Alter Physical Location of Font in Database

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OldClicker
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:49 am

Alter Physical Location of Font in Database

Post by OldClicker »

I have a large number of fonts that are in MainType 5's database and point to an old folder as the source. I've since copied the fonts to a new folder on a different disk and set the MainType folder path to match.
However, MainType still has the old folder stored as the location of those fonts - that gets reflected by Windows if I install any of the fonts.

Whilst I have the old folder and disk in place that is not a big issue, but I'd like to delete that old folder and presumably that will stop those fonts working.

This is compounded by the lack of any info (that I can find) in MainType that shows where it thinks the font file actually is.

Any suggestions on how I can get MainType to recognise the new location so it's reflected in Windows?

Also, does MainType 6 have any better info on actual font locations?
I don't see anything else in 6 that motivates me to spend $29 (vs $39 for a new customer - great upgrade discount guys...) to upgrade.
Thanks
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Alter Physical Location of Font in Database

Post by Erwin Denissen »

In general it is best to first uninstall the fonts that reside in that folder, but it is not always obvious what font files are actually in use.

We recommend to use MainType 6 and do the following:
  1. Click Active Fonts in the Views pane.
  2. Select all fonts, and tag them "installed" or something similar
  3. Next remove the font folder through Windows explorer
  4. Now reboot your computer, to ensure Windows loads all known fonts
  5. Within MainType do a tag search for "installed"
  6. Ensure all those fonts are still installed; if not, just install them through MainType
Let us know your results!
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
OldClicker
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:49 am

Re: Alter Physical Location of Font in Database

Post by OldClicker »

Erwin
Thanks for the advice. I did the following:
- added all the affected fonts to a group
- uninstalled them all
- moved and renamed my original font folder (the one I was wanting to delete). Something in Windows was holding the folder so even as admin I couldn't rename or move it. Luckily I multi-boot so Mint Debian sorted it pdq.
- re-started Windows
- in MainType I refreshed the folder that contained my duplicate font folder (the one I want to keep). As I said in my original post, the font folder was set to there anyway, MainType just wasn't updating the location.
- Windows now shows the correct location for the fonts
- Hooray!

I did this with my existing MainType 5 Standard Edition. I assume from your response that even in version 6 there's no straightforward way of determining the current physical location of a font in the database - seems a pretty fundamental requirement to me.
Anyway, thanks again. All now sorted.
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Alter Physical Location of Font in Database

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Good to know you solved the problem.

MainType will always be able to install a font, no matter where it is stored on your system. It even works if you delete all copies on file, as MainType holds its own copy of each of the indexed fonts.

MainType 6 allows you to see where it has found font files as shown here:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3859
Erwin Denissen
High-Logic
Proven Font Technology
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