"No Installable Fonts Selected" error when clicking PingFangUI.ttc

dragontorc wrote:

PingFangUI fonts are OpenScript.

If you review the list of Fonts included with macOS Sequoia, you'll see that there actually is no "PingFangUI" font available. There are other "PingFang" fonts, but no "UI" version.

As I clearly demonstrated before, all available PingFang fonts work fine.

The PingFang TTC I had extracted from the mobile.font7 subfolder in the AssetsV2 directory is also broken because it contains duplicates. It differs from the original for the addition of the MO subset which was previously unavailable on previous versions of macOS.

However, before, I didn't notice that you were specifically referring to "PingFangUI". If you found that in some "mobile" "assets" directory, then it is most likely meant for support of mobile apps running on macOS or maybe even iPhone Mirroring.

Either way, this is not a font you can install and use. You can use the other PingFang fonts which are listed in Font Book. They don't name the directory "PrivateFrameworks" for no reason.

Up through Sonoma, PingFang used to be in the /System/Library/Fonts folder. It's no longer there, and as etresoft noted, it's now buried in a Private Frameworks directory.

On top of that, you can't use it. It won't open in any font manager, or in FontLab.

If you have access to any Mac running Sonoma, you could copy PingFang from that OS over to your user account in Sequoia. Or, this HK set is available for download. How legal those are is another question.

I can't imagine where you're finding those, because those optional fonts don't exist in Sonoma or Sequoia unless you previously downloaded them.

The only PingFang font that is part of a Sonoma install is /System/Library/Fonts/PingFang.ttc

The only PingFang font that is part of a Sequoia install is the broken version (as far as the user is concerned) at /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FontServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Reserved/PingFangUI.ttc

Apple is highly unlikely to fix those versions of the font as they were never meant to be found or used by the user. For quite a few major releases of macOS, Apple has put incomplete "stub" fonts on the drive. What their purpose is, I'm not sure.

But it's a moot issue since the full versions are there for the user to download via Font Book.

While I prefer etresoft's response, I'll add on anyway.

This is precisely the PingFang True Type collection containing the MO subset I wanted to install manually offline and NOT as a downloadable.

You can't use that font. Period. It isn't even a complete font. It's pointless to even try and use it. You can download the FULL versions of the MO fonts via Font Book. Surely, this cannot be difficult to understand.

Downloadables are deactivated automatically by Apple without user's consent.

I'm not sure which alien species told you that, but they are about a bazillion percent wrong. Every font you can choose to download is set up that way because a) the OS doesn't need them for language support, and b) most people (non Asian users) have no use for these. So it's a waste of drive space to install fonts you will likely never use. But they are there to download if you need them.

And no, Apple cannot, and does not somehow remotely control them. Once downloaded and on your Mac, you can disable or enable them anytime you like, just as you do any other fonts.

In short the Downloadables menu should display the «No downloadable fonts available» message once the fonts are permanently installed in the Fonts directory, allowing for manual activation/deactivation without the need to redownload them.

Where are you finding this nonsense? Once downloaded, they're on your Mac until you choose to remove them. They do not need to be downloaded each time you need to use them.

The one etresoft noted is unusable. But I wasn't in Sequoia at the time to see how it appeared in Font Book.

Yes, you can simply download the sets you need through FB by right clicking on the name.

dragontorc wrote:

I don't want to download the fonts on the fly, just install the offline package which is located in the Reserved sub-folder from the Private Frameworks directory.

What are you doing inside a Private Frameworks directory?

Most Apple Fonts are only for support of certain languages. They will be used automatically when you've actually selected some different font that doesn't have full language support.

dragontorc wrote:

creating presentations written in Chinese

That's the only important part. Ignore whatever rabbit hole you were trying to go down.

What happens when you try to create presentations written in Chinese?

The way it works is that you just need to enter your content in whatever language you want. If you want to change fonts, then you can change them to whatever you want. The operating system may change your selected font to the best match that is appropriate for whatever language you are using.

This will work best in Apple apps. Certain 3rd party developers ignore most of Apple's font libraries and try to do it all themselves, with disastrous results.

So just try it, preferably in Keynote, and report back if you have any problems.

There's no such thing as OpenScript. That one hidden font is TrueType. Specifically, a .ttc font is a TrueType Collection. Which means it's a bundled TrueType font that has more than one typeface in a single package.

The ones the user downloads through Font Book are OpenType Postscript versions. But that's irrelevant. Your apps don't care if the fonts are TrueType or PostScript. They just need to be active.