MS Sans Serif font missing

You are of course right, but note that they are different generations of the same (basic) font. MS SS is the initial, old, version of the newer Microsoft SS.

To note that there are DIFFERENT versions of Times New Roman (hereafter TNR) even if IN THE SAME GENERATION. For example, Leopard and newer Mac OS versions install a TNR version which has a richer repertoire than the version installed by MS Office for mac, and which is, in fact, another version of TNR, with many and essential differences.

And, last but not least, MS SS and the newer M$ SS do not intefere on the same installation, as the old generation is not installed any more. So, because the discussion started from here, if a text still uses the old MS SS, which has been replaced by the newer generation of M$ SS, then there may be of course problems related to text flow. The same if TNR is used, because, even if having the same, identical name, and produced and distributed by MS, one may have big trouble with TNR, the more so as they are all labelled identically.

There are also several generarions of Arials and Tahomas and... , which also lead to similar problems.

I added this comment just for the sake of informing all those interested in this issue.

Ditto.

Hello Cattus.

The OP's problem was clearly described in his first message :

Mike Boreham

25 févr. 2012 07:52

I receive a regular club bulletin which is in MS Sans Serif.

When I open it with Pages I get a warning that MS Sans Serif is missing, and I replace it with Microsoft Sans Serif.

Even a ten years old child is able to understand that the problem was the unavailability of the MS Sans Serif font.

You are the only one refusing to understand that.

You wrote several times that MS Sans Serif is delivered with the system and is available on your daughter's machine which is perfectly wrong.

I apologize but I hoped a better understanding from somebody whose profile claims :

Biography:

Professor of Czech and English; writer; linguist (comparative grammar of Slavic within an Indo-European context and in a larger Euro-Asiatic context)

Expertise:

Czech and Slavic languages; comparative grammar; southeast Europe; substratum languages.

Occupation:

professor

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 28 février 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

Of course, MS Sans Serif, i.e. the old M$ font of this series, is not available any more, because MS, as far as I remember, never distributed both generations at the same time, the newer generation replaced the older one some 10 years ago. Perhaps for some time they interlaced—

More complicated is the problem with different fonts having the same, identical name, which are also DIFFERENT fonts. I do not know whether this is clear to a 10 or 100 year human, I just wished to note that detail, which is a lot more confusing than the unavailability of the old MS SS.

And, yes, I do know something about fonts, without being an expert. 13 years ago I created my first and unique font labelled Gimbutas, I still have it. It is a summary of Neolithic signs, something also good for a 10-year girl.

Otherwise I must thank you for you flesh-cut words, they are instructive and, with their genuine superciliousness, absolutely charming.

As I wrote a few times, I'm not here to be charming or pleasant.

The fact that different fonts may have the same name is due to the fact that freedom is the rule.

Everybody may build a font and give it a name which is already used.

But, even if this problem is confusing, it's not the asker's one and we are supposed to help him, not list our problems.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 28 février 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k

The problem is that the creator of these fonts is MS itself, not another person who illegally used the name. The confusion started from the fact that, at a given moment, MS changed some (essential) features of the font, continuing with a similar name. The problem evoked, i.e. inexistence of older generation of MS SS, against the now current MS SS new generation, in which MS is written in full, is—in my mind—less confusing than using Arial, TNR etc. for fonts also belonging to varoious generations. If someone send a text written in such an old version of TNR, say, will have similar problems, even if the font has the same name.

When I first read about MS SS I thought the person referred to current newer version, because using MS for the full name of the company is usual, largely spread. I had not imagined that someone still uses that old font but, indeed, this may still happen.

I apologize but if something is confused, it's in your brain.

M…oSoft delivered a font name MS SANS Serif.

Later, it delivered a font named Microsoft Sans Serif.

I don't know if it was at the same time or later but it delivered a third font named MS Reference Sans Serif.

Nothing confused in that except for those deciding that MS Sans Serif and Microsoft Sans Serif are the same or similar font names.

They are two perfectly different ones.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 28 février 2012

iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.3

My Box account is : http://www.box.com/s/00qnssoyeq2xvc22ra4k