Help me rescue my fonts!

May 1, 2009 4:31 AM

I have a font issue with my Leopard 10.5 iMac.

This problem is completely my fault, the computer had nothing to do with it! A few months ago I got overzealous upon finding and downloading a big set of free fonts for mac. I installed the fonts--I forget exactly how many, there were several hundred at least. Since then, though, on random websites and with random programs the font becomes unreadable. There's obviously a conflict but now I don't know what fonts are original and what fonts I added later. Faceslap, I know...

So now I don't care about the new font set, I just want the default fonts only so that I don't have this conflict problem. Is there a way to "revert to original fonts" or something similar?

posted by zardoz to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I can recommend Font Doctor X for this sort of problem.
posted by TheRaven at 5:13 AM on May 1

If all else fails, reinstall the OS on an external usb drive, and look in the /Library/Fonts folder for what should be there by default..
posted by DreamerFi at 6:02 AM on May 1

LinoType's FontExplorerX will show you all the fonts you have installed, and which of them are System fonts. You could use it to disable all non-system fonts or be more selective.
posted by chazlarson at 6:29 AM on May 1

It won't help your immediate problem, but this article is an excellent overview of font management in OS X and could prepare you better for the future.
posted by adamrice at 7:46 AM on May 1

FontExplorerX actually has a feature for exactly this purpose: Tools menu --> "Clean System Fonts Folder" will move custom-installed fonts out to the desktop leaving just the default system fonts in place.

It's a pretty solid font management program, actually.
posted by ook at 7:47 AM on May 1

I use FontDoctor too. It's not the best, but it gets the job done. It's $70 by itself, or you can get it bundled with Suitcase (by Extensis) for $99. If you've got the dough, I'd suggest the bundle; with Suitcase and FontDoctor you've got some nice tools for keeping your fonts under control.

On the free side of the equation, Font Book, which comes with OS X, can be used to view and manage fonts. It will require you manually turning off individual fonts to find the conflict, good old trial and error, but you should already have it in your Apps or Utilities folder.
posted by lekvar at 12:04 PM on May 1