how to repair fonts in ~/system/library/fonts

Question

Level 1

55 points

how to repair fonts in ~/system/library/fonts

Hi,

FontDoctor reported an error in two fonts in my ~/system/library/fonts folder.

It seems that the affected fonts are TimesLTMM and HelveLTMM. The file size of both fonts is 0, so can I just delete them?

I also found files with many questionmarks in the name (e.g. ????????????????????? Pro W6.otf) that are more than 10 MB in size. Can I delete them?

Do I have to update sort of a font database after deleting the files?

Best regards,
Kurt

12 PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on May 11, 2006 1:36 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jpfresno

Level 4

3,020 points

May 11, 2006 2:34 PM in response to KurTell

Welcome to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
Hi KurTell,

Does FD show you what the font looks like as Fontbook does?

I would agree that 0k doesn't contain anything.

What does ???...???Pro W6 look like? Any thing of use? No. Disable or delete.

Reply

Answer 2

KurTell Author

Level 1

55 points

May 12, 2006 1:10 PM in response to Jpfresno

Hi,

thanks I'm in the help line 🙂

Hmm - good question. The ????? - fonts look like they are the Chinsese fonts. That's what I found. FontBook spells them with the right font - which is in that case chinese - while terminal only shows the ????

So I keep them and don't think that they are causing my original problem. That's why I started to check the fonts from the beginning.

My system is strange and doesn't read .eps files and produces pdf files that I cannot read an on PC ?!?

Coming back to the 0k files. I deleted them, used TinkerTools to delete the font cache and restarted the Apple.

eps files can still not be displayed but now it seems that font are not causing that problem.
So, thanks for you help with the fonts. Do you happen to have an idea what I could do with my original problem?

Best regards,
Kurt

12 PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

12 PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Reply

Answer 3

May 12, 2006 4:18 PM in response to KurTell

Where are you seeing TimesLTMM and HelveLTMM having a 0 byte file size? In the Finder, or in Terminal? If you're using 'ls' in Terminal to list that directory, keep in mind that it will only show the size of the information in the data fork. TimesLTMM and HelveLTMM are both PostScript Type 1 outline fonts, which contain all their information in the resource fork, not the data fork. To see the size of a resource-fork-based file using the 'ls' command, you'd have to do the following:

<pre>ls -l /System/Library/Fonts/TimesLTMM/..namedfork/rsrc</pre>

I would ignore Font Doctor if it's telling you these fonts are damaged. I also would not delete them from the /System/Library/Fonts/ folder. They're Multiple Master PostScript Type 1 fonts that are used internally by OS X. They won't show up in Font Book, similar to the way Keyboard.dfont and LastResort.dfont don't show up in Font Book.

Hope this helps...

Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Reply