Preserved Topic: PS and fonts...problems

Hi all,

I'm sure this question has been asked before (i did look on the archives but found nothing related to my current dilemma).

I deleted a few fonts the other day, but when I open up PS, and look in the fonts list, it shows that they are still there.
However when I click on the font name to see if it changes the text , it causes a program error.

Also when I install fonts again, they don't show up in the PS font list at all.

Is there a way to clear the PS font list... or refresh it so that it shows the current fonts that I have on my machine.

I have two probable solutions but I'm hoping theres an easier way.

1. Uninstall all the fonts and then reinstall them? (pain in the butt)
2. Uninstall PS and then reinstall it?

Thanks in advance


I try to take just one day at a time but lately several days have attacked me at once !

Hrm... well assuming that it's a Photoshop problem and not an OS problem with the fonts themselves; you could try resetting Photoshop's preference settings.

When you launch photoshop hold cmd+option+shift (ctrl+alt+shift on that 'other' OS hehe) and you should be prompted to reset the settings. I would give this a shot BEFORE you did a full reinstall.

What OS and PS version are you using? That might be helpful information if this doesn't solve the problem as it could very well be an OS problem and not Photoshop.


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...

First off - Mindbender - thanks for the quick response.

Well considering the fact that I am using the "other" OS, (scowI) I'm glad you mentioned the keys for re-setting the settings

I'm using Windowsn't 98 and Photoshop 7...

While resetting the Photoshop settings I took your suggestion into consideration that it might be the OS.... and so I opened a text editor (wordpad) and tried to find the fonts i recently installed...and BOOM!! not there. I also found the fonts I deleted a few days ago.

I know this is a PS forum, and although I thought it to be a PS problem (it seems that it is not), could someone please suggest something other than throwing the PC out the window .

Thanks a bunch


I try to take just one day at a time but lately several days have attacked me at once !

Well, here's the thing... basically most applications use the windows api to locate system resources. Since fonts are an "at-boot" system resource on windows, generally the OS apis are needed to attach to them.

The one other thing I can think of is maybe these are something like PostScript fonts? In that case, something like ATM could be interfering with certain applications.

Also, and unfortunately Windows 98 is about the worst windows version for this, sometimes settings in system caches just get "stuck" and must be reset. Now, the only halfway decent way of going about this I can think of is to get something like TweakUI and just reset your cache settings.

As I think about it, I know windows is prone (in any version) to having issues like this.. fonts not showing up after install and such. I remember having this problem when I was on windows and I've heard about it often from other people...I can't remember what solutions were found in those cases... anyone else have some pertinent information? Since I don't have a wintel machine to test on right now, I'm not gonna be of much use at that point.


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...

hmm...try to use a fontmanager like "The font thing" (you should
give google a try)...
with them you can install and deinstall fonts easily. after that
the fonts are all available in photoshop too.

good luck

Thanks for the help.

Turned out it is the OS - so I copied all my fonts to my d drive, rebooted in DOS mode and deleted all .ttf and .fon fonts.
I have basically been copying the fonts across one at a time when i need it - thank goodness Photoshop tells you which fonts are missing. I'd be in deep water trying to remember which logo had which font.

Xdreamer.ch - Will try that program

Thanks again

Edit: Just installed The Font Thing - It is fantastic - I can even browse the fonts on my d: drive and install from there.... Thanks Xdreamer.ch



I try to take just one day at a time but lately several days have attacked me at once !

[This message has been edited by Minkies (edited 01-17-2003).]

no problem

Any chance its that your copying and pasting files from c:\windows\fonts\ ? I dont think that works very well , if you are doing this. you need to hit File->>Install New Fonts (in the font folder) and theres a manager there which looks like it hasnt been updated since win3.1. thats all I can really think of, I've never really had a problem with fonts.

Yeah, windows has major issues with consistency in fonts. The number one problem is exactly what you're saying, just dropping fonts into the font folder without the "install" function. Points to one of my major underlying dislikes of Microsoft development ethic... "If it's not broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, don't fix it. If it breaks something else, blame open source developers".

Two things to think about in regards to fonts.

1. Do you really need them? Without a good background in typography and design, over using fonts or using the wrong fonts can be a problem. If you just "like fonts" like I hear from a lot of people (myself included when I first started working with graphics) you might just collect them as you find them. This is fine if you use them sparingly (and don't mind the fact that it's adding scads of time to your boot time, application launch time, and menu load time). I saw some figure recently saying that a professional designer will have 1-200 fonts on their system, while a professional typographer will have 1000-1200. Considering there are something like 300,000 accepted font styles, this would lead me to think that MOST fonts aren't necesarry. Most common fonts come WITH the computer to begin with. You have 40-50 fonts installed on your system when you install the OS. Some of them are pretty good and have been around for years and years. There is a reason why certain fonts are installed with every copy of windows, mac os, and even when you install Photoshop. Outside of that is generally special projects... which brings me to thought number two...

2. Get a font manager. Xd already mention this briefly, but if you decide that you need that many fonts then consider purchasing a font manager. I've never used "font thing" before, but I've heard it's decent (is it free? that'd be ever better). On Macintosh, the most widly accepted manager is Extensis Suitcase. It's completely Jaguar ready now (for those of you keeping score). For those of you that haven't worked with something like suitcase before; a good font manager will allow you to have MINIMAL fonts installed directly into your system so your load times are low and memory overhead is low on application launch. But you can set up scenarios for fonts to be loaded. First off... you can load and unload fonts INSTANTLY... so no rebooting to see fonts. You can place your fonts into sets for better organization (when you start having THOUSANDS of fonts, this can be a big deal). You can set certain SETS of fonts to load at boot time, certain sets to launch automatically when you start up specific programs (say... Photoshop... or Illustrator?) If you had a font from a client that you ONLY needed for that client.. you could have it in your list and only launch it when you needed that specific font. I've worked mostly with Suitcase, so I can't speak for the features of other software, but it will tell you when you have a font that isn't in a document AND LET YOU LOAD IT RIGHT THERE. Anyone that's worked with documents from another independant designer before knows the headache it can be when you get a document full of fonts you don't have. Suitcase also will tell you when you have duplicates or font conflicts as you load a program and lets you resolve them during launch rather than having to shut down, fix the problem, and restart... only to find another problem. One other "nicety" is that you can set Suitcase's preferences to show PREVIEWS of fonts in their font names in EVERY application on your system. So when you launch Illustrator... and you open that massive font list... and you can't remember the differences between Mistral and Minstral... you get the font face preview as PART of the name. Very convenient at times, especially when working on someone else's computer where you are unfamiliar with the fonts.

I know, it's starting to sound like a sales pitch... really, it doesn't matter which software you pick as long as it does what you need. Personally, I've found that I just don't need that many fonts, so rather than having the overhead of lots of fonts or a manager, I've strayed away from using custom fonts for every project and focussed more on layout, design, and appropriate font choices. The short version of this is... if you NEED lots of fonts, it's worth 50-90 bucks to get a professional font manager.


It's only after we've lost everything...
That we're free to do anything...