Obsolete font substitution on Mac

[PaoloT]

Hi,

I'm not filing this as a bug, since it is maybe the intended way of working on the Mac.

With the most recent OS versions, the Mac is considering some classic fonts as obsolete. Among them, the classic Times and Courier, now replaced by Times New Roman and Courier New.

However, to avoid damaging formatting, Apple allows the use of these fonts in documents already using them. Therefore, Publisher warns about the fonts missing, asks you to choose a replacement in Font Manager, but then doesn't replace them.

I wonder if this is the best way of doing. I guess it is, or a layout could become messy if fonts are replaced, even if by very similar fonts, in my tests exactly matching the older ones.

Is any additional explanation needed, in the Font Manager?

Paolo

 

[Komatös]

2 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Is any additional explanation needed, in the Font Manager?

 

I think, no!

Have you saved the classic fonts in the private font folder or in the global one?

Normally the Affinity programs recognise the (missing) fonts when you add them to the global or private font folder.

 

 

[PaoloT]

20 minutes ago, Komatös said:

Normally the Affinity programs recognise the (missing) fonts when you add them to the global or private font folder.

It's a different matter: the two fonts I cited are system fonts (they are inside the /system/fonts/ folder).

They are there, but Apple no longer makes them available to new documents. They are not even shown in the Font Book app. They are only used in existing documents, if they made use of them.

It's gradual obsolescence. You can no longer access them, but they are still there for your older documents.

Publisher warns that these fonts are missing. Prompts you to replace them. But then doesn't replace them, and lets the macOS still allow using the older fonts. Even if they have been replaced in Font Manager.

Paolo

 

[Komatös]

10 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

It's gradual obsolescence.

I'm a noob in the Mac world. I've learnt something new about my Mac experience. Thanks!

[kenmcd]

Affinity does not support these "document-support" fonts.
And the only way to get macOS to not block them is to rename the fonts.
They specifically key on the PostScript Name (nameID 6).

But these old macOS fonts are usually Apple AAT fonts, not OpenType.
So all the features are going to be missing, and this often includes the kerning.
With a fixed width font like Courier the features may be an issue, but not kerning.
But with the Times font - everything is gone.

So you may better off replacing them with the similar old fonts which are not AAT.

That old Courier was made by Bitstream, and there are similar old alternatives.
Courier 10 BT is the same visual weight, but the width is slightly larger (602 vs. 600).
Courier Std from AFF11 is the same 600 width, but slightly less weight, but no reflow.
And if you need no features at all you can change the name of the existing font.

Times is not going to work on Affinity at all. No kerning. No features.
It was an old Linotype (LT) font, and they (LT) made other versions.
Times LT Std from AFF11 is a perfect replacement, with kerning, with features.
Times LT Pro also is going to fit perfectly, more kerning, and more features.

So replacing those old fonts with these old fonts should eliminate the issues.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

Publisher warns that these fonts are missing. Prompts you to replace them. But then doesn't replace them, and lets the macOS still allow using the older fonts. Even if they have been replaced in Font Manager.

If you Replace them with a different font that you have installed, the replacement should work (as far as I know).

The problem seems to be that Apple's attempt to let them be used in existing documents is very specific to one exact way of accessing fonts, and Affinity uses a different method by enumerating the fonts supplied on the system. Via that method, those fonts  are invisible and cannot be used.