Why is macOS 'hiding' fonts?

[benwiggy]

Since High Sierra, or possibly earlier, macOS has been bundling fonts in /System/Library/Fonts that are 'installed, but hidden'.

That is, they are unavailable to most apps, and not shown in FontBook or the macOS font selector window.

These include Athelas, Marion, Iowan Old Style, Courier, and Times. (Courier New and Times New Roman are different fonts.)

Does anyone know why Apple is doing this? I can't find any announcements or documentation about it.

All these fonts are .ttc TrueType Collections, which contain all the styles in one file. Copying them to /Library/Fonts or the user font folder still doesn't make them show, but if you convert the collection to individual files for each style, then they do appear in FontBook and font lists.

Whether there's a problem having "duplicates", even if one of them doesn't really exist, I don't know.

 

[MacGizmo]

Personally, I wish Apple would "hide" almost all the fonts they pre-install. I don't know anyone who uses most of them (particularly the foreign fonts).

 

[benwiggy]

Yes, we should be able to enable and disable system fonts, save for a few absolutely necessary ones.

With all due respect to nations and languages, I have no use for Cherokee, Thai, Hebrew, Arabic, Sangam, Devengari, etc, etc. There are even permanently installed Noto fonts for Cuneiform, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Linear B....!

 

[Slartibart]

This page holds rather extensive information on how to disable or remove the supplemental fonts in various versions of MacOS.

 

[benwiggy]

As said, disabling those fonts is a different issue from enabling the ones that are hiding.

I've since found this Support Page:

Fonts included with macOS Monterey – Apple Support (UK)

Some fonts are installed automatically. Others are downloadable or available in documents or apps that need them.

support.apple.com

which says:

"These fonts are only available in documents that already use the font, or in apps that request the font by name. Some are older fonts that were included in earlier versions of macOS or Apple apps."

If I can use them in old documents (which I could re-purpose again and again) - why not let me use them in new documents?

 

[KALLT]

It is most likely a licencing issue, since Apple does not hold the copyright. Perhaps Apple cannot license these fonts for all purposes (like document creation) or is unwilling to pay the licencing fees for that.

It might be that Apple intends to remove some of those fonts entirely in a future version of macOS and discourage their use until that happens.

 

[benwiggy]

That doesn't seem likely at all for "Times", which has been in the OS since the 80s, and says "© Apple" in the metadata. Others like Marion were custom-made exclusively for Apple.

Also seems unlikely that Apple would receive more restrictive rights than I can obtain from Monotype, etc.

I've no doubt that Apple will remove them in the future. That would be better than the current situation, because in their absence, I could copy them from older OSes and use them without issue.

 

[MacGizmo]

This page holds rather extensive information on how to disable or remove the supplemental fonts in various versions of MacOS.

Unfortunately, there is no way to disable fonts installed in the System folder, only the Main Library and User/Library folders—which has never been a problem to begin with.

 

[Slartibart]

Unfortunately, there is no way to disable fonts installed in the System folder, only the Main Library and User/Library folders—which has never been a problem to begin with.

We are talking Monterey here? You read the information provided by Kurt Lang »Owners of Connect Fonts, Rightfont, Typeface and FontAgent can disable the Supplemental folder fonts with these font managers.«? Seems that you can disable e.g. Noto Sans. 🤓

 

[MacGizmo]

Sorry, I should have clarified that I'm referring to the regular "pre-installed" System fonts, not the Supplemental Fonts folder. It's frustrating to be stuck scrolling through all the foreign language fonts I don't need, all the Noto fonts, and the versions of fairly popular fonts like Avenir, among others.