Using SIL fonts in other Operating Systems (non-Windows) – FAQ

Answer: SIL’s Macintosh TrueType fonts should work fine on Mac OS X, as they are traditional Macintosh fonts. Some of the special features, such as WorldScript support, would be available only in Classic apps that support them. Unfortunately, the SILKey keyboards will work only in Classic apps as well.

SIL’s Unicode fonts are usable on the Mac, but only to the extent the application allows. SIL’s Unicode fonts are not fully functional on a Mac, because they rely on OpenType features to handle such things as diacritic placement, and OS X does not support OpenType features. It is up to the application to support OpenType, and very few Mac applications do so at this time. The few applications that do support OpenType provide varying levels of OpenType support.

Users of Microsoft Word for Macintosh should note that versions of MacWord prior to Word 2004 do not support Unicode. Furthermore, although Word 2004 supports Unicode, the "smart rendering" technologies required to correctly render SIL's Unicode fonts have not been implemented in Word 2004.

More information about using Unicode fonts on the Mac is available at:

•  http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts_mac.html
•  http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pinax/greekkeys/unicodeMac.html

Answer: In order to install fonts in Mac OS X, you will need to be sure you have both read and write access to the Fonts folder located in the Library folder. Open the Library folder and select the Fonts folder. In the Finder, click on Get Info, then on Ownership & Permissions. In the palette that opens, check to be sure that Access is set to Read and Write. (If the pop-up menus are grayed out, click the padlock icon to unlock the pop-up menus.)

In OS X, fonts may be placed in four different places: (a) the Library:Fonts folder in the Home directory of a user account; (b) the Library:Fonts folder; (c) the Library:Fonts folder in the Mac OS X System folder; and (d) the Fonts folder in the OS 9.2 ("Classic") System folder.

Fonts in (a) are usable only to the user of that account. Fonts in (b) are available to all users. Fonts in (c) are also available to all users, but are essential for system use. Fonts in (d) are used by Classic applications, as well as by applications running in OS X.

In all cases, the fonts must all be "loose" in the System:Fonts folder or Library:Fonts folder — not grouped in family folders — or the system cannot see them.

For installation instructions for the SIL IPA93 fonts, click here.

To install other SIL fonts in Mac OS X:

• Save the download file to a temporary location on your hard disk.
• Double-click the download file. A folder with the same name as the download file will be created in the same location as the download file.
• Open up this folder, and find the font files.
• Copy the font files to the Fonts folder in the Library folder on your hard drive. You may also want to copy them to the Fonts folder in your OS 9 System folder.

Answer: SIL offers freeware and SIL Open Font License (OFL) fonts in TrueType and PostScript Type 1. All fonts available are posted on our website.

Since it is possible to use both TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts in Linux, it should be possible to use SIL’s fonts in Linux. Most of our Unicode fonts now have a Debian distribution package. Our legacy (custom-encoded) font packages do not have debian packages and have not been tested on Linux.

Due to our limited staff, we must restrict our support to only SIL font products running in Windows and Macintosh systems. However, the Gentium font source page includes some helpful instructions explaining how to install .TTF files on Linux when these are not supplied as a Debian package or RPM.

Answer: We are grateful to David Kamholz for the following information:

Instructions for creating and running this macro:

• Download this text file, open it in a text editor, copy the text to your clipboard.
• Open your document in Word 2004
• Choose Tools / Macro / Visual Basic Editor
• In the VB Editor: Choose View / Code or press  F7  to view the code editor
• Paste the macro text in.
• Choose View / Microsoft Word or click in your document window to dismiss the VB editor.
• Choose Tools / Macro / Macros....
• Select the SILConvert macro and click Run.

Word 2004 Macro Lorna A. Priest, 2005-10-27 Download "Word2004Macro.txt", Text document, 2KB [2512 downloads]