I'm moving fonts from my old OS9 computer to my new OS X Tiger computer. For some reason, whenever I try to use the Font Book to add new fonts, the PostScript Type 1 Outline Fonts are grayed out. This is driving me crazy. I know it's something simple, but I can't figure it out. Why won't OSX let me add PostScript fonts to my system?
I don't believe Font Book reads Postscript fonts. You would need a more professional font app like Suitcase. Font Book is great but not much for postscript support.
Font Book can read PostScript fonts. But from the sounds of it, you don't have the whole font. Type 1 PostScript fonts are a set. One file is a suitcase containing all of the low res bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts. As an example, here's Adobe Garamond.
The first file which I highlighted in green is the font suitcase of bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts.
1) The files for a PostScript font
must have both the screen and printer fonts for a given set in order to work. They also must be in the same folder.
2) The suitcase of bitmap fonts will work alone, but output will be terrible since the system will print the fonts using the 72 dpi screen fonts in the suitcase if the outline portions are missing.
3) Having only the outline fonts will not work. You will get exactly what you are having problems with. You can see the fonts, but Font Book won't load them. That's not a problem with Font Book itself. No font manager will load outline fonts without the matching suitcase of screen fonts present.
To add to Kurt's advice, make sure the fonts that you want to copy over from the OS 9 Mac aren't in use by the OS 9 Mac when you attempt to copy them from your OS X Mac. By "in use", I mean that on the OS 9 Mac, they're physically installed in the /System Folder/Fonts/ folder, or reside elsewhere and are activated using a font management application. Because of the way OS 9 works, the active font suitcases are "locked down" by OS 9, and OS 9 won't let someone from an OS X Mac copy the files over. Only the PostScript Type 1 outline fonts will end up being copied over. In OS X 10.3.x, the OS X Finder would not inform you at all that copying the files failed. In OS X 10.4.x, the Finder will at least let you know that it failed to copy over some files (the active font suitcases).
Easiest way to assure you transfer the files properly is to go to the OS 9 Mac, create a second copy of all the fonts you'd like to make available to the other Macs, at some other location on the OS 9 Mac where they won't be activated. Then, when you connect to the OS 9 Mac from your OS X Mac, copy the fonts over from this deactivated copy rather than the originals.
I would recommend my Font Book Helper application, but unfortunately it doesn't work properly yet in OS X 10.4 -- I hope to release an updated version of Font Finagler with a Font Icon Helper feature that is OS X 10.4 compatible.
Anyway, hope this helps....
Dual 2.7 GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3)
