How to restore default fonts on Mac – Setapp

The Mac system is known for its exquisite font renderings, which has been even more striking since the advent of Retina screens.

Since we are immersed in the world of text every day, fonts are more important than ever. They usually look "invisible" exactly what it is; but try changing the font you've been using to other fonts and you'll notice the difference right away - everything will look a little bit wrong.

Sometimes, Macs cannot render fonts correctly, or the default macOS system fonts may be corrupted. In this case, you will see a square with a question mark or icon on each menu instead of text. But don't worry, this is an easy fix. Let's take a step-by-step look at how to change the default font on your Mac and reinstall the fonts that may cause this problem.

Best font editor for Mac

Glyphs Mini can help you customize macOS fonts and even create your own from scratch. Easily replace default fonts.

Free trial security test

Why are Mac fonts damaged?

Most likely, you need to change the system fonts because some third-party processes have somehow interfered with the system's font rendering and font recognition, causing the Mac to display incorrectly.

Unfortunately, simply restarting your Mac or updating your app or macOS doesn't work here. However, you can fix this error through the terminal using some simple commands.

Here is how to set default font recognition on your Mac:

1. Turn off the Mac, then hold down the Shift key to start and enter safe mode.
2. In safe mode, your font should look normal. Start the terminal.
3. To clear the font cache and reset the font database, type <mark>sudo atsutil database -remove</mark> .
4. To shut down your Mac again, type <mark>sudo shutdown -r now</mark> .
5. Restart your Mac.

Now your default macOS system fonts should be able to display correctly and the font database should be rebuilt. You can read the text again!

How to change the default font on your Mac

Not every font error will cause the macOS system font to be completely damaged. Often, it is actually a third-party font that interferes with the way various applications display text. Also, if you are a font lover, your font library can easily grow unlimitedly and take up a lot of space on your hard drive.

You can resolve this situation by reinstalling the font back to the default settings using the Mac's Font Book utility:

1. Start the font booklet from the application folder.
2. Navigate to File ➙Restore Standard Fonts…
3. Click to continue.

Now, only fonts provided with macOS are retained in the font booklet.

Note: Your third-party fonts will not be completely deleted. You can still find them in the Removed Fonts folder in the system ➙ library and reinstall them if needed.

To reinstall the font again, or install any fonts you purchase in the future, just make sure they are in .ttf or .otf format, double-click the file to bring up the font list menu, and click Install Fonts. If you have multiple weights of the same font, you can select and install all fonts at once. You can see the newly installed fonts in the Users tab in the font list sidebar.

The best font apps on Mac

While font booklets can basically save the system and downloaded fonts in one place, it is not a particularly powerful application and there are no features that many typesetting enthusiasts will love. Therefore, it is worth exploring other high-quality alternatives that can add new features to it.

Typeface is an excellent font manager that starts where the font book stops. While it uses the same default and third-party font library on your Mac (so there is no need to reinstall), it also allows you to preview over 2000 Google web fonts directly in the app. The preview panel itself is also more intuitive and easier to customize, making it easier for you to choose the right font for your next project.

You can even compare fonts side by side using Typeface and detect the slightest differences by overlaying them on top. Dark mode is the best way to see how fonts perform in different contexts, while PDF printing allows you to evaluate fonts on paper. Check out our article on how to add fonts on your Mac.

When selecting a font in Typeface, you can create custom collections and tag fonts for seamless reference in the future.

Glyphs Mini is the perfect app for those who want to take font work to another level. Sometimes you want to adjust the font or create an icon or logo with a custom look. Glyphs Mini has an easy-to-use vector editor that helps you convert every character, export new variants to full fonts, and use it anywhere.

As you can see, when there is a serious problem with the Mac default font, you can use the terminal to fix it. When you think third-party fonts are interfering with your Mac, now you know how to set the default font using the font booklet. Apart from that, if you like typography, you should definitely switch to using Typeface as your default font library, and Glyphs Mini as your font editor.

Best of all, Typeface and Glyphs Mini are completely free to get through the seven-day trial of Setapp, a platform with over 210 top applications worldwide, from system monitoring (iStat Menus) to media conversion (Permute). Try each Setapp application for free today and create your own favorite collection.

Please note that I keep the original format and location of the image. In addition, some sentences have been replaced synonyms and adjusted sentence structures, striving to make pseudo-original creation without changing the meaning of the original text. Since I can't access the image link, I can only keep the original link. If you need to replace the image link, please provide a new link.

The above is the detailed content of How to restore default fonts on Mac – Setapp. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!