Fonts and the MAC

[sozoman]

Hi everyone!

MAC newbee here. I purchased a refirb iMac - 1.25 - 768 ram - O/S 10.4.10 (downloaded 10.4.11) 80 gig HD.

I purchased the system for my wife who uses Photoshop CS2.

System was pretty good until we started installing programs (PS ILL MS OFFICE 2004 and other graphic type programs)

First hint of trouble.... LOL!!!

My wife went a little over board (I think) by adding around 800, yes, 800 MORE FONTS to the system. Suddenly system takes about 60 secs to load (mac version) MS Word - Photoshop is incredibly slow. Very slow.

In addition she loaded way too many brushes in PS. She removed the added brushes that helped a bit but system is still much too slow, I think.

BTW way we used Font Book to "manage" the fonts on the system....???? good or bad??

I have been researching and it is not consistant. Do over 920 fonts on a system like mine severly affect the system? What would be a good way to manage the fonts and what would be a good level of fonts for her to keep on board?

thanks guys!!!

Kenny

[Natobasso]

First, don't load all your user fonts in system/library/fonts. The answer to your problem lies here: http://www.linotpye.com/fontexplorer. Download FE (it's free!) and once complete use it's Tools/Manage System folder to get all but the required system fonts in that folder out of there.

Then make a MY FONTS, or similarly named folder, and fill it with the fonts you want. This will also help avoid font conflicts with Microsoft Apps, MSFT likes managing and installing its own fonts. Put this folder just inside your computer's hard drive. Then link to it from FE (Add to Library I think is the command in FE).

Having 920 fonts means you have many more actual font files. Assume that each font has AT LEAST 4 or 5 variations inside it. So you're really dealing with more than 3,000 fonts at the moment! Loading all those all the time will bog your system down, as you've noticed.

With FE you can create font groups for different projects so you aren't loading all your fonts all the time anymore, just the ones you need.

Do not use FontBook as it sucks for serious font use.

[sozoman]

Hey man!

Thanks very much!! This is great. I feel as if the clouds have parted and maybe some sun is about to shine. One more thing. How do I undo the use of font book? Delete it...??? can I reverse the use of it ... does font book allow me to just "undo". Also should I delete the installed fonts (from wife CD) and start all over again using the application you recommended??

thanks man!

Kenny

[Natobasso]

Just run FontBook and deactivate all fonts. Then it won't be managing everything.

(Thanks for the glowing praise, I don't deserve it! Keep it coming... )

Run FE and let it manage your fonts. You'll end up with only the 10 or so required in system/library/fonts and then a folder in your hard drive (specify the first layer inside the hd) with all your fonts which you then Add to Library in FE.