Mac OSX 10.3.5 update kills Dingbat fonts in FHMX

[lozza]

It seems the Mac OSX 10.3.5 update kills dingbat fonts in FHMX. They show up in
the font menu but are blank in the text boxes and cannot be converted to
outlines. Had this happen on two different machines after updating to 10.3.5.
Dingbat fonts work fine in other programs.

[MurrayRL]

You are right, I have the same problem. Yet another Freehand font problem (not just MX, Dingbats no longer work in version 10 either). I hope that it is only Dingbats that no longer work!

Murray

[Wes Rand]

MurrayRL wrote:

> You are right, I have the same problem. Yet another Freehand font
> problem (not just MX, Dingbats no longer work in version 10 either).
> I hope that it is only Dingbats that no longer work!
>
> Murray
>
>
>

I had that problem yesterday and figured it was a font problem. Weird.

[Judy Arndt]

I haven't updated to 10.3.5 yet. I warily watch MacFixit.com for a week or
so to see if any fatal flaws are reported.

Updaters often install required fonts in unexpected (to the user) locations.
You might have several conflicting copies of the Dingbats font. Search your
system drive. Use Font Cache Cleaner and see if it helps.
[url]http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fcache/fcache.html[/url]

Judy Arndt

--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.4


lozza wrote:

> It seems the Mac OSX 10.3.5 update kills dingbat fonts in FHMX. They show up
> in the font menu but are blank in the text boxes and cannot be converted to
> outlines. Had this happen on two different machines after updating to 10.3.5.
> Dingbat fonts work fine in other programs.
>

[davecc]

lozza,

Do you mean the ZapfDingbat font when you say Dingbat? ZapfDingbat was not
working so I removed it and installed a copy that I got with CorelDraw and it
works now. If you would like, I can e-mail it to you.

David

[Trollmama]

Hi,

I've recently upgraded to 10.3.5.

I've had no problems with the Zapf Dingbat font in MX. It shows up in the text
boxes and converts to outlines just fine.

Maybe check Font Book and make sure font is where it's supposed to be and
enabled as well. Hope this helps.

Ginni

[MurrayRL]

No, the font is installed correctly and works in all programs except Freehand MX.

I'm sure there will be away around the problem. I'll investigate over the weekend and report back.

[MurrayRL]

I have just noticed a font called Monotype Sorts in my font list. I don't recall seeing it before - possibly it was part of the OSX update. It appears to be the same as Dingbats and is working fine.

[lozza]

David,

Yes, ZapfDingbats. But the problem on our systems is not limited to just that
font - it's every dingbat-type font. Even one of our dingbat fonts from House
Industries is not working any more (it actually shows up, but displays as
running out of the text boxes on the side(s).

I've tried replacing ZapfDingbats with with a fresh copy (PS) from the Adobe
Font Folio with no luck. I also tried the ITC (TT) version with the same
results.

For whatever reason FHMX seems to think the font contains no outline file (try
typing in ZapfDingbats and converting the blank text to outlines and read the
FHMX alert message). Someone at Macromedia should know what (on a coding level)
differentiates a Dingbat font from a traditional font (is there a difference?).
Perhaps that difference could help them track down any offending FHMX code.

Judy, I'll try your suggestion and report back any findings.

[davecc]

Jimmy,

On my home machine (G4 1.25 Dual) with 10.3.5, ZadfDingbat and Webdings fonts
work great. I am really confused as to why it gave me an issue with my G5 2.0
at the office running 10.3.5

David

[MurrayRL]

I have tried troubleshooting all fonts. Reinstalling various foundries versions
of Dingbats but none of them now work in MX on my G5 (strangely enough they
work fine on my G4 which has a clone of the font setup on my G5).

Using Dingbats you get no wording appearing on screen and can't be converted
to paths, but if you type some words using dingbats in MX then export as an
Illustrator file, the words appear fine if you open the file up in Illustrator.

I think this has to be a random MX problem. I have deleted Dingbats so at
least MX should warn me when I open a file that uses Dingbats and I can
substitute another font.

This MX problem may be linked to the other problem I have with MX dropping out
bullet points and apostrophes at odd times.

[Judy Arndt]

I'm still on Mac OS 10.3.4, using FontAgent Pro to manage fonts. I had my
Postscript ITC Zapf Dingbats disabled. However, I always had ZapfDingbats in
my FHMX font list.

I found a ZapfDingbats.dfont in [User]/Library/Fonts. Trashed that and
restarted the computer. Zapf Dingbats is still there. FHMX Document Report
says:
-----
Zapf Dingbats
Postscript name: ZapfDingbatsITC
The font appears to be a TrueType font
-----

I searched my system drive but cannot find the Zapf Dingbat font file that
the Mac OS has been using. I opened Font Book. Under the PDF Set it shows
Zapf Dingbats. I disabled it via Font Book. No more Zapf Dingbats in FHMX
font list.

Then I went to FontAgent Pro and enabled my ITC Zapf Dingbats (Postscript).
FHMX font list now shows the font. Report shows it as:
-----
Zapf Dingbats
Postscript name: ZapfDingbats
The font appears to be a Postscript font
-----

I believe there must be hidden font files installed by OS X to be used by
Preview to display PDF files. It appears that you must use Font Book to
disable them, as it's impossible to delete them. I also noticed that some of
the other fonts in the Font Book PDF Set, such as Arial, Helvetica and
Times, are fonts that have been giving me substitution problems on my
Postscript printer.

Perhaps those of you who have updated to OS 10.3.5 could check Font Book to
see if it has surreptitiously enabled system versions of the Postscript
fonts you normally use.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.4




MurrayRL wrote:

> I have tried troubleshooting all fonts. Reinstalling various foundries
> versions
> of Dingbats but none of them now work in MX on my G5 (strangely enough they
> work fine on my G4 which has a clone of the font setup on my G5).
>
> Using Dingbats you get no wording appearing on screen and can't be converted
> to paths, but if you type some words using dingbats in MX then export as an
> Illustrator file, the words appear fine if you open the file up in
> Illustrator.
>
> I think this has to be a random MX problem. I have deleted Dingbats so at
> least MX should warn me when I open a file that uses Dingbats and I can
> substitute another font.
>
> This MX problem may be linked to the other problem I have with MX dropping out
> bullet points and apostrophes at odd times.
>

[lozza]

Judy,

You are right. Removing my ZapfDingbats (the PostScript version I installed)
from my user/library/fonts folder allowed the default OSX version in the
system/library/fonts to work in FHMX. I also went through Font Book and removed
any duplicates from user/library/fonts that also appear in any of the main
system or library folders (such as Comic Sans MS, Arial, etc.). Font Book gives
you a handy bullet next to any duplicate font(s). It caught some that Font
Doctor missed. The only modification I made to the default OSX fonts was to
remove the HelveticaNeue.dfont. We have the full compliment of the Helvetica
Neue fonts from Adobe, so I couldn't rely on the limited version used by OSX.

Our standard font set (after removing system duplicates) now works - we just
have to remember to remove the system's HelveticaNeue.dfont.

Thanks!