Problem with some symbol fonts after Sierra install

Question

Level 1

9 points

Problem with some symbol fonts after Sierra install

Hello,

I recently upgraded the OS on my Late 2012 iMac to Sierra, since doing so I've noticed a problem with several fonts.

All of the symbolic fonts from Apple Symbols to Wingdings do not display correctly in Font Book; Apple Symbols looks like a standard san serif font, and the other symbolic fonts just show as question marks '?' where the images should be.

In Text Edit I can't even see the symbolic fonts like Wingdings and Zapf Dingbats in the picker. However they all work fine in Adobe Illustrator (CS5) and Microsoft Word 2011. Apple Symbols still looks like a standard font.

I've already tried the following:

1. Verifying fonts in Font Book

2. Resolving duplicates in Font Book

3. Using the 'Restore Standard Fonts' option in Font Book

4. Deleting the Fonts plist file in the preferences folder

5. Removed the font cache and database

I'm out of ideas. Has anyone else had the same problem found a fix?

Regards,

Greville

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 11:35 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,210 points

Oct 1, 2016 6:14 AM in response to Greville

Greville wrote:

Repertoire shows the characters as well for me. But the fonts cannot be selected in apps like Text Edit or Pages, they don't even show in the lists that you can pick fonts from.

In order to input from such fonts in Apple apps, you normally use the Character Viewer and not the keyboard or font lists.

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Answer 2

Sep 29, 2016 10:36 AM in response to Greville

Under Format in the Menu bar, select Fonts > Show Fonts

Clear Font Caches....

Font Nuke is simple to use especially for novice users. FontNuke is a free utility application that removes corrupt and troublesome font cache files.

http://jamapi.com/pr/fn/

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Answer 3

Greville Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 28, 2016 4:22 PM in response to Greville

I'm just adding that I used the recovery partition to do a clean install of Sierra on an external hard-drive and then booted into it to see if it had the same issue.

And it does. Wingdings and other picture fonts show up as '?' in boxes where the letters should be in Font Book.

So this seems to be an issue with the way that Sierra displays those fonts, not with the font files themselves.

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Answer 4

Greville Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 29, 2016 5:23 AM in response to dianeoforegon

Some apps, like Word and the Adobe ones, can use the fonts just fine. However the Apple apps, like Pages and Text Edit, will not let me pick the fonts. They show in the Font Book list, but not in the font pickers in the Apple apps.

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Answer 5

Greville Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 30, 2016 4:50 AM in response to dianeoforegon

I tried using both FontExplorer x and Font Nuke to clear the font caches, as well as the terminal command 'sudo atsutil databases -remove', and it hasn't solved the problem.

I might have to wait to see if an OS update will clear it up for me.

Thanks for your suggestions,

Grev

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Answer 6

Jeff Shenk

Level 4

3,005 points

Sep 30, 2016 4:59 PM in response to Greville

The Font Book looks normal if you have it set to display a Custom sample of alphabetic characters, because symbol fonts like Wingdings 3 don't contain alphabetic characters. Have you tried a different View option, such as Repertoire, which should show all the glyphs that actually exist in a font?

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Answer 7

Greville Author

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2016 6:21 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom,

That was one of the first things I have tried. It made no difference.

In regards to using the character picker, this doesn't match my previous experiences for using the symbols in Wingdings etc. I would pick the font and press the corresponding key to see the symbol. This has been fairly consistent for me from back in the pre-OSX days through to Sierra.

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Answer 8

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,210 points

Oct 2, 2016 7:06 PM in response to Greville

IT has sometimes been possible to use the keyboard for wingdings etc., but in fully Unicode compliant systems it should not work that way, either a character viewer or a separate keyboard layout should be required. It looks like Apple has taken a further step in that direction.

the fontbook advice was for a different situation.

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Answer 9

Oct 3, 2016 8:11 AM in response to Greville

I fixed this problem using a third part application "Activate WhatFont" for recognize the trouble font. Than the problem was that the font Arial was missed, and I reinstall the Arial font with FontExplorer.

Now all works well!

Reply

Answer 10

Greville Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 28, 2016 6:19 PM in response to dianeoforegon

No, I left the clean install alone, it just has the fonts supplied with the OS.

When booted into either install the picture fonts look like:

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Answer 11

Sep 29, 2016 12:33 AM in response to Greville

Try using a program like FontExplorer X or any other program that will clean the system font caches. then restart. I did this and it fixed the problem.