benwiggy

Q: Font problems after 10.6.7

I'm getting lots of strange behaviour relating to fonts since updating to 10.6.7. This is all in things that used to work perfectly.
PostScript output causes errors in Distiller (problems in font definitions); and manipulating PDF objects can cause embedded fonts to become .... unembedded.

As I understand it, there were lots of security fixes to font handling in the update, but it seems to have caused loads of trouble.

The developers for an app I use, Imposition Wizard, have confirmed that things aren't working as they are supposed to and have filed bug reports with Apple.

However, as I do a lot of work with PostScript and PDFs, I will have to reinstall the OS to 10.6.6.

iMac 2006 2Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.7), MacBook 2008

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 3:07 PM

Close

Q: Font problems after 10.6.7

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 7 of 29 last Next
  • by Wckd1,

    Wckd1 Wckd1 Mar 29, 2011 12:23 PM in response to SS_MedPhoto
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 29, 2011 12:23 PM in response to SS_MedPhoto
    I'm using CS5.
  • by powerbook1701,

    powerbook1701 powerbook1701 Mar 29, 2011 2:04 PM in response to benwiggy
    Level 3 (571 points)
    iWork
    Mar 29, 2011 2:04 PM in response to benwiggy
    Macfixit has posted an article, also pointing to this thread here on the Apple forums.

    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20048314-263.html?tag=mncol;title
  • by Ko be,

    Ko be Ko be Mar 29, 2011 5:38 PM in response to elitebox007
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Mar 29, 2011 5:38 PM in response to elitebox007
    What? and that's it? it seems to easy. Does everything come to normal?
  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Mar 30, 2011 6:03 AM in response to Ko be
    Level 8 (38,049 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2011 6:03 AM in response to Ko be
    What? and that's it? it seems to easy. Does everything come to normal?


    Yes, that's all you need to do. Revert to 10.6.6 and everything behaves normally again.
  • by stevehorn,

    stevehorn stevehorn Mar 30, 2011 7:34 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 7:34 AM in response to benwiggy
    ME TOO!
    Having problems on various software, all font related so it seems. Come characters don't display, others are replaced by wrong characters, PDF and EPS can't embed some fonts.

    MESS!! What do we do?
  • by Ko be,

    Ko be Ko be Mar 30, 2011 7:53 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 7:53 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    and what about software, I will need to reinstall? and preferences?
  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Mar 30, 2011 8:06 AM in response to Ko be
    Level 8 (38,049 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2011 8:06 AM in response to Ko be
    First and foremost, have a complete backup of your current drive you know can be restored in case anything goes amiss.

    Boot to the Snow Leopard DVD and choose your main drive where 10.6.7 is installed. Click on the Options button to change the default install options. Such as turning on QuickTime 7 and Rosetta, which don't install by default. When you have your choices the way you want them, proceed with the install.

    When installing SL to a drive which already has SL on it, it overwrites all OS files with those from the DVD. All of your third party apps and preferences stay the way they are.

    After the install is done, apply the 10.6.6 Combo updater and any other updates available, except for 10.6.7. The only thing I've found that you sometimes need to reinstall are your printer drivers.
  • by cathy fasano,

    cathy fasano cathy fasano Mar 30, 2011 8:18 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 2 (350 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2011 8:18 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    One other detail -- to find the combo update, and any other update which is not offered to you on the Software Update screen, go to
    http://support.apple.com/downloads
    and search. Oh, and with operating system updates you'll stare at the list at first not seeing why there are two updates for each release. One is client and one is server.
  • by Ko be,

    Ko be Ko be Mar 30, 2011 8:38 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 8:38 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Ok, Thanks I'll try it. unless you think the problem will be solved by apple in a couple of days.....
  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Mar 30, 2011 8:45 AM in response to Ko be
    Level 8 (38,049 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2011 8:45 AM in response to Ko be
    You can bet they're working on it, but there's no way to know when a solution may be provided. I've reverted to 10.6.6 for now. Couldn't get some types of work done without doing so.
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Mar 30, 2011 8:45 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 8:45 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Kurt Lang wrote:
    Boot to the Snow Leopard DVD and choose your main drive where 10.6.7 is installed. Click on the Options button to change the default install options. Such as turning on QuickTime 7 and Rosetta, which don't install by default. When you have your choices the way you want them, proceed with the install.


    FWIW, at least if you follow the method described in the link & run the "Install Mac OS X" app instead of starting up directly from the DVD (& maybe even if you don't), the default options will automatically be set to what you probably want. For instance, if you have PowerPC apps installed that require Rosetta to run, the installer will notice this & install Rosetta by default. If you don't, it won't. Similarly, if you now have a Quicktime Pro license activated that unlocks the advanced editing features of Quicktime Player 7, a Snow Leopard compatible version of that app will be installed in the Utilities folder. Otherwise, it won't be installed, nor is there usually any reason to install it because without the Pro license it won't do anything Quicktime Player X (which is always installed anyway) won't do better.

    The Snow Leopard installer also will look at the printer drivers currently installed & use that to decide what printer drivers to install, although you still may have to update them.
  • by curtsmedia,

    curtsmedia curtsmedia Mar 30, 2011 9:01 AM in response to -mcs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 9:01 AM in response to -mcs
    Since the problem seems to be with .otf fonts only, I converted mine to .ttf from here:
    http://www.freefontconverter.com/

    Fast, free, does not affect the original and works like a charm - at least for Flash.
  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Mar 30, 2011 9:14 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 8 (38,049 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 30, 2011 9:14 AM in response to R C-R
    FWIW, at least if you follow the method described in the link & run the "Install Mac OS X" app instead of starting up directly from the DVD (& maybe even if you don't), the default options will automatically be set to what you probably want.


    Nope. I've tried it both ways. If you start by running "Install Mac OS X" from the desktop, the options installed will not mirror what is already on the drive. If you have Rosetta installed, it will be removed. All of your printer drivers will be removed in favor of a default install. Meaning, it installs every printer driver on the DVD. X11 will be installed, even if it wasn't before.

    It's much better to boot to the SL DVD so you can control the install options.
  • by James Shea1,

    James Shea1 James Shea1 Mar 30, 2011 10:23 AM in response to benwiggy
    Level 1 (75 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 10:23 AM in response to benwiggy
    This OpenType font problem with OS 10.6.7 is not restricted to Adobe products. Upon opening documents with .otf fonts that I created in ACD Systems' Canvas, the typefaces appear distorted and the program reports that the fonts are corrupt.

    As others have stated, this problem does not exist when running under OS 10.6.6.

    With all the Apple and developer beta testing that occurs before an OS update is released, I'm surprised this problem slipped through.
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Mar 30, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Mar 30, 2011 11:00 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Hmm. I've tried this several times, & for me Rosetta (& QT Player 7) are installed without my having to use the options button. Are you sure you have at least one Power PC app that requires Rosetta installed on your Mac? It doesn't matter if Rosetta was previously installed or not, just if you have any PowerPC apps.
first Previous Page 7 of 29 last Next