Windows\Fonts

[Michael Rowley]

I am having trouble keeping fonts out of Windows\Fonts: no matter that all my fonts are correctly installed in Windows\Fonts\ATMfolder or the PSFonts folder and removed from Windows\Fonts (apart from rather a lot have to be there), they keep coming back. What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps I'm expecting too much of ATM de Luxe, which is getting a bit long in the tooth; perhaps it's powerless against Windows XP.

[terrie]

I'm not sure I can help both because I'm running W2K but also because I use ATMLight rather than ATM Deluxe...however...

I use FontNavigator and what it does is to put shortcuts in the Winnt\Fonts folder for any "active" fonts...are you *sure* that your not seeing a shortcut for the fonts you see in the \Fonts folder?

Terrie

[Franca]

Originally Posted by Michael Rowley

I am having trouble keeping fonts out of Windows\Fonts: no matter that all my fonts are correctly installed in Windows\Fonts\ATMfolder or the PSFonts folder and removed from Windows\Fonts (apart from rather a lot have to be there), they keep coming back. What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps I'm expecting too much of ATM de Luxe, which is getting a bit long in the tooth; perhaps it's powerless against Windows XP.

I dimly recall other folks having problems with the ATM Deluxe/Win XP combination. I think the recommendation was to do what Terrie is doing - use ATM Light with Bitstream Font Navigator, or dispense with ATM altogether. Supposedly XP does not need it, but I have also heard people say that things worked better with ATM Light. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a true consensus - I also know people using ATM Deluxe successfully with XP!

I currently am using Font Navigator with no ATM installed on my XP Pro system. Even though I always do Custom installs and deselect any fonts if I'm asked, stuff still gets dropped into Windows\Fonts without my permission, so I check it periodically and clean it out. I drag fonts to my Fonts folder and shortcuts are left behind in Windows\Fonts. But it can be fussy! I quit using ATM Deluxe years ago because it was making a mess of things on my system, but your mileage may vary as they say.... Sorry I can't be of more help! I'll see if I can find someone with more current wisdom on this subject.

[Michael Rowley]

Franca & Terrie:

I am sure that I have many fonts in WinNT\Fonts (I said Windows\Fonts, but the Windows NT users know what I mean) that I know I have made sure that (a) I've copied them to WinNT\Fonts\ATM and (b) that I've removed them afterwards—several times!—from WinNT\Fonts; the only short cuts to fonts in WinNT\Fonts are the to the fonts I have currently got activated in ATM, which include both TT and T1 fonts. The 'escapees' are also shown as active in ATM, but that is because they are in WinNT\Fonts (and are automatically active).

Not all my fonts are in WinNT\Fonts: only the ones that Windows XP doesn't allow me to delete (including the ones that can apparently be deleted but reappear after a pause) and the escapees. The latter appear to be many of the fonts supplied with Windows XP & Office, but not all of them, I think; and most of my 1500 or so fonts are happily in their rightful places. But having so many fonts active is said to slow down some programs.

I have never tried Font Navigator, but perhaps I should, and ditch ATM de Luxe, which Adobe doesn't seem to care about any more. ATM Light wouldn't appear necessary, as Windows NT5 (or later) can deal perfectly well with Type 1 fonts.

[terrie]

>>Michael: (a) I've copied them to WinNT\Fonts\ATM

Hmmm...wonder if this is the "problem" right here...I have all my fonts stored on a separate drive (H:\Fonts) with a subdir "PSFonts" which is where I directed ATMLight to install the fonts...

Would it be a real pita and a half to move stuff from winnt\fonts\atm to someplace outside the winnt directory? Not sure if it would help but...

Terrie

[Michael Rowley]

Terrie:

'move stuff from winnt\fonts\atm to someplace outside the winnt directory'

That might help, but the WinNT\Fonts\ATM folder is the one created by ATM de Luxe and specified by Adobe as the one to use for TT fonts. I think just opening the WinNT\Fonts folder may trigger off the reinstallation of the core Microsoft fonts, but to look at the WinNT\Fonts\ATM folder it is necessary to open WinNT\Fonts first! As a rule, there would be no need to open the \ATM folder, but if you want to look at the extended properties of a TT font file (usually to find the 'permissions'), that's the only way, as properties shown inside ATM de Luxe are pretty skimpy.

Windows NT5 has the equivalent of ATM Light already (the ATM driver), but the font manager is in ATM de Luxe.

Font Navigator seems to have been discontinued, though Bitware stil gives technical support for it. Its replacement seems to be FontReserve (from another supplier), which costs $100. I'm taking a look at it—30 days free trial—but I'm loath to part with more money for a font manager when I've already bought ATM de Luxe, for which its makers (Adobe) also claim is the solution to font problems.

[terrie]

>>michael: That might help, but the WinNT\Fonts\ATM folder is the one created by ATM de Luxe and specified by Adobe as the one to use for TT fonts.

Hmmm...ATMLight let's me specify a user defined folder...I'd be surprised if ATM Deluxe didn't let you do that too...ATMLight has virtually no documentation but I would suspect that ATM Deluxe would have more info...might be worth checking it out?


>> I think just opening the WinNT\Fonts folder may trigger off the reinstallation of the core Microsoft fonts,

It doesn't in W2K...


>>Windows NT5 has the equivalent of ATM Light already (the ATM driver), but the font manager is in ATM de Luxe.

Right...with W2K, if I didn't have MM fonts, I wouldn't need ATM at all...


>>Font Navigator seems to have been discontinued, though Bitware stil gives technical support for it.

Oh...that's right...Font Navigator comes with CorelDraw/Paint...I think Corel must have bought it from BitStream...you don't happen to have that lying around someplace do you??? I'm still using FN3 which I bought from BitStream...not sure if it would run in XP...

Terrie

[Gerry Kowarsky]

Michael.

When ATM installes a font, the program puts a shortcut in the Fonts folder that points to the actual location of the font. Are you sure you are seeing fonts in the Fonts folder rather than shortcuts to fonts?

Gerry

[Michael Rowley]

Gerry:

'Are you sure you are seeing fonts in the Fonts folder rather than shortcuts to fonts?'

Yes, unless Windows is sneakily not putting those little arrows next to some of the icons! All the fonts deliberately activated by me in ATM de Luxe have shortcuts in the WinNT\Fonts folder; the fonts that I have just left there & the escapees have the actual font files.

I'm going to explore the possibility of having my ATM folder in a folder other than WinNT\Fonts, which might be OK (the User Guide isn't terribly clear on that point).

I've downloaded Font Reserve, though it looks as though it might be not so easy to use as ATM de Luxe; I have to make up my mind one way or the other, because apparently you can't use it with ATM de Luxe installed. Decisions, decisions . . .

[Robin Springall]

There's also HP's FontSmart (aka SmontFart of course) which came free with HP laser printers for a while, and lets you load and unload fonts quickly and easily. You can't create font sets, though. We use it all the time and love it.