Mac OS X 10.4.7: OpenType font problems

[posted August 16th]

Several users have reported an issue where documents that use various OpenType fonts do not open or display properly -- or even cause issues with applications failing to launch or unexpectedly quitting.

As described by MacFixIt reader Kerry Williams:

"Ever since we have upgraded our 15 computers at work to Mac OS X 10.4.7 we have been having more problems with open type face fonts and QuarkXPress 6.5. When opening a Quark layout that has certain open type face fonts Quark will crash.

"This problem may not have started with the Mac 10.4.7 update because we were having problems with AGaramondPro fonts and TrajanPro fonts before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.7. Quark would say that this fonts may be damaged so I would then replace these fonts and all would be fine for a while. But the fonts would eventually go bad and not print so I removed these fonts from our font sets.

"Now that I have updated our 15 computers at work to 10.4.7 and the problem has spread to other open type face fonts. WeissStd, BerkeleyStd, HelveticaNeueLTStd, GoudyStd, AvenirLTStd, ITCAvantGardeStd."

Clearing font caches The problem can be temporarily resolved by clearing font caches with a tool like Font Finagler or OnyX, but will generally return after several hours of operation or a restart.

QuarkXpress-specific: Fixes The problem is especially pronounced in some iterations of QuarkXpress. As such, some users have found relief deleting the following Quark-specific font cache folder(s) [depending on your version of QuarkXpress]:

• /Applications/QuarkXPress 6.0/jaws/
• ~/Library/Preferences/Quark/QuarkXPress 7.0/jaws/

However, as with general font cache cleaning, the corruption is likely to recur, necessitating another cleaning.

Caused by Mac OS X 10.4.7? In other instances, users are finding that the problems only occur under Mac OS X 10.4.7. In these cases, reverting (downgrading) to Mac OS X 10.4.6 as described in our Mac OS X 10.4.7 special report can prove beneficial.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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