fonts and appearance

jlewis2k1

macrumors 6502a

Original poster

• Sep 30, 2006

• #1

I have done a search on the forums and i was not able to find anything about how to change the font appearance. for an example, rather using the default for the icons and all i want to use my own font. how can i do this?

 

iMeowbot

macrumors G3

• Sep 30, 2006

• #2

Silk is one way to do that.

You may or not be happy with the results. Menus, buttons and so on often assume that the normal system font is present, and substitutes won't always fit in well.

 

jlewis2k1

macrumors 6502a

Original poster

• Sep 30, 2006

• #3

oh? so there is no built-in feature of X that allows this?

 

iMeowbot

macrumors G3

• Sep 30, 2006

• #4

There is an API provided to make the changes (that's how Silk can do it). Apple advise against changing it system-wide, that's why they don't provide an end user preference pane or utility themselves.

 

killmoms

macrumors 68040

• Sep 30, 2006

• #5

Probably because Apple is smart and knows that whatever font the average user is likely to choose will be ugly as sin and make their designers cry while they're at work, just knowing that someone out there is defiling their interface. 😉 This is an instance of Apple wisely saving users from themselves.

What's wrong with Lucida Grande, anyway? So clean, so readable.

 

MisterMe

macrumors G4

• Sep 30, 2006

• #6

jlewis2k1 said:

I have done a search on the forums and i was not able to find anything about how to change the font appearance. for an example, rather using the default for the icons and all i want to use my own font. how can i do this?

Click to expand...

You have not looked hard enough. Apple developed the Appearance Manager for System 8 (aka Copland) and with it the ability to select your theme at your whim. Apple released it as part of MacOS 8, but discouraged its use. The Appearance Manager survives in MacOS X as a Carbon facility. Although Apple will not prevent you from implementing non-default themes (including replacement System fonts), the company strongly recommends that you not do it.