Dictionary Widget Font?

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Level 1

16 points

Dictionary Widget Font?

Does anyone know what fonts are used by Apple's dictionary widget?

I am a graphic designer who has a library of thousands of fonts. I don't leave them all enabled (with FontBook), of course -- I selectively turn them on/off as needed.

I recently bought a new Mac Pro and installed my font library, disabling (with FontBook) everything I thought safe. However, when I use the dictionary widget, it's clear that something is disabled that shouldn't be. The dictionary text is not displayed correctly -- I see an interesting mix of letters/symbols.

I've read elsewhere that the dictionary widget uses Baskerville, and I do have that enabled. I've also disabled Helvetica Fractions and Times Phonetic, both of which I know from past experience can cause problems.

But... something's still not right because the dictionary text is still not readable.

Anyone know for sure which fonts are needed by the widget?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Jun 24, 2008 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 24, 2008 12:45 PM in response to Bleyderrific

Dictionary uses Baskerville Regular, Italic and SemiBold for the text; Helvetica Neue Light for some references and Hiragino Mincho Pro W3 for the phonetics (the strange thing is that I can't find this font).

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Answer 2

Bleyderrific Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 24, 2008 3:44 PM in response to Joaquim Lopes

Joaquim, thanks so much. Problem solved. I had the Baskerville and Helvetica Neue families activated, but not Hiragino Mincho Pro W3 (although I did have Hiragino Mincho ProN activated). Again, appreciate your help.

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Answer 3

Jun 24, 2008 3:47 PM in response to Bleyderrific

Glad I could help.

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Answer 4

orangekay

Level 5

4,085 points

Jun 24, 2008 3:48 PM in response to Bleyderrific

Linotype's FontExplorer will auto-activate things like this for you and is generally much more useful than Font Book.

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Answer 5

Bleyderrific Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 24, 2008 5:51 PM in response to orangekay

Thanks Orangekay for your suggestion, but I don't want anything to ever be automatically activated (in fact I work very hard to prevent this). I am a graphic designer who works with a library of thousands of fonts, and it's important that I only open what I need to use for a particular client job. Otherwise, because I open numerous apps and client-provided files all day long, I'd end up with a massively bloated font menu, including tons of what are to me completely useless TrueType fonts.

But the newest version of FontBook also auto-activates fonts for those who like this feature.

I agree that FontBook isn't the wizziest tool out there, but it does serve my purpose just fine.

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Answer 6

rgroves2

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2008 6:21 AM in response to Joaquim Lopes

"...and Hiragino Mincho Pro W3 for the phonetics (the strange thing is that I can't find this font)."

It is an Asian font under System/Library/Font/ヒラギノ明朝 ProN W3.otf

I use Suitcase Fusion for my fonts and realized my recent management of system fonts affected my widget. However, I am still having trouble with it despite activating the fonts that were mentioned in this thread. Maybe I have to reboot my computer? Any thoughts?

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