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Mac Newbie - Best way to add a lot of fonts?
Posted by jekie in
2 Oct 2008 — 7:40am
2 Oct 2008 — 7:40am
Hi All,
I've spent the past day and a half restoring my mac (osX 10.5.5) to working condition. Yesterday I dumped thousand of fonts into ~Library/Fonts. My system became unstable. I tried using Linotype FontExplorer X to turn off all but 1000 fonts, but my mac was still hosed. Certain apps would crash as soon as they started. I used TIme Machine to restore that directory to its prior state, and now I'm back in working condition.
I would love to have all of these fonts as a resource. How do I use them without causing problems for my mac?
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2 Oct 2008 — 7:54am
You should load them into a font management program like FontExplorer or Extensis Suitcase. That fact that you're "dumping" thousands of fonts into your system leads me to believe that many are either shareware and/or of highly questionable quality. I'm not sure about FontExplorer but Suitcase will weed out or repair corrupted fonts as you add them. And you should only activate a few fonts for general use and others on an as-needed basis.
2 Oct 2008 — 9:02am
I bought for myself Suitcase a very long time ago. I always urged my customers to buy it too, and make it a habit to use it, and not Apple's font installation approach (from FontMover to the Library's font folder etc.).
As you see, I am strongly recommending it to you.
You could group the fonts into different "suitcases" based upon styles or different needs.
Suitcase is an excellent product. It has been around for a few decades, and is being constantly updated for compatibility with new Mac operating systems.
2 Oct 2008 — 12:25pm
I just use FontBook that is provided with Mac OSX. What is everyone's thoughts on FontBook vs. Suitcase?
I did previously have Suitcase when on Windows.
2 Oct 2008 — 1:17pm
I haven't been impressed with FontBook (although it has gotten better). I have used Suitcase - and it worked well. But I prefer the light footprint and responsiveness of FontExplorer and thus I am currently using it.