Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!udel!burdvax!dave
From: dave@PRC.Unisys.COM (David Lee Matuszek)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Font Problem Mystery!
Message-ID: <11638@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>
Date: 4 Oct 89 14:32:25 GMT
References: <550@mindlink.UUCP>
Sender: news@PRC.Unisys.COM
Organization: Unisys Corporation, Paoli Research Center; Paoli, PA
Lines: 52

> Bill Petro writes
> 
> In a few of my applications, I have what appears to be a font scaling
> problem.  It looks just like a Chicago font, scaled to be 9 point, although
> there is only a 12 point Chicago to my knowledge.  I do of course have a 9
> point Geneva.  Should these applications be calling a Geneva font instead of
> Chicago?

Yeah, this happens a lot.  The Mac has gotten confused about which
font is which.  There are a couple possible reasons.  If you don't
collect fonts, probably (1) applies; if you do, probably (2) applies.

(1)  The application is using a font you don't have, so the Mac is
doing a substitution for you.  If this is the case, the missing font
is likely to be Times, or some common laser font; get the (bitmap)
font and install it.  (Normally the Mac is supposed to use Geneva if
the font is missing--I'm not convinced it always does.)

(2) Fonts have both names and numbers, and Apple waffled about which
programs should use internally, before finally settling on names.  A
lot of software uses font numbers, of which there were (originally)
only a limited number to choose from.  If you use Font/DA Mover to
install a font that has the same number as an existing font, it will
cheerfully renumber one of the fonts for you; to keep everything nice
and user-friendly, it won't confuse you by mentioning the fact.
<Expletive deleted.>  So software that depends on the font number will
get the wrong font.

The solution to this problem is more complex.  First, get a copy of
the original numbers for your fonts (a fairly complete list is in The
Macintosh Bible), then renumber your fonts to what they should be,
resolving conflict manually as best you can.  ResEdit works for this
(I don't remember the process well enough to give directions).
Fontastic+ is what I mostly use.

(A simpler solution:  get a new copy of the System, and don't add any
fonts to it ever again.)

If the font you get really is Chicago, and not one of the Chicago
lookalikes, something else may be going wrong.  There are home-grown
versions of Chicago in other point sizes, but I wouldn't expect
applications to depend on your having them.

Good luck.  If your problem isn't one of the above, please let me know
when you find the solution, as I'll probably have the same problem
myself, somewhere down the road....


-- Dave Matuszek (dave@prc.unisys.com)
-- Unisys Corp. / Paoli Research Center / PO Box 517 / Paoli PA  19301
-- Any resemblance between my opinions and those of my employer is improbable.
  << Those who fail to learn from Unix are doomed to repeat it. >>