Font book. Should you organize the fonts into subfolders?
I am using OS 10.4.6 and I keep a number of fonts in the main Library/fonts folder (/Library/Fonts) and I tried to organize them by putting them into subfolders. This doesn't seem to work easily because when you try to put fonts into subfolders within this font folder, OSX only allows you to
copy the fonts into the folder (a plus sign icon automatically appears when you click and drag) leaving the individual fonts still loose in the /Library/Fonts folder - defeating the purpose of organizing the fonts into folders. Luckily, you can then go back and delete the loose fonts knowing that you have already copied them into the subfolder but that is an extra step. I wonder if OSX is purposely making this difficult for some valid reason. Maybe OSX is encouraging me to not to do this and instead leave the fonts loosely scattered in the /Library/Fonts folder without any subfolders. And so my question is, although I can organize fonts into subfolders through a number of steps, should I? Or is this not recommended?
By being able to do this, it would keep my /Library/Fonts very organized.
Likewise, when you add fonts using Font Book's "add font" features and you choose a custom location where you may store your fonts, Font Book also does not completely respect fonts stored in subfolders - it allows you to add a folder of fonts but it insists on breaking out the contents of your subfolder and scattering the fonts loosely into the /Library/Fonts folder. Again, you have to go back to the /Library/Fonts folder and manually create the subfolders you wish to use and put the fonts back into this folder. It can be done, but why does OSX make this procedure one extra step by not taking your entire custom subfolder? Is this a sign I should not be using subfolders in my /Library/Fonts folder?
Until I hear otherwise, I think I will continue to use subfolders in my /Library/Fonts folder as well as my user/library/fonts folder and perhaps even the system/library/fonts folder too. Could anyone advice me if there are any reasons to avoid this practice of using subfolders in the main fonts folders?
Thank you,
PS. I checked this with InDesign CS2 and yes, it seems to work fine when you organize your fonts into subfolders so there is no trouble there. I also checked it with TextEdit and it also works fine with fonts in subfolders.
Logging in as an admin user does help - a little bit. It allows subfolders of fonts to be directly placed into the /Library/Fonts folder. But I don't usually work in an admin account.
By being able to do this, it would keep my /Library/Fonts very organized.
Likewise, when you add fonts using Font Book's "add font" features and you choose a custom location where you may store your fonts, Font Book also does not completely respect fonts stored in subfolders - it allows you to add a folder of fonts but it insists on breaking out the contents of your subfolder and scattering the fonts loosely into the /Library/Fonts folder. Again, you have to go back to the /Library/Fonts folder and manually create the subfolders you wish to use and put the fonts back into this folder. It can be done, but why does OSX make this procedure one extra step by not taking your entire custom subfolder? Is this a sign I should not be using subfolders in my /Library/Fonts folder?
Until I hear otherwise, I think I will continue to use subfolders in my /Library/Fonts folder as well as my user/library/fonts folder and perhaps even the system/library/fonts folder too. Could anyone advice me if there are any reasons to avoid this practice of using subfolders in the main fonts folders?
Thank you,
PS. I checked this with InDesign CS2 and yes, it seems to work fine when you organize your fonts into subfolders so there is no trouble there. I also checked it with TextEdit and it also works fine with fonts in subfolders.
Logging in as an admin user does help - a little bit. It allows subfolders of fonts to be directly placed into the /Library/Fonts folder. But I don't usually work in an admin account.
g3 b&w, Mac OS X (10.4.6)