Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4 and later: Fonts in Mac OS 9 System Folder aren‘t available to Mac OS X applications

Fonts that are in your Mac OS 9 System Folder may not be available to Mac OS X Panther and Tiger applications until you select the System Folder in Classic preferences or start Classic.

Symptom

• Fonts are unexpectedly substituted in a Mac OS X application.
• Fonts you expect to be available to a Mac OS X application are not.

This can happen when your Mac OS 9 System Folder is on a different volume than Mac OS X, if there are multiple Mac OS 9 System Folders present, or if the font is a bitmap font or font suitcase that contains only bitmap fonts (please note that bitmap fonts are not available in Mac OS X).

Solution

Either start Classic before using the Mac OS X application, or follow these steps once:

1. Quit any open Mac OS X application that needs the font or fonts.
2. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
3. In the resulting dialog, click Classic.
4. Click the Start/Stop button.
5. Select your System Folder in the list of available folders, even if it is the only choice.
6. From the System Preferences menu, choose Quit.
7. Reopen a Mac OS X application. Your fonts should be available (except for bitmap fonts).