Font Forum

I was creating some views, and tried the "Resource: Not Available" option, and some of my fonts matched. Does that option have anything to do with the "Resources" in the Font Information panel? If so, why do fonts that exist on disk in the location listed under "Files" show up in the "Resource: Not Available" view?

I have refreshed all font folders, and done a manual sync for the folders that have "Keep in Sync" set. If I rename one of the font files on disk, then re-sync, the "Files" information for that font changes to match the new filename, so I'm very sure those files on disk don't hold different font resources from what is in the library.

I've tried just deleting the font file using MainType, exporting the to another folder, then syncing, and MainType shows the new location for the font resource, but still marks it as "Not Available". I've also tried deleting the file and ignoring, then copying the font back into a watched folder, then unignoring, and the font resource shows back up in MainType with the new file location, but again still marked as "Not Available".

Any ideas?

If a resource is not available, MainType is not able to find it on your computer. The fonts that are available might be similar, e.g. have the same font name, but are not exact matches.

Erwin Denissen wrote:If a resource is not available, MainType is not able to find it on your computer. The fonts that are available might be similar, e.g. have the same font name, but are not exact matches.

I think you need to read again what I wrote. It's not possible that the font resources in the files aren't exact matches, because MainType is tracking them and associating them with database entries.

One of the steps I did was to delete the font files using MainType, then copy the original file back to a different directory on my hard drive. MainType couldn't see it because it had been "ignored" as part of the file deletion. The only way that can happen is if the font resource in the file exactly matches what is in the "ignore" database. Once it is unignored, then MainType sees the resource in the file and adds it back to my library, but it still is part of the "Resource: Not Available" view.

Also, if you are right and the fonts on disk are slightly different from what is in the database, then why does the information on the font show the filename? That should only happen if the font resource in the database and what is on disk match. In which case, the resource should be "Available".

Basically, my database is in a state of "this can't ever happen", and I can't see any way to fix it short of restoring from backup, which will blow away all the tagging, etc., that I have done since the last backup. Sure, it's only a few hours work, but it would be really nice if there were a way to really see what is in the database records and fix the problems.

I can confirm this issue, so this field isn't as reliable I we thought it would be. I'll see if we can fix this.