Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X

Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X: Tiger Edition

Learn how to solve your font problems today!

Are you suffering from a mysterious font problem in Mac OS X Tiger? Help is at hand, with troubleshooting steps and real-world advice for solving problems fast. If you've experienced seemingly inexplicable trouble with characters displaying incorrectly, being unable to type a particular character, fonts missing from Font menus, confusing behavior in Microsoft and Adobe programs, Font Book crashing, or Character Palette misbehaving, turn to font expert Sharon Zardetto for help.

Looking for Leopard info? Check out Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard.

More Info
Contents & Intro
FAQ
Coupons
Blog

Read Me First
Introduction
Quick Start
Know What and Where Your Fonts Are
Take Preventive Measures and Plan Ahead
Learn Troubleshooting Procedures
Tackle General Font Problems
Fix Font Book Problems
Manage Input Menu Items
Solve Other Specific Problems
Excerpt 1: The World According to Glyphs
Excerpt 2: Update Legacy Fonts
Appendixes
About This Ebook

Read Me First

Welcome to Take Control of Font Problems in Mac OS X: Tiger Edition, version 1.0, the companion volume to Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X: Tiger Edition. This ebook is all about Mac OS X font problems: what they are, what causes them and, of course, how to fix them. It covers both general and very specific problems that you might encounter in using your Mac, its font-related utilities, and the most popular applications—like Microsoft Office and Adobe's Creative Suite. This ebook was written by Sharon Zardetto, edited by Tonya Engst, and published by TidBITS Electronic Publishing.

Introduction

Font problems are a fact of computer life. They shouldn't be, but they are.

Often the problems are very minor—why can't I type a checkmark with Option-V in this font? Sometimes they're a little more pervasive: Why isn't that font showing in the Font menu? Why can't I empty the Trash when this font is in it? Why can't I get Character Palette to stay listed in the Input menu? And other times they're dire: Why is Font Book crashing every time I open it? Why is every menu and dialog filled with garbled text?

This ebook covers font problems large and small, general and specific. I provide detailed, step-by-step descriptions of the troubleshooting techniques you need to know, whether it's trashing a plist, deleting a font cache, or starting up in Safe Mode. (That last item, by the way—almost every description you've read about it lacks important details regarding font problems!)

A major area of "font problems" that's not covered in this ebook is problems that occur with third-party font-management software like Suitcase Fusion, Font Agent Pro, and Linotype FontExplorer X. Third-party programs change too often to be reasonably covered in that way in a book—even an ebook that can be updated more easily than a printed volume.

This ebook is a companion volume to Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X

I started out with one standard-sized Take Control ebook. It grew sort of long. Then it got fairly huge. Then humongous became the operative term. Then my publishers said it wouldn't work as one PDF in terms of the sheer size. So, we decided to split off the bulk of the content about font problems into another ebook, with enough re-tooling so it would work as a standalone volume. And here it is!

I don't mind admitting that it was extremely difficult to figure out what general, background information should be included in this ebook, when it's all detailed in Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X.

I don't want to make you buy that ebook (though if you did, we'd both be happy) for related, but not problem-specific material. On the other hand, I don't want to repeat myself here too much and lead you to think that this ebook is a collection of reprints. (Don't you hate TV shows that claim to be "NEW! episodes" but are just clippings collected from earlier in the season?) Yet, on the other other hand, there's a certain amount of background information that's necessary, and another amount that's useful, for clarification of some points.

So, I settled on excerpting two short but important topics in their entirety—"The World According to Glyphs" and "Update Legacy Fonts"—from Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X. I also borrowed two handy, informative tables, identified in the text as having come from the other ebook. And, for your reference convenience, I repeated some appendixes. I mention all this so that if you bought this ebook individually, and then buy the other, you won't feel you've been fooled or cheated. (At 250+ pages, there's way more information in the other ebook than I've excerpted here!)

"I read both books and was impressed by their accuracy and completeness."
-John Collins, MyFonts

A special note about the figures

Also "copied" from Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X is the concept of using characters buried in basic fonts to point, circle, or otherwise label items in screenshots. The characters, always in red, are identified in the margin by their Unicode IDs or GIDs (glyph IDs)—or both, when a character has both. The two-fold purpose behind this is to make you aware of the scope of non-alphabetic characters most fonts contain, and to get you comfortable with the idea of referencing characters by their various IDs. (You can use Character Palette's search function to find these characters by their Unicode IDs.)

Quick Start

Solving a font-related problem is a simple two-step process: figure out what's causing the problem, and then fix it. Okay, maybe it's not that simple: symptoms can have many causes, and causes have many possible fixes. But with this ebook, you can both narrow down symptoms to a probable cause and look up the cure most likely to work. Even better, you'll learn how to avoid some problems altogether.

If you're not in font trouble right now:

Review the basics in Know What and Where Your Fonts Are.
Read Take Preventive Measures and Plan Ahead (and implement its suggestions).

Otherwise, come back to these sections as soon as you're back on track so you won't be derailed again.

If you're unfamiliar with Mac troubleshooting methods:

Check Table 3: Testing and Fix-it Procedures for a list of the techniques you'll need for analyzing and solving font problems.
Review the specific details for all the techniques in Learn Troubleshooting Procedures. Table 2: Font Troubleshooting and Maintenance Tools describes the software utilities you'll need for some of the solutions (most of them are provided with Tiger).

If you're having a problem:

If you don't know whether it's a font problem or a system problem, review Table 4: Laying the Blame.
If you suspect it's font-related but you can't pinpoint it, try the steps in Tackle General Font Problems.
If you have a problem that seems specific, try one of these topics:

Fix Font Book Problems
Manage Input Menu Items
Font Files and Icons
Font Menus and the Font Panel
Font and Character Formatting
Safari
Microsoft Office
Adobe Applications
Classic Fonts and Environment

Font Wrangling and Problem-Solving Made Easy

December 12, 2008 --

Managing fonts in Mac OS X is all too often like herding cats, but you can now corral your fonts with our latest ebook, Take Control of Fonts in Leopard, and its sidekick, Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard. Written by Sharon Zardetto, these up-to-date ebooks cover not only the various versions of Leopard up through 10.5.5, but also special font situations in applications such as Adobe CS3 and CS4, Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008, iLife '08, iWork '08, and Safari. Here's the scoop on each ebook, along with notes on a special money-saving bundle:

Take Control of Fonts in Leopard: In this 227-page 1.1 update, Sharon extends all her useful advice about installing, managing, using, and removing fonts with specific coverage of what has changed with font handling in Leopard since 10.5.0, along with details of how fonts work in Leopard with Adobe CS3 and CS4, Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008, and iLife '08 and iWork '08. If you work with fonts professionally or just want to get more out of your fonts, this $15 guide has all the information you need.

Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard: In this new edition, Sharon provides 151 pages of tips for avoiding font problems, troubleshooting advice, and specific steps for solving problems. Take Control of Font Problems in Leopard focuses on font-related issues that might arise generally while using Leopard or while working with fonts in Font Book, Character Palette, and Keyboard Viewer. It also examines font-related oddities and problems you might experience in Adobe CS3 and CS 4, Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008, and Safari.

We designed these ebooks with the idea that many people will want to read both, and the problem-solving ebook assumes that readers have achieved some degree of competence with font management. In fact, were we producing traditional printed books, we'd combine all this information in a single title. However, the total length would have approached 400 pages, which is just too long for a PDF aimed at on-screen reading. To encourage you to get both titles, we're selling them together in a bundle for $5 off. To get the bundle, visit one of the linked pages and then look for a "Buy Both" option in the left margin.

If you own one of our previous Take Control ebooks about fonts, look in your email for upgrade information or open your existing PDF and click Check for Updates on the first page.

—Adam C. Engst

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Font Wrangling and Problem-Solving Made Easy