I was asked about fonts and font-management by someone who “has tons of fonts.”<\/p>\n
If you really have “tons of fonts” then that could be having an \u00a0\u00a0effect on your system. I personally keep my -active- font \u00a0\u00a0collection pared down to a minimum, and use Font Agent Pro to \u00a0\u00a0activate other fonts as needed. For example, one seldom needs \u00a0\u00a0“headline” (aka “decorative”) fonts active all the time, and those \u00a0\u00a0constitute the bulk of most font packages. With software that auto-\u00a0\u00a0activates the font only when it’s needed, you can remove some of \u00a0\u00a0the sludge from the system during normal use.<\/p>\n
Such font software will also check for font problems (and there is \u00a0\u00a0also the excellent Font Doctor which does the same thing.) Font \u00a0\u00a0book also has an implementation as well, although I”m not sure if \u00a0\u00a0it will repair broken fonts.
Fonts are considered part of the operating system, and a damaged or \u00a0\u00a0corrupted font can cause all kinds of mysterious issues. I’ve \u00a0\u00a0experienced this over the years myself, hence my recommendation, \u00a0\u00a0above.<\/p>\n
I generally leave the Microsoft and Adobe font packages alone \u00a0\u00a0(unless, of course, Font Doctor finds a corrupt font) and try to \u00a0\u00a0keep my \/Library\/Fonts folder down to what Apple supplies and a few \u00a0\u00a0others that are needed by specific software, such as the Britannica \u00a0\u00a0et al. Equally, I try to keep ~\/Library\/fonts tiny too.<\/p>\n
I do have some 1500 other type faces (many of which are “headline” \u00a0\u00a0fonts) that I’ve acquired over the years (and have converted to \u00a0\u00a0OTF, to stay up with OS changes) but these are all kept in a \u00a0\u00a0separate folder, organized and activated only as I need them, using \u00a0\u00a0Font Agent Pro.<\/p>\n
(I was then asked about what was “the best” font software, to which I replied:)<\/p>\n
Can’t reply as to whether or not Font Agent Pro (FAP)is “the best” \u00a0because I’ve been using it so long that I’ve not kept up with the \u00a0others. \u00a0If you already have software that is current and manages \u00a0fonts, you probably ought to use that, as I’d assume the differences \u00a0between packages is minor.<\/p>\n
By way of reference, I have about 90 font-families \/ 140 fonts active \u00a0on my computer right now. FAP lists 4247 fonts in my collection (which \u00a0probably represent about 1200 families, I’d guess.)<\/p>\n
As to using a font manager vs not: yes, it is far simpler to not use \u00a0one.<\/p>\n
Changing from one manager to another isn’t particularly difficult, but \u00a0can be stressful if things don’t go right.
Generally they keep the actual fonts organized in a separate folder. \u00a0Changing then would entail uninstalling the software, and moving all \u00a0those fonts to (say) your user\/library\/fonts folder, and then running \u00a0the new font manager. The font manager will gather up and redistribute \u00a0the fonts according to it’s own needs.<\/p>\n
That said, most font managers will let you create your own catagories \u00a0and arrange things to your heart’s content. Converting -that- from one \u00a0manager to another is pretty much impossible, if my experience is \u00a0telling, and a serious time-sink to convert. \u00a0For that reason, I \u00a0generally don’t bother; large type houses and grapic design firms do \u00a0bother.
Personally, I’ve found FAP to be more than adequate for my modest \u00a0needs, but, as I noted, that likely applies to whatever you have as \u00a0well. Just make sure you have the latest version before you go mucking \u00a0about.<\/p>\n
As to how to proceed: I’d get a clean install of the system fonts from \u00a0somewhere, and move your \/library\/fonts folder out of the \/library and \u00a0install the clean \/library\/ fonts.<\/p>\n
Do that for your ~\/library\/fonts as well.<\/p>\n
Then run the font management stuff, and include those moved folders. \u00a0\u00a0As it is right now, on my setup, I have a “MyFonts” folder at the root \u00a0level of my hard drive.<\/p>\n
hth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was asked about fonts and font-management by someone who “has tons of fonts.” If you really have “tons of fonts” then that could be having an \u00a0\u00a0effect on your system. I personally keep my -active- font \u00a0\u00a0collection pared down to a minimum, and use Font Agent Pro to \u00a0\u00a0activate other fonts as needed. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mac-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valleau.art\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}