Working With Fonts

Installing fonts on a Macintosh is as simple as dropping all the necessary files in the Fonts folder. Follow these steps for success:

1. Open the System Fonts folder (open your Macintosh Hard Drive, then open System Folder, then open Fonts).
2. You will be able to see all the currently installed fonts.
3. Select the folder containing the fonts you want to install. Open this folder. Select the screen and printer fonts needed.
4. Drag and drop these fonts into the System Fonts folder. Hold down the option key while dragging, to copy the fonts instead of moving them.
5. Your newly installed fonts will now be visible within the System Fonts folder. You may get a reminder telling you that any currently running applications won't be able to use the new fonts until you close and restart them

Installing fonts on a Windows system is very straightforward because it doesn't require any additional software. Simply follow the procedure below:

1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Fonts to open the Windows Fonts folder. You will see the currently installed fonts.
2. Click File > Install New Font....
3. In the dialog you will see two drop-down boxes, one for Drives and another for Folders. Navigate to the drive and folder containing the fonts you wish to install.
4. Select the fonts you wish to install and click "OK". That's all there is to it. The dialog will close and you will see your fonts in the Windows Fonts folder. If the "Copy fonts to Fonts folder" box is checked, the fonts will be copied there .

There are several useful font utilities for Macintosh and Windows platforms. Most basic of these is a font manager for Type 1 fonts. Since Type 1 fonts are not native to either the Macintosh or Windows 95/98 operating systems, Type 1 fonts won't be accessible without it.

Good Font Manager
ATM® Lite is freely available for both the Mac or PC from the Adobe. If you plan to use Type 1 fonts on the Mac you will need ATM whether or not you install a more powerful font manager. Shown below is a screen shot of ATM Lite for the Mac:

Better Font Manager
ATM Deluxe is also available for both the Mac or PC from the Adobe. ATM Deluxe will let you organize fonts in sets. This is very handy because you can activate and deactivate them much more easily. It will also search and find all your fonts and make them available to applications when they are needed. ATM will auto-activate fonts. If a document contains references to uninstalled fonts, ATM will activate them automatically.

Best Font Manager
Both Diamond Soft Font Reserve and Extensis® Suitcase™ are professional font management software applications. Note: ATM Lite is required on the Mac even if using Font Reserve or Suitcase. Recently, Font Reserve, has been noted as the leading tool. The features that make Font Reserve unique are:

• Mac fonts are easily damaged and Font Reserve stores them safely in a vault.

• Auto-activates them plus it lets you organize them in sets like ATM Deluxe

• Allows you to sort fonts using a variety of filters and lets you view fonts and print out specimen sheets

Before sending your job to TSG, you will need to organize the fonts. This is achieved by placing printer fonts and screen font suitcases inside a fonts folder that is sent along with your files. On the Macintosh, screen fonts exist in suitcases. A suitcase is a special kind of folder made especially for fonts. A suitcase can contain a mix of Type 1 and TrueType fonts.

• Be aware that any duplicate screen fonts will conflict with each other as the fonts are accessed. To avoid this, it may be necessary to open every screen font suitcase and compare their contents with other suitcases to confirm that duplicate screen fonts do not exist.

• Or, instead of opening each suitcase, it may be easier to combine the contents of all the like font suitcases into just one suitcase. This will effectively eliminate most font conflicts.

• Be aware that for each separate screen font face, there must be a matching printer font with it, in order for the type to output as it should.

  

Typography basics
A wealth of information on fonts provided by Adobe.

Typography basics: Typeface classification
February 2001 How typefaces are classified and the differences between typeface classifications.

   See also  "Solving the Mystery of Missing Fonts in EPS Files"