Ascender Font Help and Customer Support
This section has a variety of helpful information that we hope will provide you with answers to any font questions you have.
- Font Formats
- Font Installation
- Character Sets - Languages & Scripts
- Font Cache troubleshooting
- Font Problems/Tips
Font Formats
There are different font formats - which one should I choose?
The choice of font format is mostly based on the kind of documents you create and your computer environment. Here are some general guidelines.
OpenType® is a font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe. There are two "flavors" of OpenType:
- TrueType®-based OpenType fonts (.TTF)
- PostScript®-based OpenType fonts (.OTF)
TrueType
TrueType fonts have .TTF file extension. TrueType is the default font format of both Macintosh and Windows systems. TrueType fonts are popular among home users and both small and large businesses or other enterprises. If this is the first time you are buying a font, then pick TrueType and you won't go wrong. Note: TrueType fonts from Ascender have the same icon as OpenType fonts.
OpenType
OpenType is a font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe. The term "OpenType" is mostly used by graphic designers and creative professionals to refer to OpenType fonts containing PostScript® outlines. These OpenType fonts have a .OTF file extension. OpenType fonts have replaced the original "PostScript Type 1" fonts as creative professionals upgrade their systems.
Both TrueType and OpenType fonts are easy to install, and the same file can be use on either Mac OS X or Windows. The main difference in the fonts can be found "under the hood": each font format uses a different technique in drawing and rendering the character outlines.
Font Installation
How do I download a font?
Ascenderfonts.com makes is easy for you to download the font. For every item that you purchase there will be a download link on the order confirmation page. Additionally, the receipt that is automatically emailed to you will also have the links. Simply click on the download link, select your desktop as the destination, then click OK or Download.
How do I install a font?
Windows XP or Windows Vista
YOU MUST FIRST UNZIP/UNCOMPRESS THE DOWNLOAD FILE BEFORE INSTALLING. Simply right-click on the file and select "Extract All". Then select Next twice and then Finish. If the icons on the fonts will change in the new uncompressed folder, then you were successful.
To install fonts you will simply drag and drop your new fonts into the Windows Fonts folder. You will want to open two folders: the folder with your new fonts and the system fonts folder. Note: before installing any new fonts you should close all open applications.
1. In Windows XP or Windows Vista, from the Start menu select Control Panel.
2a. In Windows XP, select Appearances and Themes, then select Fonts (under “See Also”).
2b. In Windows Vista, select Appearances and Personalization, then select Fonts.
3. Open the folder containing the TrueType font files you have downloaded. Make sure you can see both the Fonts folder and the folder with your new TrueType fonts.
4. Select your new TrueType font files, then drag them to the Fonts folder.
5. You have successfully copied your fonts into the Windows system and they are now installed.
Note: if you get an error message in step 4 above it could be that the font file was not uncompressed. To uncompress the font drag the font file out of the existing folder onto the desktop. Then drag the font from the desktop to the system Fonts Folder.
Macintosh OS X
If you have Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther®) or later you can use FontBook to install fonts:
1. Before installing any new fonts you should quit all open applications.
2. Double-click on a font in the Finder. This will open FontBook and you will see a preview of the font.
3. Click Install Font. The font is automatically installed in the Library folder of your home folder.
4. To make the font available to all users of the computer, drag it to the Computer folder in the Collection column of FontBook.
If you have an older version of Mac OS® X (10.2 or earlier) you can simply drag and drop your new fonts into the Macintosh system Fonts folder. You will want to open two folders: the folder with your new fonts and the system fonts folder.
1. Before installing any new fonts you should quit all open applications.
2. Open the folder with your new TrueType fonts.
3. Go to the Finder, on the desktop open the Macintosh Hard Disk.
4. Open the System Fonts folder (with the 9 icon).
5. Select your new TrueType font files, then drag them to the Fonts Folder (the fonts must be loose and not in a subfolder).
Character Sets - Languages & Scripts
What is the Latin-1 character set?
Latin-1 supports the following languages: Afrikaans, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
What is the WGL character set?
WGL stands for Windows Glyph List, developed by Microsoft with approximately 652 characters to address the languages and scripts of Western, Central and Eastern Europe. This includes support for Greek, Cyrillic, Eastern European, Baltic and Turkish. Learn more about the WGL Pan-European Character Set.
How do I access the WGL characters, accented characters, multilingual characters or special symbols?
Both Windows and Macintosh have tools to make it easy to access characters with an on-screen keyboard utility. For extensive typing we recommended that you enable additional languages for use with keyboard input.
Why don't the WGL or Non-Latin fonts appear in the Font Menu?
Most applications sort the fonts alphabetically, and then by language support. Because WGL and Non-Latin fonts have an extensive character set, they may appear at the BOTTOM of the font menu (you may have to scroll down to the bottom of your font list to see the fonts in Mac OS X, or in most Adobe applications).
Non-Latin Fonts (Arabic, CJK, Hebrew, Indics, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.)
All Non-Latin fonts from Ascender support the Unicode encoding standard. To access the Non-Latin characters you need to change your computer's keyboard/input settings. We have a separate page with extensive information on Using Non-Latin fonts.
Can Ascender create a font with a different language or script?
Yes. The Ascender team is well-known for our expertise in developing custom typefaces and extending character sets. Learn more about our custom font services.
Font Cache troubleshooting
If your fonts are not appearing correctly in the font menu or in documents (“garbled” is a common term for this) then one of the best solutions is to clear your font cache. Depending upon your system and application programs, this may entail deleting multiple font cache files.
What is a font cache file?
These are files used by the operating system and certain applications to keep track of what fonts are installed. If the font cache gets corrupted a variety of problems can ensue, including fonts not appearing in the font list in an application, or wrong fonts (or missing fonts) in documents.
How to clear the font cache
The best approach to delete the font cache file(s). It’s OK to delete these files, as they will automatically be restored once your system is restarted, or when you relaunch an application.
Windows XP/Vista
The Windows operating system has a font cache file that is located here:
C:\Windows\System32\FNTCACHE.DAT
Delete this file, and restart your system. A new FNTCACHE.DAT file will be created on startup.
Mac OS X
The Mac OS X operating system has numerous font cache files. The easiest way to automatically reset all the font cache files in Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”) and later is to restart in Safe Mode (also known as a “Safe Boot”):
• Shut the computer off.
• Press the power button.
• Immediately after hearing the startup tone, hold down the SHIFT key.
• Release the SHIFT key after the Apple logo and spinning gear (progress indicator).
• Restart the computer without holding down any keys.
For older Mac OS X versions, or to manually remove the font cache files, they are found here:
• com.apple.ATS.System.fcache
• com.apple.ATSServer.FODB_System
• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS
• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/501/Classic.fcache
• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/501/Local.fcache
• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/501/System.fcache
• /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS/501/FondResourceCache
• /Library/Preferences folder: com.apple.ATS.plist
• /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS.System.fcache
• /System/Library/Caches/fontTablesAnnex
Application Font Caches:
Mac Office
\Users\User_name\Library\Preferences\Microsoft – delete the “Office Font Cache (10)” or “Office Font Cache (11)” file.
Adobe Acrobat, Creative Suite
Search your computer for “adobefnt*.lst” file(s). Delete all these files. (note that this works on both Mac OS X and Windows systems)
Macintosh Font Utilities:
The following software programs can be helpful to clear the font cache:
FontNuke
Font Finagler
Smasher
Font Problems and Tips
If you have a problem intalling a font or if it does not appear here are some suggestions to solve the problem.
I cannot install the font into the Windows Fonts folder
Make sure you uncompress the font file before copying it to the Windows Fonts folder. Drag the font out of the download file (which is a .zip format) and then try copying it to the Windows Fonts folder.
If you have a problem intalling a font or if it does not appear here are some suggestions to solve the problem.
The font does not appear in Adobe InDesign
First, look at the bottom of the font list in InDesign: this is where non-Latin and other fonts with extended language support may appear. Second, try copying the font (or a shortcut) to the InDesign Fonts folder. On Windows computers it is located here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign CS3\Fonts.
If I cannot get the font to work, can I get a refund?
Yes, if you are not 100% satisfied please contact us and we will do our best to solve your problem or provide a refund. Click here for our Refund Policy.