fonts and appearance

[jlewis2k1]

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]

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]

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

 

[iMeowbot]

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]

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]

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?

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.