Tiny system font size disaster

Pffff, you changed a lot: hardware and software.

1. before anything else do this:

in SystemPreferences->Users&Groups->LoginItems: remove all entries, with the minus sign underneath.

Then restart.

2. Now completely uninstall the ESET software.

restart.

3. Then uninstall the Cindori software (set Trim to off first): this software does not do anything for you and is not very carefully programmed: Trim is not read by modern SSD controllers because it interferes with WearLevelling and Garbage Collection in the SSD controllers), so you better dump this software.

4. You changed GateKeeper with the Terminal: undo that: you can still bypass gatekeeper by holding the CTL key and choosing "open".

5. Your hosts file is changed, do you know why?

6. There are many compromising kexts: which means you have to uninstall more "apps".

As soon as you are done with points 1-5, see if the issue is less or even gone, and make a new etrecheck list.

Then we will go on in seeing if we can solve your issue. I agree with Macjack that doing something with the plist will not change anything just because the system font is separate from the fonts.

Lex

You still have to reply to my earlier post.

But I will make a remark now on your post above (thanks macjack):

1. "Your Configuration files have been modified. Do you know why you did this?":

the hosts file: in Finder choose the GO menu, then choose GoToFolder and copy this :

/private/etc/hosts

before "repairing the hosts file first copy the lines below the "fe80::1%lo0 localhost" line. It may be not wise to remove those, before you are sure why they are there in the first place: show them in your next post.

2. the "solution" that you mention is one of the hacks I mentioned and you should not do it.

Lex

"1. None has a minus sign underneath and all are needed. "

The minus sign is underneath the list total. This removal does not uninstall the apps, just prevents them form running always. You can start and quit them from the Applicataions folder when needed. But I propose to not use them before we have done the rest of the cleaning which is necessary to eliminate al lot of possibilities of your issue.

2. OK, really required.

3. There are already many threads here in the last years about this trim command. getting rid of the trim command is not relevant because it will not be read by your SSD. You can leave it, but you better uninstall the Cindori software.

4. Some one used a Terminal command to make the anywhere possibility visible. But all OK what you have done.

5. see my other post, but if you feel unsecure let it rest for a while.

6. I think all of them, but some are gone already when you have uninstalled what I proposed.

Lex

How about this solution found recommended in OSX Daily?

That's not a "solution". It's a hack, and one that no one should use. All it does is put copies of Lucida Grande in your user account Fonts folder that have had their internal font names changed to intentionally conflict with the San Francisco system fonts. Not only is your system now running continuously with font conflicts, Lucida Grande only covers less than 10% of the San Francisco set. Meaning, your Mac is displaying Lucida Grande in some places, but not all, since there is no (example) Display-Ultralight to replace the SF version with. Don't do it.

On top of all of that, the San Francisco fonts and Lucida Grande letter forms are almost identical to each other. Why some users insist Lucida Grande is better is beyond me.

I would restore from the clone and then use Time Machine to selectively restore updated files.

ontravel wrote:

I can only say that ESET has found and quarantined 23 trojans on my system since 6 Nov 2016!

And I would bet that they were all false positives. No one gets that much malware, especially since you would knowingly have to allow it to install.

ontravel wrote:

Thanks. Can Time Machine be set to find all new / changed files?

No, you would have to pick them out.

ontravel wrote:

Naturally I don't click things like that, if I even see them before they land in the quarantine.

Of course, that is my point. You would certainly would see them because your system would ask if you wanted to install.

As far as printing, it's irrelevant. The new system font, San Francisco, is only for use by the OS in menus and other GUI elements. You can't use any part of that font set within any app. So, there's nothing much to compare since you can only choose Lucida Grande of the two for documents you create.

I don't have access to it at the moment, but I have an image showing Lucida Grande, San Francisco and Helvetica over one another. There are a few standard alpha characters with very obvious design differences, but overall, they are nearly identical to one another. That is, no weight difference. I'll try to remember to post it tomorrow.

The other main reason you should never consider bumping San Francisco with a hack version of Lucida Grande onto El Capitan or later is the extended characters aren't even close to the same. SF has far more glyphs than Lucida Grande. What happens then is when the OS needs to use a particular glyph for a menu, etc., you will get unexpected results since the OS can't display the intended glyph.

hello, back again.

-- Do not forget: The system font is not in the standard font folders....

Do not do the hack because that is not the problem.

Your issue seems not to be the system font but something else.

-- did you already do the uninstall of Eset, as I proposed before? The so called qurantaine files may be part of the issue.

-- Follow the advice of Tom Gewecke (Hi Tom, great)

In the end open font book preferences > check the box of resolve duplicates by moving files to the trash.

I would very strongly suggest against ever using that option. An excerpt from my font article:

Be very careful if you turn on Font Book's preference to move conflicting fonts to the trash. For example, let's say you have a font in the /Library/Fonts/ folder deactivated, and an identical font active from somewhere else (which you can do in a Library set). Now turn the font in the /Library/Fonts/ folder on. Since the font which was already active is always the one to remain on, when you resolve the conflict, the font in the /Library/Fonts/ folder will be deleted! Not kidding. Right out of the main Library folder. So not just you, but every user account on that Mac loses access to that font. This dangerous function remains unchanged in Yosemite.

Since I haven't checked this statement since Yosemite, I do need to test and see if Font Book will still delete the duplicate font out of the main Library folder. I wouldn't be surprised if it does.

A Simple fact : Duplicate fonts is one of the reason that Mac book gets heated from Bottom.

Fact? You believe having duplicate fonts on your Mac actually causes a computer to overheat? There is no truth to that whatsoever.

The article is wrong. Not the first time an Apple Support article has been found to be so from the start, or was correct at one time, but is out of date for more recent versions of the Mac OS.

/Library/Fonts/ - The statement, Mac OS X does not require these additional fonts for system operation, is wrong. Apple keeps jumping some OS required fonts around. In some versions they're in the /System/Library/Fonts/ folder, and in the next major OS release, the same font is installed to the /Library/Fonts/ folder. Which has forced me to write this addendum to the minimum fonts a user needs to keep in the /Library/Fonts/ folder:

Note: In addition to the above list, if you are running Snow Leopard, you must keep MarkerFelt.ttc.

Note: In addition to the above list, if you are running Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan or Sierra, you must keep AppleGothic.ttf.

/System/Library/Fonts/ - Also wrong. There are quite a few fonts you can remove from this folder. Neither the OS, nor any app installed by the OS will miss them. That's part of the entire point of my font article.

So, contacted in Apple Support a senior advisor suggested this method and they clearly explained the consequences of duplicate fonts (and they have tools to find out the quick answers) and asked about any article, and said some articles are not shared that are for their internal use.

That doesn't mean their information is correct. I have hundreds of duplicate, conflicting fonts available to me. I have full copies of every OS since Panther, 10.3 in individual folders so I can keep track of what OS came with which fonts. I have individual folders of every font shipped with multiple releases of MS Office for Mac. Plus thousands of other third party fonts I've purchased over the years. Many of which conflict with each other, and/or with the OS or MS fonts. According to the Apple advisor, simply the existence of them on my Mac should cause it to run hot enough to melt steel.

A duplicate font is nothing more than that. A duplicate file. Big deal. Only one or the other can be active. That means the other one is doing nothing, other than taking up disk space. If both have been activated, that doesn't cause a heat issue. All you're doing is confusing the OS. It can't know which one to use when you try to select that font.