macos x and fonts. a lost oportunity.

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Why -Oh, why- Apple has forgotten the fonts in MacOs X.

A programmer can answer this, but I don´t understand why grouping fonts by family isn´t a macos level feature. Each applicattion has now the responsability of this.

The result is that each aplication manages the grouping fonts family diferent. Adobe do, FreeHand don´t, etc.

No third part utility is able to do. ¿Why it´s so dificult with MacOs X?

This is a crucial feature for serious user. The font list is now a long unreadable list with Bhelvetica, Chelvetica, etc.

I don't understand too why apple uses postscript fonts for his systems applications. ¿The result? You can't deactivate helvetica sistems fonts and this crash whith other Helvetica fonts used in professional documents (Indesign, FreeHand, etc)

¿Why we can't deactivate asian fonts? Always appears in programs menu fonts and is very disturbing because tne vast mayority of users don´t need them.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by juan carlos

    The result is that each aplication manages the grouping fonts family diferent. Adobe do, FreeHand don´t, etc.



    Is this true for Cocoa applications too? The Cocoa font panel seems to handle font families and custom groups of fonts automatically. I guess Carbon apps like the ones from Adobe and Macromedia either can't or don't, I'm not sure which.
  • Reply 2 of 13
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BuonRotto

    Is this true for Cocoa applications too? The Cocoa font panel seems to handle font families and custom groups of fonts automatically. I guess Carbon apps like the ones from Adobe and Macromedia either can't or don't, I'm not sure which.



    i think its don't but i could easily be wrong
  • Reply 3 of 13
    I'm just incredibly happy that now when I go to all my font websites to get new stuff, that I can get both PC and Mac fonts and they all work great.

    The funny thing is, all the sites still separate the fonts by Mac and PC. They haven't realized yet that OS X can use all of them.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    cowerdcowerd Posts: 579member
    Quote:

    I guess Carbon apps like the ones from Adobe and Macromedia either can't or don't, I'm not sure which.



    ALL recent versions of Adobe apps have Type Reunion lib built-in -- since Illustrator 8 I believe.



    And the Cocoa font panel also handles font grouping inconsistently. Fonts in the same suitcase are grouping, whereas a family of fonts in seperate suitcases are shown as seperate fonts. And there is currently no way to manipulate fonts in OSX.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    709709 Posts: 2,016member
    Anybody here know of an OSX type application like Fontographer?
  • Reply 6 of 13
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    See http://www.apple.com/creative/fonts/



    It might not have the answers you want, and it might not even solve all the problems you have, but it's a pretty thorough treatment of how fonts are treated in OS X, and the current means of managing them. I'm sure Apple is getting feedback about the shortcomings of the current system, but it can't hurt to send any feedback you have their way: http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/



    Carbon applications now have access to the built-in Font panel, but as is the case with Carbon in general, support has to be coded in explicitly. Bug the application developers if you want to see support. I don't think Adobe will bother, because they're trying to make their apps as identical as possible across platforms, including GUI, font management, color management, etc. So I wouldn't pin any serious hope on their adoption of the Font panel (although, in fairness to Adobe, they did roll in AppleScript support...).
  • Reply 7 of 13
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    What was Fontographer like again? I get confused with the names, sorry.



    Might as well plug this thing for Stone Design:



    http://www.stone.com/FontSight/FontSight.html



    I don't think I'll have much use for this since I use the font panel anyway without complaint, but maybe it helps? (Maybe not.)
  • Reply 8 of 13
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Fontographer was a font creation application.
  • Reply 9 of 13
    headyheady Posts: 18member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 709

    Anybody here know of an OSX type application like Fontographer?



    I don't like it as much as Fontographer, but there's FontLab.



    -Heady
  • Reply 10 of 13
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Which at least runs under X: it seems pretty good to my eyes (given I know nothing whatsoever about fontography), though I wish they'd get round to updating Scanfont as well; it's a reall pain hacing to find my Classic disk just to use that one app.



    Fontographer seems to have been left behind in the mists of time...
  • Reply 11 of 13
    drewpropsdrewprops Posts: 2,321member
    That Fontsight app would be great for me if it worked in Illustrator, but Illustrator's a Carbon app. BUT it looks like Illustrator 11 will have some ability to display typefaces from a preview palette....hope it's done well.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    fred_ljfred_lj Posts: 607member
    Isn't this what you want?
  • Reply 13 of 13
    david mdavid m Posts: 32member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by fred_lj

    Isn't this what you want?



    Suitcase allows you to peruse your collection, turn fonts off and on and generally organize them. It does not create a font menu like Reunion.



    Also, the cocoa font panel does have groupings but they are not automatic--the user has to add fonts where they want (Apple starts you off with some basic groups). You can not include/ exclude fonts or turn them on or off. Also, you have to keep the annoying panel on screen rather than access a menu.



    A more normal font drop menu with auto and manual groups that understands font families and can include/exclude fonts is what is really needed. I was very surprised to discover OSX didn't have this feaure; it seemed like an obvious thing to do for a company like Apple.
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