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"Bad Font" message while on internet
#27137 10/22/13 10:05 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
deniro Offline OP
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Joined: Sep 2009
I have no idea what this means. I did delete a font recently, using Linotype Font Explorer, but it wasn't an important one. This message appears in two boxes at once, one over the other. I used the web for a while and then the message(s) appeared again:

A problem has been detected with the font OTS derivied font, in the font file $C. The system will attempt to disable this font, but to avoid future problems, you should quit all of your open applications and remove this font file or replace it with a new version.

Try here:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1987/jul/16/on-r-langton-douglas/

Last edited by deniro; 10/22/13 10:07 PM.
Re: "Bad Font" message while on internet
deniro #27142 10/23/13 09:21 AM
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It means you have a corrupted font file in your system. Have you tried running Font Book to…
  • Validate fonts?
  • Validate files...?



If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: "Bad Font" message while on internet
joemikeb #27146 10/23/13 04:12 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
deniro Offline OP
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Joined: Sep 2009
I fixed it, I think. I've been using Linotype Font Explorer X (the old free version) to manage my fonts. A couple days ago I removed a couple fonts -- Palatino was one, and a couple others that were identified as belonging to iWork, although I don't use any iWork apps. I assume that is why I was getting Bad Font messages and Volume Needs Repair messages from Disk Utility.

I cloned my hard drive to my backup drive using Super Duper, which I do every couple months. Then I booted from the backup drive, ran Disk Utility from the backup drive, and repaired the hard drive volume. I started up from the hard drive as usual, ran Disk Utility from the hard drive, and found that the backup drive had the same volume error. So I figured this must have been a font problem, though neither Font Book nor Linotype Font Explorer X detected a problem. I ran Disk Utility and repaired the backup drive.

I don't know that I want to use FontExplorer X anymore. I'm not sure what the benefit is. And now I'm confused as to where my fonts should go. I don't want FontExplorer X and FontBook fighting over my system. Keep in mind that I added some of my own freeware fonts when I bought my computer.

So I found fonts (& folders) here:

1) Hard Drive>Library>Fonts
2) Hard Drive>System>Library>Fonts
3) Hard Drive>Users>deniro>FontExplorerX>Font Library
4) Hard Drive>Users>deniro>Library>Fonts (empty folder)


and this:

5) Hard Drive>Users>deniro>Library>Application Support>Linotype>FontExplorer X>FontDatabase.db
6) Hard Drive>Users>deniro>Library>Application Support>Linotype>FontExplorer X>FontExplorerXAutoload
7) Hard Drive>Users>deniro>Library>Application Support>Linotype>FontExplorer X>StartupFonts.plist


I don't want to uninstall Font Explorer X but I want Font Book to control all my fonts. Given the list above, where are all my fonts supposed to go? Can I manually move them to one folder or wherever they are supposed to be?







Re: "Bad Font" message while on internet
deniro #27154 10/23/13 08:09 PM
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Where your fonts go depends on their scope of reference as follows:
  • /System/Library/Fonts — these are nominally fonts that are used by the system and like anything in the /System folder should remain where they are and neither deleted nor moved.
  • /Library/Fonts — these are fonts that may be used by any user on the computer and in any application [*]/Users/deniro/Library/Fonts — these are fonts that are only available to the user deniro (On my systems this is an empty folder as I have no reason to limit any font to only one user.)
  • The official OS X font list and locations for Mountain Lion may be found here. Apparently the Mavericks list is not out yet but I would expect it to be virtually identical.

Font Book turns fonts in the three font folders and makes them available to cocoa (object oriented) applications such as Pages, NeoOffice, Numbers, Keynote, etc. and properly written procedural applications. Back in the OS X public beta, 10.0.x, 10.1.x, 10.2.x, and maybe even 10.3.x Font Books ability to turn fonts on and off was a big deal because there was a definite limit on the number of fonts an application could handle. Font Explorer was a third party competitor to Font Book that used a different method for controlling the active and inactive fonts and had the advantage of being effective for applications using procedural code that had not been recoded to recognize Font Book control. By the time OS X 10.4 (or maybe even 10.3) rolled around the limits on the number of fonts that could be handled in an application had disappeared and comments or questions about Font Book, Font Explorer, et. al. virtually disappeared from the forums. Today the principal use of Font Book is verifying font files and folders to be sure they are not corrupted and identify/eliminate duplicate font files which can still cause problems and to organize or group fonts so the font list in applications does not become so long and unwieldy.

Personally Font Book has moved all my fonts to /System/Library/Fonts and /Library/Fonts and I have not needed any other font management tools for several years except on one or two occasions I have had a font go bad or from somewhere a duplicate font crept in and had to use Font Book. But I know of some users with 10 or 20 times the 329 fonts I have on my systems and I am convinced their experience is different from mine.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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