I have just purchased a Mac Book Air and I want to transfer specialized fonts to it.
I have moved from Library/Fonts/Fontname & ~Fontname.bmap from the old Mac to the same location in the Air.
The fonts show up in Font Book but not in TextEdit, rebooting doesn't change it. What do I do to validate make
these and other fonts usable?
Thank you.
R
MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1)
Adobe isn't the only company who used to/still offer Type 1 PostScript fonts. There are numerous vendors, such as Bitstream, Linotype, and others.
CountryGirl56 is correct. You only have the screen font. You need the matching printer outline fonts that go with it. They also must be in the same folder in order to work.
First off, thanks to both of you.
I just examined the font files at ~/Library/Fonts/filename and filename.bmap. They are identical on both Macs
EXCEPT on the new system the file size is faint. This leads me to believe that they must need some kind of
massaging or installing to be used instead of just copying from one Mac to another. Is this true?
If so, how is that accomplished? Is there another location the must be placed also? or does some kind of link
need to be established?
Thank you ever so much.
R
I just examined the font files at ~/Library/Fonts/filename and filename.bmap. They are identical on both Macs EXCEPT on the new system the file size is faint.
I presume you mean the screen font on the Mac it was copied to is Zero Kbytes. This happens when the resource fork information is lost since that's where all of the data is stored with Type 1 and legacy Mac TrueType fonts.
If you had copied the font to a FAT32/DOS formatted flash or hard drive, this can sometimes happen. Though the AppleDouble function the OS uses should prevent it.
If you copied them to a Windows server, this happens if the server hasn't been set up to properly handle the Mac's dual fork file system. It copies the data fork, but not the resource fork. No resource fork, no font left.
Easiest is to either copy the fonts to a Mac formatted flash drive, or simply .zip them together on the source Mac and email that to yourself. Pick up the email on the Mac you want the fonts on.
Kurt, I copied the font files from the library of another Mac, on which they work, into a user file on the new
Mac book Air. The copied files appear to be identical except that the size in kb is in faint print and not normal.
I then use Font Book to install them following the instructions in the help files. They seem to
install correctly and the appear in the machine fonts where I installed them. I can view them in Font Book
just fine but when I go to Text Edit they don't appear, not even after a reboot.
I next tried your suggestion of copying to a flash drive and they copy and show up clearly on the flash but
when I move the flash to the new computer the "Font Suitcase" is dimmed out and it again installs well and
shows up in Font Book but it again does not validate.
I am exasperated. I am beginning to think there is something old fashioned with the files.
Thanks for any suggestions.
I have thousands of fonts, many of them Type 1 PostScript from the 1990's. They all work as expected.
Font Book is, to put it bluntly, a lousy font manager. What it sounds like you're describing is a very common issue with a damaged Font Book database. It says the fonts are installed and active, but they don't appear in some apps, or not the entire set.
Close all apps and restart the Mac. Immediately hold down the Shift key. Keep holding it until you get a login screen. Enter the password of your user account. This is Safe Mode. Among other things starting into Safe Mode does is reset Font Book's database and removes all cache files of the user account you log into.
The graphics will likely display with a lot of horizontal lines as it boots to the desktop. This is normal in Safe Mode since the Mac is using a very generic graphics driver instead of the one meant for the hardware of your Mac.
When you get to the desktop, restart again normally. Try the fonts again.
If they don't work, the copies were either somehow damaged, or you still only have the screen font installed. Type 1 PostScript fonts are a set. One file is a suitcase containing all of the low res bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts. As an example, here's Adobe Garamond.
Adobe Garamond
AGarBol
AGarBolIta
AGarIta
AGarReg
AGarSem
AGarSemIta
The first file which I highlighted in green is the font suitcase of bitmap screen fonts. The rest are the outline printer fonts. The truncated names tell you the set consists of Bold, Bold Italic, Italic, Regular, Semibold and Semibold Italic. Each of these printer outlines will have at least one matching screen font in the suitcase.
1) The files for a Type 1 PostScript font must have both the screen and printer fonts for a given set in order to work. They also must be in the same folder.
2) The suitcase of bitmap fonts will work alone, but output will be terrible since the system will print the fonts using the 72 dpi screen fonts in the suitcase if the outline portions are missing.
3) Having only the outline fonts will not work. You can see the fonts, but they will not load. That's not a problem with Font Book, Suitcase or other font manager. None of them, nor the system itself will load outline fonts from a Type 1 PostScript font without the matching suitcase of screen fonts present.
Kurt,
I tried safe mode and it was even worse. Font Book went through the motions of installing but something was different.
The files showed up in Library/Fonts/. . . but not in Font Book and they still didn't show up in Text Edit.
Because they didn't show up in Font Book I could not validate the font. When I rebooted in normal mode they showed up but still told me there was a serious error with the font when I tried to validate it.
The system is only one day old and I have done virtually nothing so I doubt there is contamination.
I found the original compressed file from Agfa and used it with the same result so I am taking it up with Agfa
and if that produces nothing, I will take it up with Apple. I have a bunch of Adobe fonts that I want to transfer
so this is a serious matter.
Thank you for all of your help. You are a godsend.
R
By "one day old", do you mean this is a brand new Mac out of the box, or an existing Mac that was upgraded to High Sierra from an older OS yesterday?
For a simple test, create a new user account and login to it. If the fonts work as expected there, then something is wrong with your normal user account. If the problem is the same, then it's a system wide issue. Please post back which result you get.
Kurt,
Yes, this a brand new Mac Book Air out of the box.
I tried it with an alternate user account and it doesn't show up in Text Edit there either so, as you say, it must be a system wide problem so I will go to Apple
Thank you very, very much.
R
The .bmp file is only one part of a Postscript Type 1 font. You need the rest.
This is all very nice but my problem is not with Adobe fonts. It is a set of astrology fonts from one of the main early font makers. Any suggestions? Thank you. R
Kurt Lang wrote:
CountryGirl56 is correct.
Thank you Kurt. 🙂
Transfering fonts from on Mac to Another
