Specifications

Appendix D:
Font Locations in Mac OS X
Mac OS X provides multiple locations for fonts for several reasons:
• Some applications, including Adobe applications such as InDesign, have their own
font folders.
• On a computer shared by several users, one user’s fonts might not be the same as
another’s, so Mac OS X provides private Fonts folders for individual users.
• Mac OS X is designed to be a multiuser system. It sometimes needs a place for shared
resources such as fonts. The /Library/Fonts folder serves this purpose.
• Schools and labs might want to put fonts on a Mac running Mac OS X Server and
Open Directory for everyone to share; this is the purpose of the
/Network/Library/Fonts folder. (Note that fonts in /Network/Library/Fonts are always
open; users can’t open and close these fonts themselves.)
• Multiple font locations with different access privileges protect critical system
resources—for instance, essential system fonts needed for menus and dialogs. The
/System/Library/Fonts folder lets you see these font suitcases, but you can’t easily
open, move, or add to them.
• Finally, supporting Classic applications requires the use of the Fonts folder in the
Classic System Folder.
When searching for a font, Mac OS X begins with the application’s font folder and
proceeds down the list in the order shown below. It uses the first font match it finds
in this sequence. For example, if you have Helvetica in the Classic Fonts folder and
Helvetica in your user Fonts folder, the latter takes precedence over the former when
you are working in a Mac OS X application.
32
Technology Tour
Advanced Typography
with Mac OS X