It's not unusual for corrupt or incomplete fonts to spell trouble for your applications. Claris programs might crash at the startup screen, or you might notice fonts changing unexpectedly as you scroll through your document, zoom in and out or change views. Some problems are more obvious than others, and some programs may show trouble, while others seem to work fine.
What is unusual is that some efforts to solve the problem can make it worse. For example, one way to avoid font troubles is to stick with a single font vendor and use the the latest versions of their font suitcases. If you select Adobe as your font vendor, you could turn to the most recent Type On Call CD-ROM as your source of the latest font files.
Adobe Type On Call, available with Adobe SuperATM or separately, offers the complete collection of Adobe typefaces on a CD-ROM. As you need typefaces, you can call Adobe, give them a credit card number, and they will supply you with a code to unlock fonts as you need them.
The problem is that the unlocking scheme does not work well with some CD-ROM software drivers. For example, if you use an Apple CD-ROM drive, you must use version 4.0.2 or later of the Apple CD-ROM extension. Otherwise, fonts you copy from the unlocked volume of the Type On Call disk will usually be corrupt. The font suitcases will look identical to non-corrupt ones -the same number of bytes, etc.- but will not function correctly.
The best solution is to obtain the Apple CD-ROM extension 4.0.2 or later. This is currently unavailable from most online services. You must contact your dealer.
Another solution that seems to work well is to copy the bitmap suitcases from the unlocked volume of the Type On Call CD. When Adobe's locking technology is not in use, the files seem to transfer correctly.
Many other companies use similar locking techniques for distribution of fonts, software, and technical information. If you are experiencing trouble using software from one of these types of products, contact the vendor to make sure your driver software is compatible with the locking technology.