Specifications

Creating System and Master Font Book collections

As a design or print professional, you probably need to add, delete, activate, and

deactivate fonts frequently for different clients or projects. Sometimes you might

also want to deactivate some of your installed fonts and use other font formats

from previous projects or for print specifications.

When you turn fonts on and off, you need to ensure that you do not deactivate fonts

that Mac OS X requires for proper operation and user interface display. To do this, use

Font Book to copy the All Fonts collection and divide the copy into two new sets: one

that will be protected from deactivation—System fonts; and another for all your other

fonts—Master fonts.

Creating a System font set

Your System font collection contains all the fonts that Mac OS X needs for dialogs,

basic text input, and international language support. For this reason, you need to

create a protected collection of these fonts to ensure that they can never be disabled.

To create a System set:

1 Click the Add button (+) below the Collection column.

2 Type System for the name of the set, then press Return.

3 Select All Fonts in the Collection list.

4 Drag the following fonts from All Fonts to System:

• Lucida Grande

• Monaco

When you add fonts to your library, you have two options. You can add them to the

All Fonts collection, then to your Master Fonts set, and then to the specific collection

you wish to have open. Alternatively, if you prefer to place your favorite fonts in your

user fonts folder (~/Library/Fonts), there is no need to add the font to the All Fonts

collection. Mac OS X automatically places fonts in All Fonts if you’ve added them to

your user fonts folder.

Keyboard and LastResort fonts

If you view your fonts in a Finder window rather than in Font Book, you may see the

fonts Keyboard and LastResort. They are located in the System folder and are vital if

there is ever a problem with your managed fonts. They will not affect your print jobs

or show up in your applications. Never delete Keyboard or LastResort.

Technology Tour

Advanced Typography

with Mac OS X