Is FontBook enough?

mlnjrmlnjr
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apologies if this should be in Software instead. The overall issue I'm asking about is possible corrupted fonts, and that's not specific to one piece of software.



I've been doing some troubleshooting work for a client who has been having what look to be font corruption issues. At random times while using either Quark or Photoshop, the Mac will freeze up. Fonts are stored in various places, including that Mac as well as on a separate storage drive. 10.3 is running on that Mac, a G4 tower with 1.5 GB RAM.



1. Could there be a permissions issue as far as working with the local fonts vs. the fonts on the storage drive? Can that cause the freezing? Would it be better to have all of the fonts on one drive?

2. The client has been using Suitcase for font management. Suitcase has the added feature of being able to diagnose and repair corrupted fonts. But would FontBook do the management job better, aside from not being able to fix corruption? (Can it fix corrupted fonts? I didn't think so.)

3. Anything else I could be overlooking? The latest OS and software updates have been installed, permissions fixed (though not on the storage drive yet.)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    jwri004jwri004 Posts: 626member
    Corrupted fonts seem to wreak havoc on machines.



    Fontbook was designed to hold the necessary apps not as a professional package. If you lots of fonts seek other means as fontbook by most accounts wont handle it.



    Just search a few forums and you will see threads such as "Is fontbook the worst app ever" surfacing.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    1. For designers, corrupt fonts cause system-wide problems far more often than permissions problems, IME (which seem to get the blame for everything these days). I'd have Suitcase scan and repair the font library, and see if that clears up the problem.



    2. Font Book certainly cannot do the job better than Suitcase. And right, it can't diagnose (let alone repair) corrupt fonts.



    3. What kind of RAM? How recently added? OS X can be finicky with RAM.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    mlnjrmlnjr Posts: 230member
    Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. We'll see how Suitcase fares with the repair job on Monday. We'll do some swapping out of RAM too, just to make sure the issue isn't merely a bad stick or two of RAM. System Profiler recognizes all of the RAM that's installed, so I'm inclined to think it might not be a RAM issue, but I guess even a bad stick of RAM could still be recognized by the System Profiler.
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