Why do some fonts appear in multiple?

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Brother Gabriel-Marie
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Why do some fonts appear in multiple?

Post by Brother Gabriel-Marie »

Hello all!
Sometimes when I view the fontlist within Maintype a particular font (like Terminal, or occasionally some non-system font) appears multiple times. If I delete one instance all the instances become deleted with it. "Terminal" appears about 25 times. Why does this happen?

(To keep my list short I have used the filter to hide all the raster and vector fonts (all system).)
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I have two copies each of Terminal and Terminal Bold installed. They have different *.fon filenames. I don't know why that is — the files seem to be identical apart from the filenames.
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Dave Crosby
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Multiple Copies

Post by Dave Crosby »

Many Applications insist in installing THEIR versions of popular fonts.

Therefore you may have Adobe, Corel, Microsoft, etc. versions of essentially the same font. It is NOT a good idea to delete any system fonts.

I have no idea why deleting one would delete all.
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Erwin Denissen
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

Are you running the latest version of MainType?
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Brother Gabriel-Marie
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Post by Brother Gabriel-Marie »

Hello!

Yes, I am running the latest version of MainType (I am on day 7 of my trial, I plan to register pretty soon).

I figured out why some of the doubles. It is possible to create multiple shortcuts within the Groups folders! You can't do this however in the Windows Fonts folders because Windows seems to register a shortcut as the actual font.

As to why I have 25 "Terminal" fonts, Lord knows.

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Erwin Denissen
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

Well, there are a lot of fonts located in the Windows fonts folder, that are not installed. You can click on the "Font Status" column header, to sort the fonts in the Browse pane, and you'll see what fonts are just sitting there.
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heathert
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Multiple Fonts

Post by heathert »

Hi there--

I too am having multiple font issues, which have started only subsequent to using MainType. This is happening to both system fonts (of which you cannot remove multiples without also removing the original, which is annoying) and my other fonts which I may install and uninstall as needed. Does this have something to do with backup copies or something? I'd really like a fix for this, as it's totally clogging up the MainFont program, and probably my poor ageing puter as well...

Thanks!

Heather
=)
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

Can you please tell us the exact issue you have? If possible send me a screenshot and/or fonts that cause trouble. Thanks.
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heathert
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Post by heathert »

Erwin Denissen wrote:Can you please tell us the exact issue you have? If possible send me a screenshot and/or fonts that cause trouble. Thanks.
Okie dokie, sent you e-mail @ erwin.denissen@high-logic.com

Thanks!
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

Hi Heather,

Thanks for sending the files, but unfortunately they don't give enough information for me to find the exact cause of this.

The font information pane should reveal the font file name, and folder. Can you please let me know that data for two similar fonts? If possible for both a TrueType pair, and a Raster/system pair. Thanks.
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heathert
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Post by heathert »

Sorry, I didn't even think of looking at that info. Looks like some are double downloads, but others appear to be (?) system-renamed duplicates...
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Post by Erwin Denissen »

heathert wrote:Sorry, I didn't even think of looking at that info. Looks like some are double downloads
Yes, those TrueType fonts are definitely duplicates. I wonder how you managed to get those duplicates in the same folder. Anyway it's safe to delete all but one of them. For example, when you have arial.ttf, arial0.ttf, and arial1.ttf, I suggest you delete arial0.ttf and arial1.ttf, as those are most likely copies of arial.ttf.
heathert wrote:but others appear to be (?) system-renamed duplicates...
Those aren't exact copies, but they do have the same font name. All computers running Microsoft Windows have lots of them, so don't worry.

In order to support different codepages/ languages, Microsoft provides several versions of their pre-installed raster fonts. When you browse to Windows Fonts folder you'll see all kind of raster fonts with the same font name. To make it even worse, more than one raster font can exist in a single .FON file! I suggest to either ignore or hide all raster and vector fonts. To hide them, use the filter feature, and uncheck both Vector Fonts, and Raster Fonts.

Hope this helps.
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heathert
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Post by heathert »

Erwin Denissen wrote:I wonder how you managed to get those duplicates in the same folder. Anyway it's safe to delete all but one of them. For example, when you have arial.ttf, arial0.ttf, and arial1.ttf, I suggest you delete arial0.ttf and arial1.ttf, as those are most likely copies of arial.ttf.
Okie, I'll try that, and see if they regrow more limbs at a further date. =)
Erwin Denissen wrote:In order to support different codepages/ languages, Microsoft provides several versions of their pre-installed raster fonts. When you browse to Windows Fonts folder you'll see all kind of raster fonts with the same font name. To make it even worse, more than one raster font can exist in a single .FON file! I suggest to either ignore or hide all raster and vector fonts. To hide them, use the filter feature, and uncheck both Vector Fonts, and Raster Fonts.
Oh, great idea--that'll save me a lot of scrolling. Thanks so much, Erwin!
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