by Mike Swope

Fonts and OS X: An New Kind of Detective Story

By all accounts, you should be able to use all your existing TrueType, PostScript and Bitmap fonts. If they're already installed in Classic (OS 9.1) in the normal manner (System Folder/Fonts), they should be available to you through OS X. If you're running a Classic font management utility such as those listed above, those fonts managed by such utilities will not be available in OS X. Currently, no font management utility is compatible with Classic under OS X.

With the release of OS X, a new font format appears on the Mac landscape, identified by the .dfont extension. The .dfont file format indicates font suitcases whose resource fork contents are found in the data fork (hence the extension .dfont, or data fork font). Currently, .dfonts are only compatible with OS X, not Classic or previous releases. However, Alsoft reports that they "examined a few of the Mac OS X data fork based font resources and found that they were byte for byte identical to their resource based counterparts that we all use with Mac OS 9. If you were to copy every byte of the data fork of one these files into the resource fork, you'd be able to use it with any version of the Mac OS, all the way back to System 7."

In an ideal world, in addition to installing classic font formats into Classic (OS 9.1), you should be able to install classic fonts and .dfonts in OS X in several places. To install fonts into OS X, it is easiest to drop your .dfont, TrueType, PostScript and Bitmap fonts into either of the last two choices, or for widest availability, your TrueType, PostScript and Bitmap fonts into the last choice. That's all there is to it:

1. /System/Library/Fonts (read-only default system .dfont, TrueType and PostScript fonts)  

2. /Network/Library/Fonts (site-specific .dfont, TrueType and PostScript fonts accessible through a corporate LAN/WAN)  

3. /Library/Fonts (machine-specific .dfont, TrueType and PostScript fonts not part of the set of default system fonts but available to all users when they log into OS X)  

4. /Users/*User*/Library/Fonts (user-specific .dfont, TrueType and PostScript fonts available only to that user when he/she is logged into OS X)   5. /System/Fonts (TrueType and PostScript fonts that will be available to both OS X and Classic applications at the same time)

Forensics

But there are problems with OS X's purported font compatibility.

Despite my best efforts, I was unable to consistently install TrueType fonts from Canvas 6, CorelDraw 8 or FontsPro 2002 into OS X. That is, the TrueType fonts from Canvas 6, weren't recognized by OS X when installed in /Library/Fonts, /Users/*User*/Library/Fonts, or Classic System/Fonts directories. The TrueType fonts from Draw 8 and FontsPro 2002 were recognized by OS X and behaved as they should when installed in any of the directories. All the TrueType fonts, however, when installed in Classic, were recognized by Classic applications and behaved as they should.

PostScript fonts, on the other hand, presented no problem whatsoever. When I installed PostScript fonts from Canvas 6, CorelDraw 8, and Fonts Pro 2002 into the /Library/Fonts, /Users/*User*/Library/Fonts, and Classic System/Fonts directories, all were available to OS X without incident.

Like PostScript fonts, Bitmap fonts presented no unusual problems. When I installed Bitmap fonts from www.wpdfd.com, designed specifically for use in web graphics at 7 points, into the /Library/Fonts, /Users/*User*/Library/Fonts, and Classic System/Fonts directories, all were recognized by OS X without incident. When installed into the Classic System/Fonts directory, these fonts were available to both OS X and Classic.

If you are having trouble with OS X recognizing TrueType fonts, there is a solution. I took a random sample of the Canvas 6 TrueType fonts, opened them in Macromedia Fontographer, and resaved them again as TrueType fonts. Now when installed into either /Library/Fonts, /Users/*User*/Library/Fonts or Classic System/Fonts directories, they were now available to OS X. Thus, Canvas 6 fonts, at least, suffer from some unknown error to make them incompatible with OS X. It is reasonable to assume that other TrueType fonts may contain the same error. If so, just dig up an old copy of Fontographer, enact a little therapy, and reinstall the newly saved and compatible font.

I should note, as a matter of interest, that I had problems with Classic recognizing that TrueType, PostScript and Bitmap fonts had been uninstalled and installed without rebooting Classic. After a TrueType, PostScript or Bitmap font had been removed from the System/Fonts folder, it was still available to Classic applications until Classic was rebooted. After a TrueType, PostScript or Bitmap font was added to the System/Fonts folder, Classic had to likewise be rebooted before the font was available to Classic applications.

It is also worth noting that in addition to Canvas 6's TrueType fonts problem in OS X, some Bitmap fonts, specifically Sevenet, also designed specifically for web graphics, from Fountain Type Foundry, was not recognized by OS X, Classic or OS 9.1, though I have used the font before. Neither would Fontographer open this font so it could be resaved, despite downloading several fresh copies of Sevenet.

Final Analysis

Despite the near-incriminating silence about fonts in OS X, the case isn't as mysterious as it at first appears. If you have several collections of fonts, you'll likely be able to use them in OS X. PostScript and Bitmap fonts install into OS X most consistently, according to my testing. On the other hand, some TrueType fonts, such as those available in Canvas 6, may pose a small mystery, but that mystery is easily solved using Macromedia Fontographer.

If you have historically relied on font management utilities such as Adobe Type Manager Deluxe, Alsoft MasterJuggler, or Extensis Suitcase in OS 9.x, you'll have to wait some time to use similar tools for OS X. Apple's oft-sited but elusive Font Panel is not a font management utility, although it may appear to share some features with such utilities. Instead, Apple's Font Panel is an improved font selection tool which allows users to group fonts into something like sets for fast selection but does not enable or disable fonts in OS X.

For more information about OS X and fonts, visit the Alsoft, Extensis and Apple web sites.

Mike Swope is publisher of inetreviews.com, a site that will shortly be launched and also the vice-president of MacWichita Macintosh User Group in Wichita, KS. He runs his own graphics design business, Swope Design, that provides professional and affordable graphic design, printing, and consultation services/training to businesses, organizations and individuals.