Since going to OS X Tiger from Panther I can’t open a downloaded font. All I get now is a blinking cursor in an empty box. I used to be able to ask font book to install it if I liked it.

I’m on Leopard so I can’t test it for you anymore but I seem to recall that double-clicking on the font you wanted to install would launch Font Book and it would either ask you if you wanted to install the font or it would do it automatically.

I’m curious, though… Do you have a lot of fonts on your Mac? If so, it might be better for you to download and use a third-party font manager, I have always felt Font Book.app to be kinda weak in handling fonts in great numbers and its data would sometimes get corrupted. I use FontExplorer X but the freebie version: I just don’t have the cash right now for the newest version and the freebie version still works relatively well, although Linotype stopped support for it. Here is the download page (click on the Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3 link near the bottom of the page).

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Greetinga and thanks for a reply, I have 193 fonts in my fontbook.  A downloaded font tries to go to fontbook, but all I get when not a working font, is a blank and blinking cursor and nothing else.

Which font is it? Where did you get that font?

I know that I downloaded some free fonts at DaFont and some just won’t work, no matter what. One even made one of my layout documents crash and refuse to print: once I changed the font to another typeface, all was good again. So basically what I am saying is that some free fonts out there are total junk. 

And 190+ fonts is kinda beefy for Font Book, I find. Try FontExplorer X (explained in my earlier post above, just be careful the version you download though) and it might allow you to import that font after all.

It has happened on a couple of occasions that Font Book would refuse to import a font and that was one of the reasons why I decided to use FontExplorer X a couple of years ago just to see if the font would work and it did.

Many thanks, will try that. I will try to eliminate fonts as well/ I’m a retired Graphic Artist and font crazy.

Well don’t tell anyone but… I have over 2,100 fonts! 

Just remember to activate only the fonts you need: the more fonts are activated, the slower your Mac is going to be.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Hi Again from the crazy font guy:
Everything went great. Two test fonts loaded and activated in my system that I wanted and could not before. Downloaded the font program to use as you said. Also I de-actvated (on your advice) 50 fonts that were redundant to me, namely, Russian, Chinese, Arab or such type, and a couple of ordinary I did not want.

Many Thanks

Owe you one.

Don

Cool! You can also create font sets so you don’t need to load all the fonts all the time.

FontExplorer is intelligent enough to keep all system fonts activated (and you cannot de-activate them by mistake) and if you play around with a layout program or Photoshop, Illustrator or whatever, you can create a set for each job or work you do in those apps. Then when you don’t need those fonts activated anymore because the job is over and done with, you simply de-activate them so your Mac doesn’t keep them loaded in RAM for nothing.

Including all the system fonts, I have here around 70 fonts activated. When I dabble in graphic arts apps, I activate fonts as needed, then shut them down again when it’s done.

Glad it went well. 

Hi dlanod…
Just double click on the font you want to install. It would launch a Font Book. Now you can yourself install the font or it would do it automatically. The better would be to download and use a third-party font manager.