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Delete or hide Noto and other unnecessary fonts. Big Sur

How to gain control over fonts in Big Sur?


Looks like we need to petition Apple.


Big Sur has made this important task really hard.

http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html details how locked up this is.


I use some really elegant font management software to slice and dice my way through a massive font collection but Noto font and other totally useless fonts clog up the menus. Been able to control this for 20+ years but now, gads.



So my fellow readers. From everything I have read so far there are only limited answers for us here on this forum.


We need to send feedback to Apple.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html


Below is my support request. Please feel free to copy, paste, edit send.


=================START==============


Useless fonts, in the way, clogging the design process. Please allow us, the designers, the creatives, the mavericks the dreamers to choose what fonts we want to work with.


My creative programs are stuffed full of fonts that get in the way of me selecting and using the type sets I have carefully curated and need to work with. And these fonts aren't system critical.


Noto is the biggest culprit. Too many to count, it takes four scrolls of the mouse wheel just to get past this annoying list from just the ONE font.


Please. Thanks.

Posted on Jul 8, 2021 11:27 PM

Reply
11 replies

Jul 9, 2021 9:25 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks. Doing that too.


Have read quite a few responses by programers saying how easy it is to implement but I can't help the feeling that each one will do it slightly differently and they might not be provide the utility proper font management provides. So then we will end up with multiple overlapping methods – ugly, more complicated.


But really, it shouldn't be necessary to do it program by program. This is a system level setting design professionals need.


Back to basics.

Dear Apple, let me turn Noto off!

Jul 9, 2021 12:36 AM in response to Rob Lux

The system is mounted read only so you can’t just delete fonts that are included. I can understand how a humongous list of fonts can be a nuisance, but I don’t think that deleting stuff is the solution.

I am not a designer but I gather that you can in most applications create “font collections” so you can easily select the ones you want. You don’t need to delete anything for that. I believe Adobe applications support this, and so do most Apple applications.

Jul 9, 2021 8:47 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi Luis.

Ta, but na.


I am in the design business. Controlling fonts and their conflicts has been and continues to be not only important to the design process but can also be professional duty of care. It is something we are very practised at and have been doing for decades. Having exactly the right cut of a font is something most do not care about but is fundamental to specific parts of our industry.


I have 20,000 typefaces. Synchronised across the network that don't live in the system folder.

Beautifully managed using the sensational program "Typeface".


Fontbook to Typeface is a bi-plane to jet fighter comparison.


"The system is mounted read only so you can’t just delete fonts that are included" is exactly the point. The excess fonts should not be in there. Are we meant to believe that apple OS Big Sur is going to use a hundred variations of Noto? Come on Apple. Really? Get em out of there so we can optimise our tool around the design elements we need.


I get it that you might be able to make sets in Fontbook to manage the display a bit better, but it's a substandard, laborious option compared to genuine font management.


And to your point about not deleting fonts from the system. Been doing that for years.

Jul 9, 2021 10:15 PM in response to Barney-15E

You seem to agree that the OS doesn't need a hundred variations of Noto. Just loaded by apps when it's called. Great I don't want it called. So Apple? Let's be allowed to turn them off or remove them.


Regarding it being up to individual programs. What's easier?

Ask very developer to upgrade their programs or Apple allows us to delete fonts we don't need like we have been able to do for 20 years?



"The OS doesn’t load them unless needed. That’s what your apps should be doing."

My apps ARE doing this, its just that I do it in one place and its called "Typeface" a dedicated font manager.

Small installed set of system fonts, plus small select sets of fonts browsed and controlled from a massive archive (2 gig 24,282 items) residing outside the System folder.




Font management is a system wide control we have been using to deal with complex font issues since the days of Pagemaker. And now this stupid long list of Noto fonts that takes four scrolls of the mouse wheel to get past. (That's just one font family by the way, there are others) I need them controllable.

Jul 10, 2021 2:26 AM in response to Rob Lux

Regarding it being up to individual programs. What's easier?
Ask very developer to upgrade their programs or Apple allows us to delete fonts we don't need like we have been able to do for 20 years?

Why maintain a stupid paradigm just because that’s the way we’ve always done it

Every app should manage fonts for their specific usage. Every app has differing font requirements, so they should be the ones deciding how they are presented. It’s a few lines of code necessary to allow selection from the groups in Font Book.

The apps are already asking for all the fonts on disk, They can easily change that to ask for specific groups of fonts instead.

Jul 10, 2021 8:23 PM in response to Rob Lux

Second Solution


Typeface font manager.


Typeface doesn’t show them, because macOS, understandably, doesn’t provide them. You can deactivate them in Typeface, but you’ll have to import them manually:


1. Open Typeface

2. Choose File > Import…

3. Navigate to /System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental

4. Import the ’Supplemental’ folder


Deactivate away.



That folder contains optional system fonts, which can be deactivated by Typeface. It includes the ‘document support’ Noto fonts.

Delete or hide Noto and other unnecessary fonts. Big Sur

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