Installing and Using Mac OS X Fonts

Mac OS X offers a lot of great features related to fonts. For example, the Quartz Extreme graphics layer renders Mac OS X fonts clearly at any size and makes using special font features such as kerning controls, ligatures, and so on easy. You can configure and select fonts within applications using the Font panel. The Font panel offers several useful features such as the ability to create and use sets of your favorite fonts.

To learn how to work with fonts using the Fonts panel, p. 186.

Mac OS X includes a large number of high-quality fonts in the default installation. You can install additional fonts you want to use.

You use the Font Book application to manage the fonts on your Mac.

Understanding Mac OS X Fonts

One difference between Mac OS X fonts and Mac OS 9 fonts is that in Mac OS 9, fonts contain both a resource and data fork, but in Mac OS X, fonts contain only a data fork. Fonts with the file extension .dfont are single-fork files, meaning all the data for that font is stored in the single fork of its file. This is the native Mac OS X font format. However, under Mac OS X, you can also install and use any of the following types of fonts:

• TrueType fonts (.ttf)

• TrueType collections (.ttc)

• OpenType fonts (.otf)

• Fonts and font suitcases used by Mac OS 9 and earlier versions of the Mac OS (these might or might not have a filename extension)

NOTE

One advantage of Mac OS X font files being able to provide all their information in a single fork is that these fonts can be shared with operating systems that do not recognize files with resource forks (Windows, Unix, and so on).

There are two locations in which fonts are installed under Mac OS X. To make a font available to everyone who uses your Mac, it is installed in the directory Mac OS X/Library/Fonts, where Mac OS X is the name of your Mac OS X startup volume. Within this directory are at least three types of font files. Those with the filename extension .dfont are the single-fork font files; you'll also see TrueType fonts, which have the .ttf extension. You will also see fonts whose names do not have a filename extension.

NOTE

Under Mac OS X, you can install or remove fonts while applications are open; fonts you install instantly become available to the system and any applications you are running.

To make a font available only to specific users, it is installed in the following directory: users/shortusername/Library/Fonts. A user's Library directory also contains the FontCollections folder. The FontCollections directory contains the set of font collections available to the user in the Font Book application and the Font pane.

NOTE

Any user can install fonts into the Fonts folder in the Library folder in her Home directory.

If you have fonts installed on a Mac OS 9.2 volume that you want to be able to use with Mac OS X applications, you can use the Font Book to install those fonts so they are available under Mac OS X as well.

Configuring Fonts with the Font Book

The Font Book enables you to manage all the fonts installed on your Mac. There are two levels of font groups you can use: libraries and collections. A library is a means of storing fonts on your computer or on a server; you can then access the fonts stored in those libraries. You can organize fonts into collections and then enable and disable individual fonts or font collections.

When you open the Font Book application (Applications folder), you see three panes by default (see Figure 8.11). The Collection pane contains two sections. The upper section shows the libraries currently being managed by Font Book, while the lower section shows you the font collections on your Mac. (Collections are a means to gather fonts into groups to make them easier to select and apply. For example, when you work with the Mac OS X Font panel, its fonts are organized by collection. You can use these collections to group fonts into smaller, focused groups to make font selection easier and faster.)

Figure 8.11. The Font Book application enables you to manage the fonts on your Mac.

Three libraries are available to you by default. All Fonts contains all the fonts on your computer. User contains fonts stored so that only the current user can access them. Computer contains all the fonts on your Mac (in the default condition, these are the same as those in the All Fonts library). Many collections are installed by default, and you can create your own collections.

The center pane is the Font pane, which shows the fonts that are part of the collection selected in the Collection pane.

The right pane of the window is the Preview pane, which shows a preview of the font selected in the Font pane.

To learn how to access fonts you manage with Font Book from within applications, p. 186.

Working with Font Libraries

To view the contents of a library, select it on the library list at the top of the Collections column. The fonts it contains will be displayed in the Font pane. You also perform the following library actions:

• Create a new library by opening the Action menu and selecting New Library. An empty library will appear on the list; type the name of the new library.

• Disable a library by opening its contextual menu and selecting the Disable command. The word "Off" will be shown for that library and it won't be able to be used. You can enable a library by opening its contextual menu and selecting the Enable command.

• Add fonts to a library by selecting it and selecting Add Fonts from the contextual or Action menu. Use the resulting Open dialog box to move to and select the fonts you want to add to the selected library.

  NOTE

  The most likely use for a new library is to work with files that aren't stored on your computer. For example, if fonts are stored on a server on your network, create a library for those fonts and add them to it. To use the fonts stored on a server, you must be connected to that server via the network, even after you have stored the fonts in your Library.

  
  

• Delete a library by selecting it and selecting the Delete command on the contextual or Action menu or by pressing the Delete key. Confirm the deletion at the prompt and the library will be removed from the Font Book window.

Working with Font Collections

You can use the default font collections included with Font Book and create your own collections.

To view the fonts that are currently part of a collection, select that collection on the Collection list. The fonts it contains are listed on the Fonts pane. You can view the typefaces provided with font families shown on the Fonts pane by clicking the expansion triangle next to that font (see Figure 8.12).

Figure 8.12. Here, you can see that I have created a collection called brad's fonts and placed the fonts I use most frequently in it.

TIP

If a bullet appears next to a font's name, multiple versions of that font are installed. To remove the multiple versions, select the font and select Edit, Resolve Duplicates. This causes Font Book to turn off the duplicate fonts (see Figure 8.12).

TIP

If you select a font or typeface listed under a font and select Preview Font on the Action menu, a separate window will appear that presents a preview of the selected font. This is useful because you can have multiple preview windows open at the same time, making it easier to compare different fonts.

Adding a Font Collection

To add a font collection, do the following steps:

1.	Click the New Collection button (the plus sign) below the bottom of the Collection list. Select File, New Collection, or press -N. A new collection appears on the list; its name is selected and ready for you to edit.
2.	Type the name of the collection and press Return. The collection will be created.
3.	View libraries or other collections, such as the All Fonts collection, to look for fonts to add to the new collection. TIP To locate a specific font, select the All Fonts collection and type the font name in the Search tool on the Font Book toolbar.
4.	Drag a font you want to install in the new collection from the Fonts pane and drop it on the collection in which you want to place it.
5.	Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add more fonts to the collection.

TIP

You can move multiple fonts at the same time by holding down the when you select each font.

Editing Font Collections

After you have created a collection, you can change it in the following ways:

• Double-click the collection name and edit it.

• Select the collection; select a font you want to remove from the collection; and select File, Remove Font. Click OK in the Confirmation dialog box; the font is removed from the collection (the font remains installed on your Mac).

• Select a font within a collection and click the Disable button (the "D" that looks like a square) below the bottom of the Font pane or select Edit, Disable Font. Click Disable in the Warning dialog box. The font is no longer able to be selected from within applications. The word Off appears next to the font to indicate it has been disabled.

• Select a font that has been disabled and click the Enable button or select Edit, Enable Font. The font is again available within that collection from within applications.

• Select a collection and click the Disable button below the bottom of the Collection pane. Click the Disable button in the warning dialog box. The collection is no longer selectable within applications. The word Off appears next to the collection to indicate it has been disabled.

• Select a collection that has been disabled and click the Enable button below the bottom of the Font pane or select Edit, Enable Collection. The collection is again available within applications.

TIP

If you use specific sets of fonts in specific applications, consider creating a font collection for each application and placing the fonts you use within it. Then, you can easily choose fonts from this group by selecting the application's font collection.

Configuring the Font Book Window

You can also configure the Font Book window itself in the following ways:

• Select Preview, Show Font Info. When you do, information about the selected font appears in the Preview pane.

• Change the size of the font preview in the Preview pane by either selecting a size on the Size pop-up menu or dragging the vertical slider along the right side of the pane. If you select Fit on the pop-up menu, the preview size is adjusted so you can see all of the preview within the pane.

• Change the relative size of the panes by dragging their resize handles.

  TIP

  The panes are limited to certain relative sizes. If you try to make a pane larger but are unable to do so, increase the size of the Font Book window itself and then make the other panes larger. You should then be able to resize the first pane.

  
  

• Change the size of the Font Book window by dragging its resize handle.

• Change the configuration of the preview shown in the Preview pane by selecting one of the options on the Preview menu. The Sample option shows each letter and number in the selected font, whereas the Repertoire option shows all the characters included in the selected font. The Custom option enables you to type characters in the Preview pane to preview them.

TIP

If you have trouble with a font, try validating it by selecting it and selecting File, Validate Font. Use the resulting Font Validation tool to check the font. When you do, the tool will report on the condition of the font.

Installing Fonts with the Font Book

You can use the Font Book to install fonts by performing the following steps:

1.	Select or create the library into which you want to place the fonts and select File, Add Fonts (-O). The Open dialog box will appear.
2.	Move to and select the font you want to install.
3.	Click Open. The font will be added to the selected library. You can add it to collections and work with that font with Font Book and from within applications.

TIP

To see where a font is installed, select it and select File, Show Font File (-R). A Finder window opens that shows the file in each location in which it has been installed.