Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Deleting AdobeFnt.lst files

1,772 views
Skip to first unread message

Jack Albright

unread,
May 9, 2003, 12:25:55 PM5/9/03
to
Basic question:
I notice in this forum that the answer to OS X Illustrator 10 problems is sometimes to delete all AdobeFnt.lst files.
So, I deleted the AdobeFnt.lst files found in my ~/me/Library/Application Support/Adobe folder just to see what would happen and sure enough, next time I lauched Illustrator new ones were created, just as I expected.

What are these AdobeFnt.lst files used for ? If I delete them all, do they just get recreated next time I launch an Adobe application ?

Why are there sometimes multiple AdobeFnt.lst files (Adobefnt01.lst, AdobeFnt02.lst, etc) ?

There seems to be some benefit derived from deleting them. Is there a penalty? I'm wondering if I shouldn't just routinely delete them all as a part of regular system maintenance.

Gary Newman

unread,
May 9, 2003, 1:21:16 PM5/9/03
to
Maybe somebody more knowledgeable than I can answer the What are they for question. I believe it has been explained here before, but I don’t remember. Like Preference files, new ones are created when the old ones are deleted. Other Adobe apps make them, too. In any case, it’s not necessary to delete them all - only the one corrupt one, which seems to always be Adobefnt05.lst. You can tell when it’s gone bad, because it starts increasing in size. When it gets over a megabyte, it’s time to delete it. If left unattended, it will continue to grow, and yield progressively longer response times in Illustrator.

Leah McCloskey

unread,
May 16, 2003, 10:34:40 AM5/16/03
to
I am beginning to have to trash the adobefnt files at least once a day in order to boot Illustrator.

Could I have a bad font that's causing this? I got a new set of fonts from someone recently that was sent over the internet and it seems to coincide with the problem. I also recently deleted ATM Deluxe and installed ATM Light to work better with Suitcase. Could this have anything to do with Illustrator's constipation?

Larry G. Schneider

unread,
May 16, 2003, 12:40:27 PM5/16/03
to
Leah,

Yes to both of your questions. If you have something like FontDoctor or the full version of ATM, both have the capability to find and repair damaged fonts. Look at the latest installs first.

Larry

ken upham

unread,
May 16, 2003, 5:04:09 PM5/16/03
to
I have the full version of ATM, but didn't know it could repair fonts and can't find where to do it-any tips?

Larry G. Schneider

unread,
May 16, 2003, 5:54:47 PM5/16/03
to
ken,

You may be right. I onl have a very limited set of fonts to work with and never have the problems exhibited above. Any font downloaded from the net should be suspect.

Larry

Ann Shelbourne

unread,
May 17, 2003, 10:31:14 PM5/17/03
to
ATM Deluxe can flag damaged, duplicated and incomplete fonts but it can't repair them.

If you have Fontographer, you can often use it to repair damaged fonts or to turn a TT font into a Type 1 PostScript font.

nilk narf

unread,
May 17, 2003, 11:35:41 PM5/17/03
to
Does Fontographer turn PS fonts into TT fonts, too?

Ann Shelbourne

unread,
May 19, 2003, 2:30:46 AM5/19/03
to
Yes.
But why would you want to?

nilk narf

unread,
May 19, 2003, 11:44:07 AM5/19/03
to
Because a lot of my fonts are jagged and I get a message that says I "won't be able to print or stroke its characters because the font's outline file is missing or the ATM is turned of." I don't know what all that means. So I go online to download free fonts and I can only get the TT fonts to work for a Mac.

Wade Zimmerman

unread,
May 19, 2003, 12:34:52 PM5/19/03
to
nilk narf,

The reason you aere probably missing the outline fonts is that you don't know what that means. Postscript fonts have screen and prnter fonts that have tyo both be present in order for them to display and print.

When you load your postscript fonts you probably simply ignore the printer fonts and therefore they are missing. Or you do not have ATM turned on in order for Postscript fonts to display and print properly when you do not have a postscript printer you need ATM or ATM Deluxe if you are printing from OS 9.2.2 or earlier as you must be doing or ypou would not get the message. If you do not have ATM, which I doubt, you can download it from the Adobe Download site. to turn it on go to Control Panels in the Apple Menu and choose ATM then at the top of the control panel click the on button. That's what that means. You also want to make sure Smoothing is turned on.

To make sure you have both your screen and printer fonts go back to the source from which you acquired your fonts and make sure you copy both the screen and printer fonts, One looks like a suticase and the other is a big A made with lines and appears red.

That's what that means.

nilk narf

unread,
May 19, 2003, 7:37:12 PM5/19/03
to
Thanks.
0 new messages