Real World Mac OS X Fonts (Paperback)

by Sharon Zardetto Aker (Author)
Key Phrases: character palette, system fonts, classic fonts, Font Book, Real World Mac, Keyboard Viewer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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?
  

About the Author
SHARON ZARDETTO AKER  has been writing about the Macintosh professionally since 1984. She has authored nearly a thousand articles for Macintosh magazines, starting with articles in the earliest issues of Macworld and the premiere issue of MacUser. She has written more than 20 computer books, including The Mac Almanac, and she was the author and primary editor for several editions of the best-selling Peachpit compendium The Macintosh Bible. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (September 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321474015
• ISBN-13: 978-0321474018
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #845,845 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solved the mess!, January 26, 2007

By	Luis Alejandro Masanti (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explains all about fonts in Mac OS X, November 2, 2006

By	Adam C. Engst "TidBITS/Take Control publisher" (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Full disclosure: I'm the publisher of Take Control, and this book was based on two ebooks we published by Sharon. That said, I've also been using the Mac professionally for 20 years, and I used to be something of an expert about fonts - the first Macintosh program I ever bought personally was Suitcase in 1989; Suitcase's manual was fabulous and explained all about fonts back in the System 6 days. Things didn't change all that much through System 7 and Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, and I was still able to wrangle fonts pretty easily. But then came Mac OS X, which introduced a plethora of new font types, font behaviors, and font folders. Since Mac OS X, I've struggled every time I run into a problem with fonts, whether it's not having the right font for a document or having a conflict between similar (but not quite identical) fonts in different font folders. Despite having read the text of this book several times in editing passes, font problems still flummox me, but at least now I know where to look for the answer.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fix font problems - Flawlessly, January 23, 2007

By	W. Wooten "avagency" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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