font book serious error when installing fonts

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Level 1

10 points

font book serious error when installing fonts

I'm working on a layout project for a client who sent me some fonts specific to the project. In the process of installing them, several (not all) came up with the "serious font error, do not use this font" in font book.

While it's possible these fonts are indeed damaged in some way (I've asked the client other versions), I'm wondering just what this error means and how serious is it? Is there another tool/software I can use to evaluate these fonts, or is Font Book the best option?

I'm using a MacBook Pro with Yosemite

Posted on Aug 18, 2016 5:05 AM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,700 points

Aug 18, 2016 6:43 AM in response to John Gold

While Font Book's "caution" symbol can be ignored in virtually all cases, if it says a font is seriously damaged, you should not use it. Fonts are plug-ins for the OS and use RAM for each one that is active. A severely corrupt font will do the same things a poorly written, or damaged app will do. Such as corrupting RAM in use by other apps.

Apps such as FontDoctor may be able to fix it, but it's not free. Well, it's sort of free with the purchase of Suitcase Fusion (you get an activation code for both). Though FontDoctor can be purchased separately.

I would first see if your client can send you clean copies. Such as putting all of the fonts in a .zip file and emailing that to you. This of course won't help if they're corrupt on the client's end to start with. If that's the case, they'll need to download new copies from the vendor they purchased them from, or from CD/DVD if they have them that way. Then send those to you.

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