I was strongly under the impression Mac name table entries are entirely superfluous by now. However, I received these screenshots from a client (ignore the pink boxes ):
At first I was wondering about all kinds of other possible issues, but finally testing Powerpoint myself (I usually test Word primarily) I encountered the same font having blank spaces for style names.
Sure enough, exporting with âExport Mac Name Table Entriesâ checked the font show up in the menu and work as expected.
My question now is this: Is this known behavior and Glyphs exports by default accepts that fonts will be unusable in Mac Powerpoint, or is this some kind of regression in Powerpoint where it once was not relying on those Mac name tables, but now does again (in Version 16.97 (25051114))? Or is there something specific about this familyâs names that requires the Mac names specifically? Also, what explains the difference between garbled text for the client, and blank spaces for style names from my tests?
I know Mac Powerpoint is maybe not the most used software, but the default export should cater to it.
Could it be an issue only for families beyond a RIBBI range or some other kind of combination of styles? Trying with some other font I cannot reproduce this either.
Also, if I rename the family but keep the style names, the whole list renders correctly in Powerpoint without the Mac name entries as well. Does Powerpoint have its own internal cache then, which could have gotten corrupted somehow?
The faulty font without the Mac names has names like this; all perfectly acceptable imo. There are styles from Thin to Bold, and matching Obliques.
Well. Iâm glad this isnât a categorical issue, but still very odd Powerpoint behavior. I guess the explicit Mac names act as a sort of cache buster. This seems to be confirmed by uninstalling the fonts, and then installing the fonts again but without the Mac names toggle used in the exportâso in essence the same fonts that failed to render properly before then render just fine.
Just to confirm my own assumptions here, what is the reasoning behind the âMac name tablesâ not writing ID 16/17? Is this because any program so far legacy that it relies on Mac tables will also not use the more modern typographic names ID 16/17?
Microsoft uses its own font cache and font preview cache on MacOS (and who knows, probably Windows too), and that cache seems to be independent for each Office app. Iâve also had to use different paths to reach that cache in the past.
On my current setup using Sonoma and PowerPoint 16.97.2, the two relevant cache locations should be located here: /Users/<user_name>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/FontCache /Users/<user_name>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/Data/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/FontPreviewCache
For Word and Excel just change the app name in the com.microsoft. part of the path.
Considering the issues you are seeing, Iâd say the FontPreviewCache is the most relevant one of the two, but I always delete both folders when I want to make sure what I am seeing is what I have currently installed. Also, this should be done on top of whatever approach you are using to clean up your MacOS cache.
In the past Iâve found that these caches tend to survive restarts. And I think Microsoft is really lazy when it comes to updating them, especially the font preview ones. I believe a lot of things need to change in the new fonts, probably the version number should be one of them, but I havenât tested that.
The reason I searched for these cache locations was me testing fonts with localised style names and finding things would stay the same in the font selection menu even after I changed things drastically in the font names. Hope this helps in some way.
I was also thinking, I keep on seeing people claim you need to restart MacOS as part of cleaning your font cache, and although there might be extreme cases where you have to do that, personally I do the following when I want to install a new version of a font and I want to avoid cache issues:
Close any apps that contain a font selection menu. Code editors and a terminal app can be kept open. Same with Glyphs, Drawbot, browsers, etc. I mean close things like Microsoft or Adobe apps, and things like Pages, Keynote or Numbers.
Remove the fonts or family you want to replace from Font Book.
Run the following command on Terminal: killall "Font Book"; killall fontd; killall fontworker.
Re-open Font Book and install the new version of the fonts.
This is the process I follow whenever I want to test things in the OS itself. Iâve never had to restart and Iâve never had any font cache issues. This also makes it so the new fonts appear in Apple apps like Pages without having to restart.
I honestly also follow the first step out of habit, you can always try skipping it? Also, you can use the Shortcuts app to run that Terminal command, and if you do that, it means you can add it to the Finder context menu or maybe even a keyboard shortcut.
Anyway, hopefully that helps someone in the future.
Apple fixed the font cache issues in tiny steps over the years. So restarting might have been necessary on some point. And I tried in macOS 15 to trigger font cache issues on purpose and it was fine. So the whole dance might not be needed at all anymore.
):
