Jamf Nation Community

stuffelse · ‎01-26-2017

The short version of this is that another tech approached me for help trying to crop down the contents of /System/Library/Fonts/ on one of our users' 10.11 MBP. His argument was "I've always done this in past OS versions, but now I can't." It ended up being SIP stopping him, but I'm still apprehensive about tampering with this. Admittedly, my knowledge of fonts is somewhat limited, and he's been in the business for a very long time.

He's apparently referenced Extensis for this purpose in the past, which claims there's approximately ~40 unnecessary fonts in /System/Library/Fonts/ in 10.11.x. Personally, I think if we're going to start ripping out fonts, limit it to /Library/Fonts/ and ~/Library/Fonts/. And maybe, just maybe - I know this is crazy - actually invest in an enterprise font management system for everybody to use, hopefully preventing that type of thing in the future.

We're a very large print company, and possibly more than normal, fonts are a very big deal. I've heard horror stories about things that went to print and had to be destroyed and redone at great cost to the company, because of font mixups.

Anyway, what's your take?

tnielsen · ‎01-26-2017

No. At this point in time, it's not worth micromanaging those system fonts. Yes, people used to do it. I used to do it.

It's no longer worth it. /library/fonts are completely different story. So are ~/library/fonts.

We use Universal Type Server here. Nothing is perfect but this has all but removed the headache of font management from my mind and I'm thankful.

al_platt · ‎01-26-2017

I once had a user manage to delete all 3 font folders (don't ask me how!) while trying to install a free font and the machine wouldn't boot.

There's a reason /System/Library/Fonts/ is protected. If something is deleted that's needed then you'll get problems (or have to target disk to another machine to copy the folder over)