HT201375: OS X: Fonts included with Mavericks

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Vortex One

Q: Can I safely remove fonts from "Fonts Disabled" in Mavericks?

I just upgraded to Mavericks on my MacBook Pro. I've had Office For Mac 2004 on my system and now have Office for Mac 2011. Along with other software I see in Font Book that I have MANY duplicate fonts. I'd like to safely remove the duplicates at the very least, and perhaps delete others that I don't use. I'm nervous, however, thinking I might accidentally delete something I would need later.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

 

Thank you

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), Non-skilled computer user

Posted on Mar 16, 2014 2:57 PM

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Q: Can I safely remove fonts from "Fonts Disabled" in Mavericks?

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  • by Tony T1,

    Tony T1 Tony T1 Mar 16, 2014 3:15 PM in response to Vortex One
    Level 6 (9,249 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 16, 2014 3:15 PM in response to Vortex One

    I did this once, then with the next update to MSO, they were re-installed.

    Anyway, to determine which is MS and which is Apple, highlight the font, and ⌘I and look for the location or hover the mouse pointer:

     

         Screen Shot 2014-03-16 at 6.07.26 PM.png

     

     

    And now that you're identified the MS Font, right-click->Remove

     

    However, if you select ⌘L and determine that there are no duplicate fonts, then I would just leave as is.

    You can also select All fonts ⌘A, then File->Validate Fonts to check for problems

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Mar 16, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Vortex One
    Level 7 (23,351 points)
    Notebooks
    Mar 16, 2014 3:11 PM in response to Vortex One

    Yes,  have a good back up plan in place before you start cleaning up your font book. That way you always have a current BU to fall back on.

     

    I am a little cautious cleaning up fonts.  If it ani't broke don't fix it.

  • by Vortex One,

    Vortex One Vortex One Mar 16, 2014 3:27 PM in response to Tony T1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 3:27 PM in response to Tony T1

    Toni T

     

    Thank you. This is somewhat helpful.

     

    My main concern is the duplicate fonts I have - from previous installs of Office 2004 and other software. In some cases I have as many as 4 "copies" of certain fonts. At least that's what it looks like in the list. The real question is whether these are actually duplicates, or simply fonts installed in varioius folders that need them there.

     

    I don't want to remove fonts that are needed, just get rid of what isn't.

  • by VikingOSX,Helpful

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Mar 16, 2014 3:31 PM in response to Vortex One
    Level 7 (20,799 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 16, 2014 3:31 PM in response to Vortex One

    Font Management in OS X.

     

    Section 3 deals with Office X, 2004, 2008, and 2011 font installation locations and issues.

  • by Vortex One,

    Vortex One Vortex One Mar 16, 2014 3:37 PM in response to VikingOSX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 3:37 PM in response to VikingOSX

    Thank you VikingOSX.

    It looks like this will prove very helpluf in assessing which fonts I need to leave and which ones I can safely remove.

  • by Vortex One,Solvedanswer

    Vortex One Vortex One Mar 16, 2014 6:05 PM in response to Vortex One
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 6:05 PM in response to Vortex One

    For those who may be interested in this issue - I've made a USB backup using Font Book of all 373 fonts listed on my system. That gives me an "off-computer" backup arrangement for every single font, duplicates and all.

    I let Font Book do an "Automatic Resolve" on the duplicates it was showing.

     

    Then I went in and deleted the "Fonts Disabled" files, not the folder itself.

    Further, I went through and deleted the fonts that were dated 03, 05, 06, 07, and 08, and I made a copy of the list that was in the "Trash" folder before actually deleting them off the system.

    Then I went back through and verified the needed files as provided by the article linlk that VikingOSX provided above.

     

    I believe this will resolve any font issues for now.

    I hope this may help others with this issue.