Help please...
 

Just got a new computer and got everything restored etc. I use Font Frenzy to install and uninstall fonts and installed some fonts today...been using it for quite awhile and it's worked a charm - until now it seems as after I rebooted every thing is displayed in some fucked up font....squares, lines, dots and dashes etc. Everything displays okay in my browser it seems...everything else is messed up...menus, buttons and icons etc. The last thing I want to do is have to reinstall everything again. Anyone know how to remedy this?

I'm not familiar with Font Frenzy, I use Suitcase myself, but if I load a font that has a conflict with another font then I will get strange display of characters like you described when one of the conflicting fonts is called up. Try disabling all your third party fonts to see if the problem goes away and if it does then turn on your third party fonts one at a time until the problem returns.

Thanks Cleo - problem solved :)

Not sure how things are on the PC side but on the Mac side it seems like every time Apple does a major release of their OS it breaks some more old fonts.

Apple blames this on the font not being up to proper specs and always says that if a font is up to proper specs then it should work. Not sure how true this is, probably is, but it sure makes a mess of things in print publishing when a font that has been used in everything no longer works correctly and another font that looks exactly the same has to be found. The new font never has the exact same kerning and leading so text ends up reflowing.

you need a program to install fonts ???
cant you just paste the font into the font folder ???

I have over one gig of fonts. Many of the design agencies have many gigs of fonts. This is far too many to keep active in one's system.

Also when getting print jobs from others they will include their fonts and you only want these open while working on their job.

You could do all this by moving fonts in and out of one of your fonts folders but using a manager is far more productive.

Also a font manager like Suitcase does other things like print/display font samples and organize by groups or jobs or whatever.

In addition to just moving fonts in and out of the font's folder Apple does include Fontbook/ but it is limited compared to a commercial font manager.