Font Forum

Hello, I've worked with MainType 5 and 7 for many years and I've been very satisfied so far. Now I've bought version 10 and now nothing works at all. Because I primarily work with Type 1 fonts and the software cannot or will not install them. Is there a solution to the problem? Except to use the old version, because it can. (Sorry: Google Trans)

Even though Type 1 fonts are considered legacy, MainType still supports those fonts.
Ca you explain what fails on your side?

I'm having the same issue. I have some older Type 1 fonts that I like to use; particularly the Sabon family. I installed all 8 of the Sabon family and they work until rebooting. I ensured that I installed (not loaded) all 8 font files, but after rebooting MainType just shows all fonts in the Sabon family as "Font not available":



I checked where MainType says the actual font files reside (right-click the font in MainType and select "open containing folder") and apparently they're in the system font folder (C:\Windows\Fonts):



Checking the system fonts folder however shows the Sabon family of fonts haven't been copied to that location as the files should appear between Rubik and Scheherazade (please note I've ensured Windows is set to show hidden files):


I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the fonts are originally located on a different physical hard drive in my desktop (the "D:" drive, still on the SATA bus):

cdelucia wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 3:05 pm Checking the system fonts folder however shows the Sabon family of fonts haven't been copied to that location as the files should appear between Rubik and Scheherazade (please note I've ensured Windows is set to show hidden files):

Windows file explorer treats Windows fonts folder as a special one, so it will never show files. You can inspect the actual contents of the folder through a (PowerShell) command prompt.

Didn't realize that. I checked and sure enough the Fonts folder has the Sabon fonts there - 23 copies of each:



Now I'm really confused why I don't have the Sabon family of fonts after rebooting.

It seems it is automatically uninstalled by an external application or by Windows.

What would cause that? Any ideas on how to investigate? Help from High Logic is rather lacking (submitted a ticket a while ago but have never heard back).

cdelucia wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 1:02 am What would cause that? Any ideas on how to investigate? Help from High Logic is rather lacking (submitted a ticket a while ago but have never heard back).

I am High-Logic. Asking for support for the same problem through both the forum and the ticket system does not make better answers.

As I mentioned earlier, I think it is an external problem.

What happens if you manually install the fonts through Windows file explorer and then reboot. Are the fonts then also uninstalled?

Well, after a some research and experimentation, I was able to get the Type 1 fonts to remain installed after rebooting. For clarity, I first uninstalled MainType and tried just adding and removing my Sabon Type 1 font files from the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. The font was available until the system was rebooted. I even used Windows' install function but to no avail. Ultimately something was corrupted with Windows' font registry and I had to completely delete the fonts and the font registry, then re-add the fonts and rebuild Windows' font registry.

First off, I downloaded the original fonts installed with Windows 10. There are websites that have the whole lot in a zipped archive format. I unzipped them into a folder (named Fonts) on a USB drive (Windows mounted it as D: on my machine). I also had to download the font compilation script (Add-Font.ps1) that Windows uses to create its font registry (through Powershell). This was also added to the USB drive in a folder named FontScripts.

At two points Windows either wouldn't let me delete files or run a Powershell script. I then had to find out how to fix these issues. The fixes appear as a "NOTE:" after their affected step.


1) Boot into Safe Mode.

2) Open an elevated command prompt.

3) Type:
cd c:\Windows\Fonts [Enter]
del /f /s /q *.* [Enter]

NOTE: The delete command didn't work until I took ownership of the C:\Windows\Fonts folder and gave my Windows user "full control" permissions to it as well.

4) Type:
Powershell [Enter]

5: Type:
Remove-Item "hklm:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" [Enter]
We remove this because it's corrupt.

NOTE: Windows was set to deny Powershell scripts as a security measure. I had to run the following command to get the above script to run: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Then type: Y [Enter]

6) Insert the USB flash drive.

7) Still in Powershell type:
D: [Enter]
cd D:\FontScripts [Enter]

8 ) Type:
.\Add-Font.ps1 D:\Fonts [Enter]
You'll get errors about missing registry settings. Ignore for now.

9) Reboot.
This will rebuild hklm:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts that we just removed in #3 above.

10) Reboot again, this time into Safe Mode.

11) Type:
Powershell [Enter]

12) Type:
D: [Enter]
cd D:\FontScripts [Enter]

13) Type:
.\Add-Font.ps1 D:\Fonts [Enter]

14) Reboot normally (no more need for safe mode).


Now Windows doesn't magically remove Type 1 fonts that are put in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder. I then reinstalled MainType and it works properly too. When I install a font via MainType it remains available until I uninstall it regardless of rebooting. I'm not sure what corrupted the Windows font registry but that's where all the problems stemmed from. You may also want to open Powershell and run the following command to turn off script execution for the sake of security: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy restricted
Then type: Y [Enter]

I think it's a good idea to convert all your ps1 type fonts to .otf fonts. MAkes life easier
Did this many years ago and don't regret.

Glyphman wrote: ↑Fri Oct 09, 2020 5:12 pm I think it's a good idea to convert all your ps1 type fonts to .otf fonts. MAkes life easier
Did this many years ago and don't regret.

Hi Glyphman
Which converter/sw did you use?

Picant wrote: ↑Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:22 am

Glyphman wrote: ↑Fri Oct 09, 2020 5:12 pm I think it's a good idea to convert all your ps1 type fonts to .otf fonts. MAkes life easier
Did this many years ago and don't regret.

Hi Glyphman
Which converter/sw did you use?

Hi Picant...sorry for the late answer, was a while since I visited the forum
But anyway answer to your question: That many years ago think I used "Fontographer" But today I should surely use "High Logic Font Creator". There are some free software out there too.

cdelucia,

Thank you for your very clear explanation as to how you rebuilt your Win 10 Font Registry.

Would you please provide the site from which you downloaded the original fonts installed with Windows 10?

Also, would you please provide the site from which you downloaded the font compilation script (Add-Font.ps1) that Windows uses to create its font registry?

Much Thanks!