Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
I want to customize the font list shown on GIMP so that it does not show me fonts I will never use but cannot remove from my system because OS X insists they are system fonts. However, I don't need Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, etc alphabets, and I cannot disable them in the font book, or delete them from the font folder.
It would also be wonderful if GIMP would condense its font list into families instead of displaying each individual one. Eg, Arial, Arial Italic, Arial Bold, and Arial Bold Italic could easily be one entry instead of four. Scrolling past a gazillion fonts just to reach the one I want to use is getting annoying. It would also be wonderful if GIMP would allow me to create custom lists, eg SansSerif fonts, Script fonts, and the like.
BTW, I have looked in my GIMP font folders, both for user and for the application, and both are empty.
Thanks for any assistance you can provide, or light you can shed on this situation.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
The reason you cannot remove the "system fonts" is that they are part of "core services." under current OS X versions these can only be altered by the administrative user account with authentication from Apple via an Apple ID, but it (supposedly) can be done.
Another approach is to not install the foreign font families at the time of OS installation, if you want to do a clean install.
Ross
Thank you!
Hmmmm. I do have an Apple ID and an admin user account (though perhaps not THE admin user account, if there is such a thing as only one). Also, a couple of other folks' replies on this thread have suggested better ways I can deal with the GIMP font-list issue in itself. GIMP is pretty much the only program where scrolling past a zillion system fonts is a serious problem. Adobe Open Office also has some of them, but only as families. Three PingFang fonts in a list is not all that big a deal. Eighteen of them is.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
Try this: Go to Edit > Preferences > Folders > Fonts, and see if the system wide fonts directory is listed. If so, remove it, restart the GIMP and see if you have /any/ fonts available. If not, you can put copies of the fonts you want to use in the GIMP in its own font directory, and that should do the deed.
It should be possible to reorder the font listing in the GIMP by renaming the font files, i.e. add 01, 02, etc. to groups you want to see listed first, second, etc.
:o)
Thanks so much! This looks like awesome advice. On my Mac, preferences is actually under the GIMP menu, but then yes: Folders > Fonts.
The two "culprit" folders with the fonts I do not want to see are not listed (namely /System/Library/Fonts/ and /Library/Fonts/), but two GIMP folders are. I will experiment with putting fonts into the GIMP folders and see if that will override the default looking into /System/Library/Fonts/ which is the source of unwanted (the folder I cannot change anything in). Also, I cannot rename anything in /System/Library/Fonts but can certainly do so in /Library/Fonts/ and in the two GIMP folders. So I will give that a whirl as well.
Thanks again!
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
Steve,
Nice workaround for the ordering. On the Mac OS, you can also add a special character that sorts last to get the unwanted fonts down to the bottom of the list. I use which generates an omega character.
Ross
Thanks for adding this to Steve's reply. If I can rename fonts, I can also use "99" to send fonts to the bottom of the list. And Option z looks awesome as well.
(Main problem continues to be that I cannot do anything to the system fonts in /System/Library/Fonts/. That is, I assume that since I cannot move them to the trash or make them inactive in the Font Book, I also cannot rename them. But I will try it out and see.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
Try this: Go to Edit > Preferences > Folders > Fonts, and see if the system wide fonts directory is listed. If so, remove it, restart the GIMP and see if you have /any/ fonts available. If not, you can put copies of the fonts you want to use in the GIMP in its own font directory, and that should do the deed.
It should be possible to reorder the font listing in the GIMP by renaming the font files, i.e. add 01, 02, etc. to groups you want to see listed first, second, etc.
:o)
The System wide fonts directory is not listed in GIMP preferences. Also:
Alas, I cannot rename any of the font files in /System/Library/Fonts. While I can rename files in /Library/Fonts/, that has no effect on GIMP's list of fonts. Similarly, adding fonts (of any name) to the two GIMP folders (share, and user) also has no effect on GIMP's list of fonts.
Bummer. :-(
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
I just went into /System/Libary/Fonts and removed some. I had to type in my admin name and password. However, I'm running OS 10.6.8. I'll have to try with a later system and find out if that's a change Apple made on later systems. Will let you know.
Ross
Indeed, cannot remove them from /System/Library/Fonts, not even when logged into my admin user account. Also cannot rename them. While I can rename fonts in other folders (eg /Library/Fonts or the two GIMP font folders -- in share and in user) this has no effect on GIMP's font list. I am running El Capitan, now 10.11.4.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
The reason you cannot remove the "system fonts" is that they are part of "core services." under current OS X versions these can only be altered by the administrative user account with authentication from Apple via an Apple ID, but it (supposedly) can be done.
Ross
Do you have any recommendations on how to get "authentication from Apple via an Apple ID" or where I should post to get help from Apple on this?
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
First, what version of OSX are you using?
I just tried removing a system font under Yosemite, and it worked. I have to assume that the account you are using does not have root administration access.
If you are running El Capitan, then the way I've been told it works is that when you attempt to make a modification to the system-reserved software, Apple sends a message to one of your other devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.) that asks you to verify your Apple ID. When you do so from that device, your computer will grant you full access. In other words, even if you are logging in as the sole administrative user, you have to verify that semi-independently to get full access. That means that if your computer is stolen, they have to steal at least one other device and have your Apple ID to get full access. Nice of Appleto force you to buy another Apple device.
That's as I understand it, as I haven't "upgraded" to the latest version, though I will do so shortly. I'm glad Apple takes security as seriously as they do. I just wish they were still good enough to do it in a user friendly manner.
Apple has a very good support site: Apple.com/support.
"Those who give up their liberty to gain security deserve neither." Benjamin Franklin
Ross
Using El Capitan. And there are two admin users on this system. One from the original owner. One for me. I have lost track of the password for the original owner's admin account. Also do not have the root password. While the original owner is a friend of mine, he doesn't remember his password either. El Capitan's "protection" for fonts in /System/Library/Fonts/ is apparently much stronger than for Yosemite. Frankly, for a variety of reasons, I am sorry that I ever upgraded to El Capitan. Much preferred Yosemite.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
Also as ugajin suggests, try using Font Book to deactivate system files, rather than removing them.
Ross
I have tried. Font Book refuses to deactivate system fonts.
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
Try it my way (it works for Windows - so maybe also for Mac).
Find the file fonts.conf (... / etc / fonts /)
Replace lines:
/Library/Fonts
on the path to the fonts in Gimp - I guess:
/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application Support/GIMP/2.8/fonts
and should be in Gimp without system fonts (only the fonts directory Gimp)
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
I just went into /System/Libary/Fonts and removed some. I had to type in my admin name and password. However, I'm running OS 10.6.8. I'll have to try with a later system and find out if that's a change Apple made on later systems. Will let you know.
Ross
Hi Ross,
Thank you for suggesting this. However, while Yosemite (apparently) allows users to deactivate system fonts, El Capitan does not. As someone else pointed out, both the deactivate and remove options are greyed out in Font Book. (Probably in other font manager programs as well, though I haven't tried any of those.)
I believe you are also the person who suggested taking the machine to a Certified Apple Technician to recover a system password. This is probably a great idea; however, I have a bunch of physical limitations that make this a Huge Journey. Thank you for the suggestion, and I will consider doing so if I cannot solve the problem some other way. Possibly through the use of GIMP's fonts.conf elsewhere on this thread, which I will look into.
Snowyn
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
It isn't clear why you want to replace /Library/Fonts with 8/fonts as this file path is already defined in GIMP > Fonts > Font Folders preferences.
On OSX there are 4 default files paths in fonts.conf, which could be commented out. The fonts.config file is here: /Applications/GIMP. app/Contents/Resources/etc/fonts.
However, GIMP will not display any fonts, unless you also e.g. populate
/Users/your_user_name/Library/Application Support/GIMP/2.8/fonts with some fonts.
8/fonts
Gimp)
Hi Ugajin (hope I spelled that right),
Thank you for the suggestion of looking in fonts.conf and possibly modifying that. I will try this idea.
However, FYI, I have looked in both /Users/.../GIMP/2.8/fonts and in the GIMP Application Resources fonts file, and there are zero fonts in there. So even though both those folders are empty, GIMP is displaying all the fonts in /System/Library/Fonts/ and in /Library/Fonts/ -- or at least all the *active* fonts in those folders. I have used Font Boss to deactivate a bunch of fonts. I also used monolingual (or something like that name) to remove "everything" that was not English language, and I *think* it removed a bunch of Chinese and Japanese and miscellaneous non-Roman-alphabet fonts. Although it did keep the system fonts that are non-Roman-alphabet.
Snowyn
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Gimp Font List or remove unwanted fonts
It wasn't me who first suggested modifying fonts.conf. Indeed, I am probably against this approach.
I suggest it may be easier, (and as you know you can create collections, which is what I think you wished GIMP could do) to use OSX's Font Book.app to browse for a font, and then to use GIMP's text tool options to select it by entering its name (or part thereof) using the font selector's text-field selection tool.
Not easier for me at all. I usually already know what font I want to use. If I don't, I go to a file I have created where I have lines of "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" in every font I have on my system (and I have further organized these lines into serif, sans, mono, script, and "odd"). This file shows me what every font I have looks like in a-z lowercase. Though I didn't realize I could type the name into the text selection tool. So I do thank you for that.
