder. When tried to add the Helvetica font to the "user" fonts folder, I got a message to the effect that the System needed that font and that there would be a conflict. It was suggested that I move the font to trash. Well, obviously that was no solution.

I then right-clicked on the Helvetica font to see it in the Finder. That took me to the Helvetica-Narrow font. What?

So, I disabled the Helvetica-Narrow font, and now Helvetica appears in the Finder as it should--and I no longer get the substituting font message.

Leopard clean install and reinstalled iWork '08... surprised this bug appears.

I had all sorts of font issues (among other issues) after upgrading from Tiger to Leopard so I wiped the drive clean and re-installed. I'm surprised Apple overlooked this and I'm wondering if there is a better way to remedy.... seems like many posts here are pre-Leopard.

I have not installed any Helvetica fonts from my own library.

It seems from what I have read here and elsewhere is that Apple does not want Helvetica (of any kind) used as a user font. It is reserved for the System. Fine, but the Pages, Numbers, etc. still think that Helvetica is a legitimate font, so when they launch they tell you it is not there. A person could put Helvetical fonts in the user folder, but that is clearly not what Apple wants.

It seems to me, therefore, that the solution is to find a way to remove Helvetica fonts from the fonts that Pages, Numbers, etc. think are available so it does not look for them. Can someone figure out how to do that?

Disable or trash Helvetica Narrow, if you have it.

Actually, I don't have it, so that would not work. I think that the problem is not having it or not having it. The problem is that Pages (and the others) looks for it.

thanks Magnus, that's been bugging me for weeks, but disabling it solves the problem.

Do you by any chance have "N Helvetica Narrow"?

Some more attempts for solutions can be found at http://pagesfaq.blogspot.com/2007/11/helvetica-narrow-problems.html

I recommend the great and free Linotype FontExplorer X application.
Get it at Macupdate.com
It will help with font conflicts and has some good cache-cleaning utility built-in.

Scott

I see several possible solutions posted here, but not sure which to go with since I've experienced a similar issue with a slightly different Helvetica fonts and I recently did a clean install of Leopard plus all apps.

I get the following message when I launch a template or open any file in Numbers:

+The font “HelveticaNeue-Roman” was substituted for the missing font “HelveticaNeue.”+

I was experiencing the Helvetica Narrow issue also mentioned in this thread and I was able to resolve that issue. Only system Helvetica's are now installed (Helvetica & Helvetica Neue including Helvetica Neue Regular (HelveticaNeue.dfont)) and I don't see any duplicate issues.

Missing a font? Font conflict or damage? Was this supposed to install with Leopard or iWork?