Still Font Problems In Snow Leopard

Question

Level 1

99 points

Still Font Problems In Snow Leopard

The issues found in the following thread were addressed and the thread was marked as 'solved' but some of the issues discussed in it were not resolved: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2154431

I am still seeing a ton of Bitstream Typeshop 3 Type 1 fonts as 'missing' in applications when using Snow Leopard.

These fonts are needed to open roughly 10,000 documents that were created in QuarkXPress 3.32 through 8.12 from 1998 through the present day. Buying new fonts in not an option, because we draw from these files even to this day, regularly, and they must remain fully intact without needing a bunch of time to reflow/reset fonts. Reflowing fonts would cost us roughly 300+ man-hours of work per year for the next 5 or more years — not an option unless we plan on going out of business in this economy.

Font book recognizes the fonts, and I can turn them on and off, but no applications can use them or even recognize them as being installed.

Reverting back to Leopard fixes the problem 100%, so it is a Snow Leopard problem.

24" iMac 2.8 C2E / 1TB / 4GB, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 4, 2009 11:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Dec 4, 2009 12:03 PM in response to G J Piper

Reverting back to Leopard fixes the problem 100%

So you're good to go then - it is not uncommon to be forced to freeze at a particular system level in order to maintain a complex workflow versus reworking various content, etc. I can appreciate the investment being a burden so it would seem the best approach in your case is to remain at Leopard until or unless the situation, budget or demand for that particular content changes, of course.

Good luck in any case and do what you can to avoid a similar hurdle in the future.

Reply

Answer 2

G J Piper Author

Level 1

99 points

Dec 4, 2009 12:24 PM in response to K T

K T wrote:

Reverting back to Leopard fixes the problem 100%

So you're good to go then

Let me rephrase that... Reverting back to Leopard fixes the problem 100%, for now. At some point we will need to get new machines, or we will have to use new software that won't run on regular Leopard. We will NEED Snow Leopard to have fixed this by then. We'll be fine for a few years, but what then?

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 4, 2009 12:29 PM in response to G J Piper

Hi G J Piper;

It sounds like you have some time to develop a plan. Personal I would figure out an alternative in which Apple doesn't fix this problem for you. It is quite likely that is what will happen and what you need to do. So it is better to be prepared for it in case it happens.

Allan

Reply

Answer 4

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,152 points

Dec 4, 2009 1:19 PM in response to G J Piper

Font book recognizes the fonts, and I can turn them on and off...

That's usually a sign that Font Book's database is damaged. Start up in Safe Mode by restarting and holding down the Shift key. Once the Mac comes back to the desktop, restart again normally.

What this does, among other things, is trash all cache files in the user account you log into during the Safe Mode startup and Font Book's database. With a fresh database, all fonts should now work properly. Note that you will lose all font collections you have created and all installed fonts will be active, regardless of their state beforehand.

Reply