Kommentare zu: Myths about Helvetica and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

Von: Karl

Karl — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:16:10 +0000

I think it was a tremendous blunder for Apple to make and incomplete family Helvetica Neue part of the system. Like others have stated, they should either include the entire family or name it differently. What they’ve done is created a big headache for the market segment which is arguably their base. Thanks, Ralf, for the workaround. Since I don’t use iCal I guess it the fact that I have T1 rather than OpenType HelveticaNeue won’t matter so much (I hope!).

Von: TJ

TJ — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:09:20 +0000

Helvetica madness… have resorted to re-installing the HelveticaNeue.dfont that came with Leopard for system font usage - as the iCAL font issue was looking ugly. Back to square one really with 2 versions of HelveticaNeue - deactivating the correspondingly / conflicting named fonts of my own HelveticaNeue set…

Von: cus

cus — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:49:26 +0000

I dispute some of the “myths” in this article or the comments section, or even on other forums dealing with this topic.
Myth 1: It doesn’t matter if you use a TrueType or Postscript font!
Try telling that to real world production environments. In Australia the majority of publishers refuse to accept advertisements supplied in PDF format if they have TrueType fonts embedded in them. This information is published in the mechanical specifications of the publishers and goes as far as to only allow Postscript fonts - no mention of OpenType being acceptable for the RIPs.
Myth 2: Apple don’t sell Macs to graphic professionals!
As already noted by others’ here, on what planet was this observation made? Let’s face it, there is a good argument to be made that Apple may not even exist today if not for the support of graphic and design professionals in the late 80s/early 90s. At one stage in those “dark ages”, Apple had 10-12% market share of all personal computers, largely driven by sales to the design industry. Design-based applications drove advances in those early year’s - the likes of Adobe, Macromedia, Aldus Corporation, etcetera, and even some games designers such as Bungie (a Mac-only games pioneer).
If not for that support back then Apple could well have folded long before it had the chance to be popular with the masses.
Myth 3: Just buy the new OpenType set of Helvetica Neue fonts and stick those into Leopard to make it work as it has been designed!
Great, so in order to make my $150 upgrade of the Apple operating system OS X Leopard work as it has been designed and still allow graphics professionals to have unhindered use of their Helvetica font family, I will need to spend $1,500 buying the complete OpenType Helvetica Neue font family to replace the Postscript font family I already have paid for and own. Doesn’t seem to make sound financial sense.
Actually sounds more like a Microsoft Windows kind of solution!

Von: TJ

TJ — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:45:06 +0000

The past few days spent reading and attempting to fix this annoying Neue system font issue. I have left the Helvetica.dfont in the protected fonts folder, deleted/removed all HelveticaNeue.dfont from machine and activated my own set of Neue (T1) fonts thru Suitcase. This resulted in mail and iCAL displaying some weird character baseline shifts, esp. Mail (header area of emails To: Subject: fields)
Reinstalled the Helvetica.dfont into protected and library locations: not the Neue version. This has fixed the Mail app screen display. Looks like iCAL uses HelveticaNeue Bold from the results. Adobe version of HelveticaNeue T1 I am using shifts the baseline up on the Bold version used by iCAL. Not so much as to be illegible, and I can prob live with it. Still, all in all a large pain in the rear. A full set of Neue.dfont would have been appreciated on this new OS!!

Von: sioux

sioux — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:13:44 +0000

The average consumer doesn’t know one font from the next, but the average Mac user usually does. Every new OS has it’s issues, but this one could of been avoided. It reminds me of my iBook keyboard. Why do my keys rub off? Because someone AT APPLE did not do their due diligence, and used an inferior process on one of the most used component. Why does my beautifully designed document cause me to cry out in anguish? Because someone at Apple took the low road.

Von: Marc

Marc — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:52:07 +0000

What it seems these people have forgot is that Apple doesn’t sell its computers to graphics professionals.

What planet are you living on?

It may well be inconvenient for publishing experts to have to replace fonts in the uncharted backwaters of their systems. These people should keep in mind, however, that managing fonts is their job, and that they shouldn’t complain about Apple making an effort to provide the masses with fonts vastly better than the ones its competitors ship.

You’re damn right it’s inconvenient. publishing experts are in the business of ‘publishing’, not dealing with the headache of conflicting fonts because Apple has decided to include an extremely widely used version in the system.

If, as you seem to imply, most people don’t even know what a font is, they should have just changed their system version to ‘Helvetica APPL” and us graphics professionals (the apparent minority of Mac users) could install Helvetica Neue CE Ultralight to our hearts content.

Von: Chris

Chris — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:12:20 +0000

The above comments contain legitimate complaints about the fonts installed in Mac OS X. They really aren’t professional quality sets–but that’s OK, because the default OS installation isn’t made to suit professionals with high expectations and specific needs.

What it seems these people have forgot is that Apple doesn’t sell its computers to graphics professionals. The vast majority of Apple’s customers will _never_ buy a typeface in their lives. In fact, if Apple didn’t include licensed copies of fonts with their OS, there wouldn’t be Helvetica, Times or Garamond in the hands of the general public at all. Those not paid to design would be forced to use cheaper font clones like Arial.

Apple does well to include these great fonts with its computers. It may well be inconvenient for publishing experts to have to replace fonts in the uncharted backwaters of their systems. These people should keep in mind, however, that managing fonts is their job, and that they shouldn’t complain about Apple making an effort to provide the masses with fonts vastly better than the ones its competitors ship. Even if the fonts don’t represent a complete typeface for every possible character, the do put the power of high-quality fonts in the hands of consumers.

Von: Miguel Soler

Miguel Soler — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:35:18 +0000

It works! Thank you Ralf. I love Helvetica Neue and I love you. Fantastic blog. I’ll recomend.

Von: ralfherrmann

ralfherrmann — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:05:40 +0000

The system will stop reinstalling Helvetica and Helvetica Neue once you delete them in
System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/
Versions/A/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ProtectedFonts/

Von: Miguel Soler

Miguel Soler — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:00:04 +0000

What I would like to do is remove Helvetica Neu from system font library and use my complete Helvetica Neue on font explorer. But system rebuild its helvetica every time I try to delete.