Customer Reviews

Real World Mac OS X Fonts

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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!

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.

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

This is a wonderful book, and a great resource. It has easy-to-use flow charts to help trouble shoot all sorts of font problems. As a graphic designer, I never quite got a handle on how OSX uses and recognizes fonts...this book filled in all of the gaps.... and is really fun to read, too.

I am always astonished by Sharon Zardetto Aker's ability to explain the most complex topics in the most user-freindly way. For a technophobe like me she seems to anticipate every anxiety-provoking topic and dissipate the anxiety through a combination of thorough knowledge of her material and an informal writing style that makes you feel like she's right by your side, supporting you every step of the way. Astonishing. Even if you are not a technophobe, you will surely appreciate the breadth of information here.

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.

Good general review and explanation of fonts for Mac. You can live without this book but it is a good resource for understanding.

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.

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.