Specifications

Font Management for Prepress and Production
Font Book does not create a direct link from a specific font to the collection it came
from; therefore, service bureaus and other users who need to manage many dupli-
cates and keep them linked to a set or a collection might want to use Font Book in
a special manner.
If you frequently receive groups of fonts for specific jobs, it’s best to add the set, do
the job, then delete the collection and the fonts associated with it before adding
another set. This procedure will keep your System folder free of duplicate fonts.
• For single users who run only Mac OS X applications: Store fonts in the user’s personal
Fonts folder (~/Library/Fonts).
• For multiple users of a single computer who run Mac OS X applications exclusively:
A user with administrator rights should store fonts in the Library at <startup volume>/
Library/Fonts. This approach provides a common set of fonts for all users.
• For users who run both Classic and Mac OS X applications: Place fonts in the Fonts
folder in the Mac OS 9 System Folder.
Replacing common publishing fonts
In Mac OS X, five fonts are installed in /System/Library/Fonts that you might want
to replace with your PostScript version of the fonts. Service bureaus might want to
replace fonts with a customer’s version on a per-job basis using a font manager.
These fonts are Courier.dfont, Helvetica.dfont, Symbol.dfont, Times.dfont, and Zapf
Dingbats.dfont.
Working with Mac OS X plist files for fonts
Mac OS X simplifies font management because you don’t need to move a font out
of a folder to deactivate it. Font Book lets you store fonts in a number of different
directories in Mac OS X and disable them while still leaving them in place. Note that
the “disabling in place” approach is not recommended in prepress environments
because fonts that are in the system-level font folders are automatically active unless
they are explicitly deactivated through Font Book. Use Font Book to see whether
fonts are active—viewing fonts in the Finder will not show you whether a font is
enabled or disabled.
Mac OS X disables individual fonts by creating a preferences file called
com.apple.ATS.plist for each user. This file tells the operating system which fonts are
disabled. You can use a font manager to override fonts installed in the system-level
font folders; however, you will not get a missing-font warning from an application
if a system font is active. In addition, if the Font Book preferences file is accidentally
deleted or rebuilt, any fonts in the system-level font folders revert to their active state.
You might not notice this reactivation, creating a risk of accidental font substitution
by the once-again-active font. If you notice any anomalies, simply use Font Book or
your third-party font manager to ensure that the correct fonts are enabled.
25
Technology Tour
Advanced Typography
with Mac OS X