Contact sheets and program error

I started another topic with similar problems.
It all started doing contact sheets.
Now PS, AI and ID won’t open any files, they will open a recent file but I am not able to save anything.
I also heard there is a font issue, so I need to disable Font Book before I install another Font Management software that will help me find corrupted files…. I was recommended to use Font Agent Pro. I don’t really undestand how to disable Font Book.

Yo do NOT disable FontBook. You just do not manage (activate or deactivate) fonts with it if you use another font managing application.

🙂 Found a corrupt font with Font Agent Pro and Photoshop is making contact sheets without the error now! Thanks all for the help!

To avoid conflicts with other Type management programs, you DO need to prevent FontBook from continuing to manage your fonts and I would label that as "Disabling" it.

To "Disable" Font Book you can do this:
1. In Font Book, enable all collections and fonts
2. Quit Font Book
3. Delete <user>/Library/FontCollections
4. Delete <user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FontBook.plist
5. Restart

————
This alternative method is recommended by:
www.thexlab.com/faqs/undofontbook.html

Undoing Font Book in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
Please read this entire procedure before use. Perform the following steps in the order specified.
1. Startup in Safe Mode.
2. Log in to your account. This will result in your current font cache being moved to the Trash. Only System fonts are available in Safe Mode.
3. Log out of your account.
4. Restart your Mac normally, i.e. do not restart in Safe Mode.
5. Log in to your account. All previously-disabled fonts will be enabled and load. If you’ve installed hundreds or thousands of fonts, many of which had been disabled with Font Book, this could result in very slow performance of your Mac until all previously-disabled fonts are again disabled.
6. Empty the Trash.

I wouldn’t do what Ann suggests: deisabling FontBook.
FontBook is used by other Apple software and comes with the system. There is absolutely no harm in having it on the disk as long as you do not selectively activate and/or deactivate fonts with it when you use another font manger.

The culprit in most cases is the fontcache/s. And those need to be emptied/deleted/trashed in one way or the other (there are plenty pf ways to do that). Disabling FontBook should not be done.

I have found absolutely NO need for any input from Font Book in ANY of the programs that I use in either 10.4.11 or in Classic.

I use FontAgent Pro to manage ALL of my fonts (System, Classic and third-party fonts) and I have never needed to re-launch Apple’s Font Book for ANY of my applications since I disabled it years ago.

Just exactly which applications do you think are in need of Font Book Nini, if you are using FontAgent Pro to manage your Fonts?

You are of course using FAP, I assume?

Still think that you need Font Book to be active?

Read the articles on this Site:

<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/undofontbook.html>

I have more than 4,000 fonts installed on this machine and have not had a single font-related problem in at least the last four years (except for the one corrupt font which FAP found and side-lined on import)— and probably longer ago than that.

This applies to Tiger (OSX 10.4.x) — if you are using Leopard, it may be different.

I can only tell you that I removed the Collections folder from my Library long long ago and it has never come back — neither have I ever missed it.

I have found absolutely NO need for any input from Font Book in ANY of the programs that I use in either 10.4.11 or in Classic.

I use FontAgent Pro to manage ALL of my fonts (System, Classic and third-party fonts) and I have never needed to re-launch Apple’s Font Book for ANY of my applications since I disabled it years ago.

I still recommend that you first install FAP; set it to manage ALL of your fonts; and then disable Font Book.

Just exactly which applications do you think are in need of Font Book Nini, if you are using FontAgent Pro to manage your Fonts?

You are of course using FAP, I assume?

Still think that you need Font Book to be active?

Read the articles on this Site:

<http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/undofontbook.html>

I have more than 4,000 fonts installed on this machine and have not had a single font-related problem in at least the last four years (except for the one corrupt font which FAP found and side-lined on import)— and probably longer ago than that.

This applies to Tiger (OSX 10.4.x) — if you are using Leopard, it may be different.

Many Apple applications rely on FontBook to show and manage fonts one way or the other as far as I know (like TextEdit, iLife and iWork – and yes, some of use DO use those as they are far more reliable than MS Office apps).

I used Suitcase until about six months ago and since OSX was born. Never hade ANY problems with it.

Before OS X I used ATM Dlx for many years – never had ANY problems with that either.

Before that I used an app which I’ve forgotten the name of and before that the then Suitcasee in its first incarnation. That’s when you used the Font and DA mover to install and remove fonts…. Things have become easier actually when it comes to font management. Compared to then.

I do NOT use FAP. I’ve looked at now and again and never liked it. Just as I’ve looked at other font managers over the years. It’s something about the UI that doesn’t agree with my way of working.

At work we use FontBook, nothing else. "Work" is Scandinavia’s largest daily newspaper and the fonts used are restricted and fixed and centrally decided upon (I work at the Mac Helpdesk). There is no need for activating and deactivating. Personally I stopped using Suitcase not because I had problems with it (never had problems with it) but because I do not really need a font manager nowadays (I did in my previous job at an Apple Centre where I was in charge of all courses, made my own materials, all printed matters, ads etc). I’ve reduced my number of active fonts to those I really use. The rest I keep elsewhere and only put in in case of need. The less fonts, the faster the apps are. And no need of a font manager.

Not every user needs a font manager. Only those who constantly activate and deactivate fonts do, which normally means people who work with clients one way or the other.

That does NOT mean that you have to activate and/or deactivate fonts via FontBook, just that it needs to be there. The rule is to never use FontBook for activation/deactivation of fonts if you are using another font manager. (You CAN however use it to look at the fonts placed in the ordinary fonts folders that need no activation to be used). And to never use more than one font manager ever regardless of which brand it has. Because they get in each others way. Just letting FontBook be there doesn’t do a thing to another font manager. You can even use it for quick looks of fonts and font-info if you want to – as long as you don’t activate or deactivate fonts through it when another font manager is present.

You DO need to remove fontcaches and to keep your fonts healthy – that does NOT mean that you need to remove FontBook. Most peoples aversion against FontBook stems from the very first version of it (I agree, that was sometimes a disaster). It has matured though over the years and only become better.

I still maintain that those of us who do use FAP (and that is quite a lot of the contributors to this Forum) do NOT need Font Book for anything at all — and that includes TextEdit and iLife too. Neither will TextEdit or iLife launch Font Book automatically..

If you choose to use Font Book instead of FAP, that’s your prerogative.

But if you DO use FAP, and use it to manage ALL of your fonts, you can deactivate Font Book with impunity — and it has been my experience that you will free yourself from font problems if you do.

I have had FontBook disabled for eons, with no adverse side effects whatsoever. I also fol,lowed the procedure describe by Ann and deleted the Font Collections.

I have personally never had font problems in the 20+ years that I’ve used a Mac and pagelayout and graphics apps with the exception of an old version of Meta which at an OS update started to act up – that was remedied by an update of the font to a newer version.

Customers and users around me have had problems of all kinds (which I solved for them in various ways), but usually caused by not knowing how to handle fonts and too much non-legal swapping of fonts between users and having very little to do with which font manager they used.

Point is: never use more than one single font management app at the same time for activating and deactivating fonts. Which brand that one has is unimportant. And keep after and trash your font caches if you do a lot of font swapping in and out of activity (especially for InDesign and Illustrator to work well).

Ramón, when you say you have had FontBook disabled for eons, what exactly do you mean? Did you trash it/remove it from your computer? Or just not use it for activating and deactivating? My point is you do not NEED to delete it, it should stay there. I also know you do not use Leopard and haven’t really seen any of the newer versions of FontBook so your knwowledge about it is not based on how it functions nowadays. It has improved and matured over the versions and is now in version 2.1.

Nini:

The advice I am giving is for the users of FontAgent Pro. You do not use that program so this does not apply to you.

If you do use FAP, you should DISABLE Font Book by using one of the methods that I posted earlier.

"Disable" is not the same as "Delete" and I have at no time advocated thet the User should DELETE Font Book from their computer.

Once you have trashed the designated files, they will not be re-created — provided that you never launch Font Book again.

——–
To re-cap.:

To "Disable" Font Book you can do this:
1. In Font Book, enable all collections and fonts
2. Quit Font Book
3. Delete <user>/Library/FontCollections
4. Delete <user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FontBook.plist
5. Restart
——

Nini,

What Ann said:

To "Disable" Font Book you can do this:
1. In Font Book, enable all collections and fonts
2. Quit Font Book
3. Delete <user>/Library/FontCollections
4. Delete <user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FontBook.plist
5. Restart

OK, I hear you both. And that method is OK as it doesn’t really disable FontBook, only sets it back to seeing but not handling any fonts.

Maybe there is a language problem here.

Does this title make it any clearer then:

"Disable Font Book From Managing Fonts"

?!!!

8/

Yes.

Good!

🙂