Helvetica Font Issue

How do I get my PostScript (Type 1) Helvetica font to work with system 10.6.1 -- without a font management utility? Previously I could simply place it in the System Font folder (along with all the other Helveticas) and it worked fine. Now when I do this I get a conflict error. If I allow the conflict, all the fonts appear to be there except, of course, Helvetica regular which now only shows up in TrueType version. Since Helvetica is a system restorable font, I can't simply replace it with a PostScript version as in previous systems.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.1), 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2

Posted on Dec 31, 2009 1:58 PM

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8 replies

Jan 1, 2010 12:02 PM in response to Gar Peters

The article definitely addresses the issue I am having and seems to be on the right track. However, I couldn't fully implement the procedures because some of the instructions hadn't caught up with Snow Leopard. One thing is for sure, the system Helvetica is the culprit (thanks Apple-it's only one of the most used fonts on the planet) and they seem to have provided no means to replace or override it. After finally disabling it I couldn't get any fonts to read except system fonts. Upon re-enabling it they work fine again, but I'm right back where I started. Is there any way to successfully to replace (or override) the system Helvetica with a PostScript T1 version?

Jan 3, 2010 8:17 AM in response to TildeBee

Yes and no. The "Font Management in OS X" article does address Snow Leopard. However, I am unable to reset Font Book's database (as described in section 6) because the referred article "Undoing Font Book" does not address Snow Leopard. And as such, I cannot locate the database to delete it. It is not in the old location as in OS 10.5 and a search produced nothing. I don't know how critical this step is in the procedure, but the article seemed to imply it was pretty important, and simply disabling the system Helvetica did not work in my case.

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Helvetica Font Issue

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