How Do I Change My Fonts in OS X?

Amie

Amie

Mac Convert for Life
In Classic it's simple. You click on Apple, click on Appearance, click on Fonts. And up pops the fonts menu. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to do it in OS X. I've been looking in System Preferences in Appearance, but I see no "Fonts" option, whatsoever. I want to customize the font appearance of menus, windows, main menu bar, etc.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
You cannot do this without 3rd-party help.

http://unsanity.com/haxies/silk
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Hmm. OK. Then, I need to ask two questions:

1. Are you sure? Because I've been reading about (and peeking into) Font Book. And there are a boatload of "font suitcases" already in the folder and ready to go. Can't I just drag one into the Fonts folder--sort of how you replace an .rsrc file for app skins?

2. These third-part font haxies that you speak of ... are they safe? I don't want to mess with something that's going to screw up my system fonts (and default fonts) or anything like that.
 
Amie said:
Hmm. OK. Then, I need to ask two questions:

1. Are you sure? Because I've been reading about (and peeking into) Font Book. And there are a boatload of "font suitcases" already in the folder and ready to go. Can't I just drag one into the Fonts folder--sort of how you replace an .rsrc file for app skins?
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Sure, you can activate and deactivate fonts all you want, and you can move them all over the place. That doesn't allow you to change the system fonts, though. Mac OS X does not natively allow users to change the system font, period.

2. These third-part font haxies that you speak of ... are they safe? I don't want to mess with something that's going to screw up my system fonts (and default fonts) or anything like that.
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I don't use them, simply because a prettier or more industrial system font isn't going to make my computing experience more pleasant. From what I've heard, they cause problems sometimes, but not all the time. Rarely have I heard of Silk causing major problems with a machine.
 
Download TinkerTool. It'll give you access to a bunch of font settings. It doesn't all work perfectly, though — there's a REASON these settings are hidden, after all. Some apps just don't respect the standard system settings, so changing them has no effect.
 
This is one area I do miss from OS9. I wish OSX gave us more custom options like OS9. Come on Leopard!!!
 
Mikuro said:
Download TinkerTool. It'll give you access to a bunch of font settings. It doesn't all work perfectly, though — there's a REASON these settings are hidden, after all. Some apps just don't respect the standard system settings, so changing them has no effect.
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Actually, I've had TinkerTool for a while, I just forgot about it 'cause I never use it for anything. And now I learn that I can use it to change my fonts! I KNEW it had a use for SOMEthing! lol OK, so what do I do--just open TinkerTool and click on Fonts ... and then what? Anything I should know before going through with this?
 
Amie said:
Actually, I've had TinkerTool for a while, I just forgot about it 'cause I never use it for anything. And now I learn that I can use it to change my fonts! I KNEW it had a use for SOMEthing! lol OK, so what do I do--just open TinkerTool and click on Fonts ... and then what? Anything I should know before going through with this?
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Well, I recommend taking a screenshot of TinkerTool's fonts panel before changing anything so you'll now how to change it all back. :)

Aside from that, go hog wild. It shouldn't hurt stability or anything like that.
 
Mikuro said:
Well, I recommend taking a screenshot of TinkerTool's fonts panel before changing anything so you'll now how to change it all back. :)
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Actually TinkerTool has a reset feature. No need to remember settings.
 
Yeah, TinkerTool didn't work. I changed the font from Times to Comic Sans and it didn't do a damn thing. And, yes, I quit and restarted Firefox. Still nothing.
 
Just tried it again. Changed ALL fonts in TinkerTool to Comic Sans MS, closed Firefox, restarted my frickin' computer. Nothing! The only fonts that are Comic Sans MS are my Stickies font and the little battery time in the menu bar that tells you how much time you have left. Big whoop. I want to change ALL my fonts--icon labels, Finder windows, menu bar fonts, toolbar fonts, navigation bar fonts. EVERYthing.

Any ideas?...
 
Well, if you really want to get your hands dirty, and risk seriously screwing up your system, I suppose you could mess with the font files themselves. Editing/renaming the files in your /System/Library/Fonts folder so that, say, Comic Sans MS poses as Lucida Grande ought to be possible, and it would certainly give you a system-wide change if it worked. But I've never tried anything so daring with OS X myself, so I couldn't walk you through it.

It might nuke your whole system, too. So....yeah. If you try it, remember: backups are your friends. :)
 
Mikuro said:
Well, if you really want to get your hands dirty, and risk seriously screwing up your system, I suppose you could mess with the font files themselves. Editing/renaming the files in your /System/Library/Fonts folder so that, say, Comic Sans MS poses as Lucida Grande ought to be possible, and it would certainly give you a system-wide change if it worked. But I've never tried anything so daring with OS X myself, so I couldn't walk you through it.

It might nuke your whole system, too. So....yeah. If you try it, remember: backups are your friends. :)
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Gee, as tempting as that sounds ... um ... I think I'll pass. lol
 
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