I lost fonts: Athelas and Seravek at least

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Level 1

7 points

I lost fonts: Athelas and Seravek at least

I just noticed that some of my fonts are missing, notably the Athelas and Seravek font families. I don't know how long they have been gone, and I don't know how many others are missing that I can't think of.

I first noticed they were missing when I went to use them in Pages. Then I opened Font Book and searched for them using the search field and by browsing, and I don't have them.

They are not in my Trash, although it was emptied recently. I didn't intentionally delete the fonts, and it's difficult for me to imagine how I might have unintentionally deleted them.

I want to know how I can get the missing font families back or re-download them.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on May 17, 2016 8:39 AM

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Answer 1

pinkstones

Level 5

4,228 points

May 17, 2016 8:47 AM in response to coryhart

I would suggest using a Time Machine backup to restore your system to before the fonts disappeared, but you don't know when that happened. If you want to re-download them, Google them and find out where you can either download them for free (legally) or purchase them. How did you acquire them before?

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Answer 2

Kurt Lang

Level 9

57,852 points

May 18, 2016 7:37 AM in response to coryhart

They may still be on the drive. Two of the fonts supplied with El Capitan (for certain) are no good. They’ve been part of OS X since Mavericks, but the new versions supplied with El Capitan simply do not work. They are Charter.ttc and Seravek.ttc. If you try to use these fonts, they won’t show up in just about any app. If you replace them with the versions supplied with Mavericks or Yosemite, they’re fine. Since they are protected by OS X, you will need to disable SIP in order to replace them. Or, startup to another drive and replace or delete them.

I didn't test Athelas, but it may be another. It is updated from Yosemite where the version was 8.0d7e3. Now it's 8.0d7e4.

Edit: Yes, another bad one. The El Capitan version of Athelas worked in Office 2016, but didn't show up at all in TextEdit and some others. The Yosemite version works as expected in all apps.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

May 17, 2016 11:47 AM in response to coryhart

In El Capitan, those fonts are only available for the user interface, not for use in documents. If you want to use them, you'll have to search for equivalents.

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Answer 4

Kurt Lang

Level 9

57,852 points

May 17, 2016 11:53 AM in response to Linc Davis

Sorry, that is incorrect. They don't even need to be on the drive. OS X won't miss them at all anywhere, or in any app. All of the mentioned fonts are in the root Library folder, where all other fonts OS X comes with that are intended for the user, not the system.

As mentioned, the versions supplied with El Capitan are damaged. They all have new version numbers, which means they have been updated in some way. Whatever was done in that process, they are now no good. Replaced with the versions from Yosemite or Mavericks, they work.

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Answer 5

May 17, 2016 11:56 AM in response to coryhart

As mentioned, the versions supplied with El Capitan are damaged

this is a known issue

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

May 18, 2016 7:37 AM in response to coryhart

In case you're confused by the misinformation in this thread, follow the instructions linked below to select a font in Safari Reader:

Safari 9 (El Capitan): Read articles clutter-free

You'll see that the fonts in question do exist and are fully functional—but only in Safari Reader, as Apple intended.

If you copy the fonts from the folder /Library/Fonts to the Fonts folder in your home folder, and give them different names, you'll find that they show up in Font Book and validate normally, except that they conflict with the system copies. I don't recommend doing this because of the conflict, and also because the fonts are presumably not licensed for use in documents.

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Answer 7

coryhart Author

Level 1

7 points

May 18, 2016 7:54 AM in response to coryhart

Wow, I had no idea I was entering such controversial terrain. I've found some helpful points in this discussion:

Updated versions of Athelas, Charter, and Seravek were included in El Capitan.
These fonts may be found in ~/Library/Fonts.
The El Capitan versions appear as view options in Safari Reader.
The El Capitan versions do not appear in Font Book, and they are not available for use in other apps.

There are two proposed theories to explain this data:

The El Capitan versions of these fonts are damaged (per Kurt Lang).
With the release of El Capitan, Apple intentionally restricted use of these fonts to Safari Reader, perhaps because of the terms of Apple's agreement(s) with the copyright holder(s) of the fonts (per Linc Davis).

Which theory is true may influence the likelihood that Apple makes these fonts available for use in apps in future updates of El Capitan. Given that we are in v.10.11.5 and the fonts still don't work in apps, theory #2 (that this is a deliberate move by Apple) seems likely.

One workaround for this issue is to copy the versions of these fonts from Mavericks or Yosemite and replace the El Capitan versions with them. My follow-up question is, how do I go about getting Mavericks or Yosemite versions of these fonts? I don't own any machines that are running either of these operating systems.

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Answer 8

coryhart Author

Level 1

7 points

May 18, 2016 7:44 PM in response to coryhart

These fonts may be found in ~/Library/Fonts.

I miswrote this. I meant to write, "These fonts may be found in /Library/Fonts" (no tilde).

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Answer 9

coryhart Author

Level 1

7 points

May 18, 2016 8:02 PM in response to coryhart

Guys, you've both made your points thoroughly and clearly. I very much appreciate what you wrote. But it's all been said. I suggest we stop beating a dead horse.

For readers of this thread interested in a practical solution, I tried Linc's workaround (which he proposed but did not recommend), and it does enable use of those fonts in apps. I didn't have the resources necessary to try Kurt's workaround.

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