Need Font Wrangling Advice

September 11, 2009 4:42 PM

I need to clean out the mess that is my fonts on OS X 10.6. What are the default system fonts?

I have a large number of fonts and now I seem to have created a mess using various font organizers.

Question:

Does anyone know the default font installations for the various libraries ( /System/Fonts and ~/Library/Fonts, etc)?

Also, what is the best way to coral all of my fonts from various folders, check for problems, and toss out dupes?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

PS Free apps are obviously preferred to paid ones.

posted by captainscared to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

This is a vanilla 10.6 install without the extra language fonts installed:

AmericanTypewriter.ttc
Andale Mono.ttf
Apple Chancery.ttf
Apple LiGothic Medium.ttf
Apple LiSung Light.ttf
Arial Black.ttf
Arial Bold Italic.ttf
Arial Bold.ttf
Arial Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow Bold Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow Bold.ttf
Arial Narrow Italic.ttf
Arial Narrow.ttf
Arial Rounded Bold.ttf
Arial Unicode.ttf
Arial.ttf
Baskerville.ttc
BiauKai.ttf
BigCaslon.ttf
Brush Script.ttf
Chalkboard.ttc
Chalkduster.ttf
Cochin.ttc
Comic Sans MS Bold.ttf
Comic Sans MS.ttf
Copperplate.ttc
Courier New Bold Italic.ttf
Courier New Bold.ttf
Courier New Italic.ttf
Courier New.ttf
Didot.ttc
Futura.ttc
Georgia Bold Italic.ttf
Georgia Bold.ttf
Georgia Italic.ttf
Georgia.ttf
GillSans.ttc
Gungseouche.ttf
HeadlineA.ttf
Hei.ttf
Herculanum.ttf
Hiragino Sans GB W3.otf
Hiragino Sans GB W6.otf
Hoefler Text Ornaments.ttf
Hoefler Text.ttc
Impact.ttf
Kai.ttf
MarkerFelt.ttc
Microsoft Sans Serif.ttf
Optima.ttc
Osaka.ttf
OsakaMono.ttf
Papyrus.ttc
PCmyoungjo.ttf
Pilgiche.ttf
Skia.ttf
STHeiti Medium.ttc
Tahoma Bold.ttf
Tahoma.ttf
Times New Roman Bold Italic.ttf
Times New Roman Bold.ttf
Times New Roman Italic.ttf
Times New Roman.ttf
Trebuchet MS Bold Italic.ttf
Trebuchet MS Bold.ttf
Trebuchet MS Italic.ttf
Trebuchet MS.ttf
Verdana Bold Italic.ttf
Verdana Bold.ttf
Verdana Italic.ttf
Verdana.ttf
Webdings.ttf
Wingdings 2.ttf
Wingdings 3.ttf
Wingdings.ttf
Zapfino.ttf
ヒラギノ丸ゴ Pro W4.otf
ヒラギノ丸ゴ ProN W4.otf
ヒラギノ明朝 Pro W3.otf
ヒラギノ明朝 Pro W6.otf
ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3.otf
ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W6.otf
ヒラギノ角ゴ Std W8.otf
ヒラギノ角ゴ StdN W8.otf

posted by nathan_teske at 4:55 PM on September 11, 2009

Font Book has a "Resolve Duplicates" command. I don't think it tosses them out, but it deactivates them. If you select all by pressing cmd-a in your font list and choose resolve duplicates, it will do that.
posted by jeb at 5:28 PM on September 11, 2009

Also, what is the best way to coral all of my fonts from various folders, check for problems, and toss out dupes?

Plain ol' Font Book helped identify some dupes that were messing up Firefox in Snow Leopard -- old versions of the Microsoft Core Fonts retained in /Library/Fonts/Microsoft, with newer versions in /Library/Fonts. I didn't do the auto-resolve, but moved the older version in each case by hand.

(And I use Linotype FontExplorer X for general coralling.)
posted by holgate at 5:30 PM on September 11, 2009

Yeah, use the Font Book to work out any font duplicates or issues. And no matter what, do NOT delete the fonts in /System/Library/Fonts. Those are the fonts that OSX uses, and once you put in your password to delete the fonts, you'll see all the text disappear from the OS. Serious amounts of unfun.

Yeah, I know that when OSX asks you for your password, it's basically asking "are you really sure you want to do this?". But I like living on the edge.
posted by wearyaswater at 1:44 PM on September 12, 2009