As someone who works with fonts every day, you need to know exactly how fonts work in Mac OS X. Long-time Mac author Sharon Zardetto Aker has the answers you need, explaining where your fonts reside, why they are there, and what to do about duplication and long Font menus. Once that’s under control, you’ll learn things like the ins and outs of different font installation methods; how to use Font Book to manage, validate, and organize fonts; ways of dealing with legacy Mac OS 9 fonts; and how to make the most of character-rich Unicode fonts. And to help with those maddening font problems, Sharon provides troubleshooting steps and real-world advice for solving problems fast. If you’ve experienced seemingly inexplicable trouble with characters displaying incorrectly, an inability to type a particular character, fonts missing from Font menus, confusing behavior in Microsoft or Adobe programs, Font Book crashing, or Character Palette misbehaving, Real World Mac OS X Fonts has the help you need.

In this book, you’ll find the answers to questions like these:

• What types of fonts can I use with Mac OS X?

• In what order does Mac OS X access fonts from all their possible locations?

• How can I figure out what characters are available in a Unicode font?

• How can I minimize font-related troubles when sharing documents across platforms?

• How do I go about troubleshooting a font problem?

• How do I enter special characters?

• How do I print font samples?

• How do I work with legacy fonts?
  

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Solved the mess! - 2007-01-26
Reviewer Rating:
I do graphics and own Macs from October, 1985. I passed thru all the font technologies that were done into the computer... from enlarging 72pt bitmaps and correcting them, the early times of Adobe's ATM and so on.
But --maybe I'm getting old-- with the introduction of Mac OS X, typography went almost out of control for me. Althought I do not use per se Office I need to install it to open others files... and it destroy any organizated fonts folders that you had managed,
Then, in a desperate move, I bought Zardetto's book!
And everything came back to order: clear instructions lead me in a clever and consistent way. I confess I did it twice. First time I said myself: "I'm an old macintoshian..." But then I realized that following the step-by-step instructions was more inteligent. Then, with everything in order, I was back "in control".
So, my advice --for newbies and oldies-- follow the instructions and then personalize your fonts. OK, first buy and read the book!

Fix font problems - Flawlessly - 2007-01-23
Reviewer Rating:
Face it - you'd think just putting your fonts in the FONT folder would be sufficient. But, strange things do happen. And, for me it is never at a good time. Like when you upgrade Adobe CS ... which made half my fonts DISAPPEAR.
Thanks for the info and instructions about AdobeFntXX.lst alone - made this book a must have in my library.
And, that was just one small enlightened moment Aker's offered

Making the Mac Safe for Fonts - 2007-09-27
Reviewer Rating:
What a splendid guide! Even if you are content to use TIMES ROMAN all the time, you should still look at this book to see a model of how to write a computer guide. None of the breezy self conscious humor you find in some books (the Dummy series or Scott Kelby's otherwise informative PhotoShop books). But friendlier and more attuned to the reader's anxieties and potential mistakes than the standard dry guides (e.g. the Missing Manuals series, which are not bad). Aker seems to sense exactly what you might need to know at just the right moment, but yet does not overwhelm you without a lot of detail all at once.

I recently switched from a PC (since 1980)to Mac, which is as everyone said so much more elegant, stable and better in almost every respect. But the font system is just as complicated and eccentric in OS X as in Windows XP. You need to do some housekeeping even if you are not a font maven. Follow the steps carefully laid out in Chapter 2 (rather tedious but precise), and your system will run more smoothly and you will know a lot about where your fonts are, and how to keep them behaving well.

I am almost never moved to write reviews here, and certainly not of computer books. But this is an exceptional contribution.

CONCISE EXPLANATIONS for Real World Usage - 2008-01-27
Reviewer Rating:
When OS 9 Classic was retired, it forced a radical transition to reorganize and manage fonts without the ATM.

This book is the clearest and simplest guide for OSX users to understand how font functionality has altered in the OSX environment. Also vital to crossplatform users, the author Zardetto Aker simplifies the complex nature of sharing fonts between two platform radicals (Windows and APPLE).

Those who earn their living in computer design using real world situations would benefit from buying this book.

One analogy that describes it best:

Any graphic project is like the recipe for a perfect pot of "CHILI"
FONTS are the spices going into that pot.
If you don't manage the spice in your chili, like not managing the fonts in your project .... You wind up with disaster.

MUST READING ... Zardetto Akers' Font Management in OSX takes the confusion out of the font dynamics restructured on OSX.

A guide through the labyrinth - 2007-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
I love my Mac, & I love typography. What I don't love is the mind-numbing complexity of OSX's font handling. Although I don't lament the passing of the ever-crashing OS9, it's framework for fonts was beautifully simple. There's a price for progress.

This book provides what's needed to understand the foundation concepts and terminology, and to deal confidently with common font issues. Thoroughly explained, it's made apparent that the font framework of OSX is not so incomprehensible after all. For any tech-savvy graphic artist or designer, an indispensable volume for your reference shelf.

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