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| Utility - Diablotin Updated | | Date Created: 24 May, 2006, 01:26 PM |
 Update Notice: This is an update of my original article about Diablotin, written by Stéphane Sudre, Diablotin has been updated and is now a Universal Binary System Preference pane. The links in this article and the system requirements have been updated in this article.
Utility Diablotin
One of the things that I have complained about in the past is the way that font management programs don't completely deal with the fonts in the Mac OS X's many Fonts folders. While some programs like Suitcase and FontAgent Pro (FAP does a pretty good job of managing some of the OS's Fonts folders) do try to manage some of these folders, they are all "skittish" about managing the fonts within the main System folder (Macintosh HD/System/Library/Fonts).
In their defense, there are some reasons why the companies who make font management software are reluctant to move or manage the fonts in the System. If you remove LucidiaGrande from the System's Font folder, for instance, your OS won't work any more. If you remove Helvetica you may have problems with programs like iChat or iCal. And there are even other programs that have been "hard coded" for some other fonts that will act up if you move/remove said fonts. |
 With that being said, there is still a need to be able to remove or "turn off" some of the fonts in that Fonts folder (as well as the other Fonts folders). In the past you had to navigate to that Fonts folder (Macintosh HD/System/Library/Fonts), authenticate as administrative user, and then remove those fonts. I have done this numerous times. But now there's a better way.
I came across Diablotin, written by Stéphane Sudre, while looking for something that would allow me to see and disable all of my start-up items (not shown in the Start Up items in the Accounts Preference Pane in the System Preferences). And for this task, this little Preference Pane works great. According to Stéphane, that's where this little piece of freeware got it's name. Start Up items are often called daemons. Diablotin means little devil or imp in French. But I digress... |
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| After I installed this little Preference Pane, I noticed that it had, among other things, a place where you can turn off (and then back on) fonts in the Fonts folder in the three Library folders -- including the one in the System. Diablotin allows a user immediate access to the fonts in the Library's Fonts folder (Macintosh HD/Library/Fonts) and the User's Fonts folder (Macintosh HD/Users//Library/Fonts). You have to authenticate only once to turn fonts off and on in the System's Fonts folder (Macintosh HD/System/Library/Fonts). |
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| Fonts turned off in Diablotin are moved into folders named "Fonts (Disabled)" in their respective Library folders. Diablotin can then see the fonts in these folders so that they can be turned on again from the Diablotin window. |
 There are a couple of other cool things about the way that Diablotin handles fonts. First, it shows you that LucidiaGrande is in the System's Fonts folder, but it won't let you turn it off. This is a great precaution that Stéphane wrote into the program.
The other really useful thing that Diablotin does is to show you a preview of the selected font so you can see what you're turning on and off. If you've been confused about which fonts are foreign language fonts and you'd just as soon not have your font menus cluttered up with foreign language fonts that you won't be using anyway, this is a great feature to help you preview and then turn those fonts off. |
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You will see below that I have given Diablotin a rating of 5 out of 5. This is the first time I have given this rating to any piece of software I have reviewed on Font Geek. But given the fact that it does all that it does so well and the fact that this is Freeware, I had a hard time finding fault with it at all.
Kudos Stéphane! |
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Software Developer.................................Stéphane Sudre
Current Version........................................v.1.3
Type of Software......................................Freeware (208 Kb)
System Requirements...............................OS 10.2.8 or higher
Intel Development....................................Universal Binary
Type of Utility...........................................Libraries Items Manager
Font Geek Rating......................................5 out of 5 |
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Comparison: Diablotin is reminiscent of an Extension manager for all kinds of things in the three Library folders. And I have found it extremely useful for more than just managing the various Libraries' fonts. Although some font managers will manage the fonts, this is the only utility that I know of that acts like a manual extension manager for the fonts. So right now this great little Preference Pane is in a class by itself.
Additional Notes:
There is a "ReadMe" document included with the downloaded software that will give you the installation instructions. I recommend that you read it prior to using the software.
Coming Soon... For more information about the best way to use Diablotin, please refer to my upcoming article, "Optimizing the Fonts on Your Mac" in the Font Management section of Font Geek, where I will use multiple pieces of software (including Diablotin) and some of my own font management strategies to show you how get to the most from the fonts on your Mac while avoiding some of the problems. |
| OKFont v.2 - Updated Utility to Fix Font Permissions | | Date Created: 06 Feb, 2006, 05:09 PM |
 From Scott Stoel
OKFont v.1 had been updated. OKFont v.2 is now avaliable for download. This new version not only fixes the permissions for fonts but is able to be run from a commnd line in the Terminal for users on OS 10.4.x.
Let me tell you a bit about how OKFont v.2 works and why it's so usefull...
If you ask most graphic artists about their Mac OS X problems they will more than likely tell you that they either have font problems or permission problems. What you may not know is that occasionally permission issues come together with your fonts to give you a new set of problems from the combination. |
Fellow Font Geek and AppleScripter Scott Stoel set out to provide a solution. And with his specialized desktop AppleScript, OKFont (v.2) he's done it.
The purpose of OKFont is to quickly unlock and change the permissions of font files (and only font files) so that they are easily accessible for all programs and users on your system.
OKFont instructions...
It's a very simple script and it's very easy to use. Follow these instructions for best use...
1. Download OKFont, expand the zipped archive file and double-click on the disk image to mount it on the desktop. |
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| 2. Once the disk image is open drag the OKFont script to your desktop or anywhere you want it to live on your system. A suggested method of operation is to put OKFont or an alias of OKFont on the Desktop so it is always easily accessible. |
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3. Drag any folder containing the files (or just the files) you want to unlock and change permissions on onto the icon.
Warning: DO NOT drag your entire hard drive onto OKFont. There are fonts in the various Library folders that do not have normal user permissions on purpose. Changing those permissions may cause problems.
4. A dialog box will appear asking you if you are sure you want to change the permissions for these fonts. If you are sure, click the OK button. |
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5. Wait for OKFont to go through and change the permissions and unlock the fonts you've dragged onto it. If you have a large bunch of fonts this may take awhile.
Note: OKFont is best suited for small sets of fonts, but will change the permissions on your whole font library if you want it to. Be advised that unlocking and changing permissions on thousands of font files can take some time. For example, a folder of fonts containing 2560 font files nested in 496 file folders totaling 102.4 megabytes took 129 seconds to process on a Dual 867 Processor G4 Power Macintosh. While OKFont is running, its icon will display in the dock with the program active indicator below it as shown below: |
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| 6. When OKFont is finished changing the permissions and unlocking your fonts you will be notified by another dialog box. If you click on the No Thanks button you will quit the program. If you click on the FontGeek button it will take you back to this page. |
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Using OKFont v.2 from the Terminal
As I said above the new feature in this version of OKFont (v.2) is that it allows users to run OKFont by command line from the Terminal. To run OKFont from the command line in the terminal (works on OS X 10.4 and greater only) you call the utility in the following manner:
1. Drag a copy of OKFont to your Applications folder or some other folder that you can specify in the command line.
2. Launch the Terminal application (from Applications / Utilities folder).
3. Type in osascript /Applications/OKFont.app /Fonts/RaYGUN/
Note: In the example above OKFont located in the Applications folder on the startup drive. The fonts I want processed are in a folder called RaYGUN in a folder called Fonts on my startup drive. To work correctly, you need to have the full path to the folder or files to be processed by OKFont. You can only process one file or one folder at a time, but OKFont will unlock and change the permissions of all the font files included within a folder.
4. When OKFont is done running this message will appear in the terminal:
Your fonts have been unlocked and the permissions have been changed.
Below is a screen shot of an example transaction in the terminal window: |
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| OKFont can be deployed over a network and run using ssh. |
A few cool things about OKFont...
There are a few things that I really like about this script. Obviously I like that it's free. And I like that it's not memory intensive. But more impressive is that it unlocks and changes the permissions of only font files, not any of the other files dragged onto the application. This is particularly helpful in a prepress environment where as a part of preparing a job, the user can drag the whole job folder onto the AppleScript and be assured that only the font permissions will be changed, while other files will remain unchanged.
It's also important to understand that different foundries will offer the files with different default permissions. OKFont unlocks (if needed) and changes them all to:
-- Owner: rwx
-- Group: rwx
-- Everyone: rwx |
 How I use OKFont...
By now you should all know that I use FontAgent Pro from Insider Software for font management. And any of you who have imported fonts into FontAgent Pro know that it "weeds out" duplicate, corrupt, and incomplete font files/resources. After using FontAgent Pro for a while and considering permission issues with other kinds of files, I began to wonder if fonts with permission issues may be diagnosed by FontAgent Pro as corrupt or incomplete because the fonts in question had permission issues and/or were locked. So I decided to run some tests.... |
| I took one of my 26 MB test fonts folders and made two copies on my desktop. I ran one of these folders through OKFont and I left one as is. Here were my results when I imported these fonts into FontAgent Pro into two different libraries... |
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From the 26 MB font folder that I didn't run through OKFont...
... FontAgent Pro imported 212 fonts.
From the 26 MB font folder that I did run through OKFont...
... FontAgent Pro imported 269 fonts.
So by fixing the permissions and making sure that everything was unlocked, I got 22% more fonts imported into FontAgent Pro from my test font collection..
Now I'm sure that if I import other font collections that I may or may not get the same results. It would depend on the permission problems that the fonts had prior to fixing them. But since I usually don't know the permissions of every font prior to importing them into FontAgent Pro, my thought here is why wouldn't I run them through OKFont before hand?
System requirements...
Any Macintosh with System Version 10.3 or higher with Apple Script. The script should work on earlier versions of OS X but it has only been tested on 10.3 and 10.4. The command line function of OKFont v.2 only work on OS 10.4.x. |
Disclaimer...
Scott Stoel, SuperCustomized.com and/or FontGeek.net cannot be held responsible for damage to computer, any loss of data or liability that may occur from the use of OKFont. Parents, legal guardians or caregivers of minor children are responsible for the children's use of OKFont v.2. The script is offered as is with no support or guarantee, but please feel free to contact the author at scott@fontgeek.net with any questions or suggestions. |
| Font Utilities/Software | | Date Created: 03 Oct, 2004, 03:00 PM |
 The biggest problems with any piece of utility software is that it's difficult to understand what the utility does. I have been to software developer sites (who make the utility) and after reading the entire page, I have been unable to understand what the heck a given utility does. It's hard enough to use a new piece of software. It shouldn't be that difficult to understand what it's used for.
With that in mind, I'm going to create a new article for each font utility that I have used. In each article I will link to the developer website so you can download the utility. I will also rate the utility.
And I will tell you what the heck the utility does and why you might need it -- what a concept! |
| Articles in Resources (Total Entries: 19) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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