Font Finagler 2.0.3 fixes an issue where installing Font Finagler using the installer package would still require authorization upon the first launch.
Version 2.0.2 (202), September 25, 2023
What's Changed:
Font Finagler 2.0.2 adds support for macOS 14 (Sonoma).
Version 2.0.1 (201), March 16, 2023
What's Changed:
Font Finagler 2.0.1 adds support for macOS 13 (Ventura).
Version 2.0 (200), May 24, 2022
Features:
Font Finagler 2.0 is now extremely fast at searching for font cache files — up to 5 times faster than Font Finagler 1.5.
Font Finagler 2.0 now allows you to simultaneously search for and clean the font cache files for all users on your Mac.
Adds full support for OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), macOS 10.12 (Sierra), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 11 (Big Sur), and macOS 12 (Monterey)).
Adds support for font cache files of Adobe Creative Cloud applications including CC, and CC 2014 – CC 2022.
Adds support for font cache files of QuarkXPress 2015 – 2022.
Adds support for Microsoft Office 2016, 2019, and later.
Adds native support for Macs with Apple Silicon processors.
A reworked Font Cache Cleaner feature that is both more secure and more convenient. In Font Finagler 2.0, Font Cache Cleaner works just like the Admin-Free Font Cache Cleaner feature did in version 1.5: you (or your system administrator) authorizes once to install a privileged helper tool, and from then on, you needn’t enter your password each time you clean the font cache files.
Adds higher resolution artwork to support Macs with Retina displays.
Adds support for Dark Mode in macOS 10.14 (Mojave) and later.
Advanced: an updated finagler command-line tool to allow system administrators access to Font Finagler’s features to help customize their workflow.
Enhancements:
Font Finagler 2.0 is now properly code-signed and notarized by Apple, so you’ll no longer get error messages when trying to open it for the first time.
Version 1.5 (163) , May 24, 2022
Features:
Improves support for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), OS X 10.7 (Lion), OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), and OS X 10.10 (Yosemite). While Font Finagler 1.5 may continue to work in later versions of OS X/macOS, it is not officially supported.
Improves support for font cache files of Adobe Creative Suite applications up to CS6. Font Finagler 1.5 can clean some — but not all — of the font cache files of Adobe Creative Cloud apps. For full compatibility, users are encouraged to upgrade to Font Finagler 2.0.
Improves support for QuarkXPress font cache files up to QuarkXPress version 10.5.
Improves support for Microsoft Office font cache files up to Microsoft Office 2011.
The Font Icon Helper feature has been rewritten to work without having to modify other applications’ icons.
Enhancements:
Font Finagler 1.5 is now properly code-signed, so when you download it in OS X 10.8 - macOS 10.14 (Mojave) and launch it for the first time, you no longer get a “This application can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.” error. (NOTE: this only applies when using Font Finagler 1.5 in macOS 10.14 and earlier. In macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and later, you’ll get a “Font Finagler can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software.” error. While this can be worked around by Control-clicking on Font Finagler’s icon in the Finder and choosing “Open” from the contextual menu (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491 for more info), users are encouraged to upgrade to Font Finagler 2.0).
Enabled both the Font Icon Helper feature and the dfontifier feature when in Administrator-Free mode.
Improved the ability to print the Help ReadMe and Further Troubleshooting pages; disabled ability to print views that weren’t intended to be printable (Preferences window, Font Cache Cleaner view, etc.).
In Font Finagler’s About window, added the ability to click on the abbreviated serial number to display the full serial number.
Font Cache Cleaner: removed the “Preserve Font Book’s disabled Fonts” checkboxes and warnings in OS X 10.7 (Lion) and later, as they are no longer necessary.
Font Cache Cleaner: improved responsiveness of the UI while searching for font cache files.
When you clean the OS X font cache files in OS X 10.7 and later, Font Finagler is no longer launched upon login after you restart.
In Mac OS X 10.6 and later, warning and progress dialogs being shown as sheets no longer prevent you from quitting the application.
Bugfixes:
Fixed a bug that could cause Font Finagler to become unresponsive after launching.
The About Font Finagler window now updates dynamically to show the user’s (abbreviated) serial number when the user registers.
The warning dialogs about preserving Font Book’s disabled fonts are now shown in the Administrator-Free mode as well as normal user mode.
The warning dialogs about running Font Finagler in an unknown version of OS X are now shown in the Administrator-Free mode as well as normal user mode.
Font Cache Cleaner: fixed a bug that would prevent the restart or shutdown alert from being shown after a system font cache cleaning, where the user had just used up their last free cleaning.
Font Cache Cleaner: fixed the tableview’s contextual menu’s “Show View Options” menu item from being disabled in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
Fixed a bug preventing Font Finagler’s main window size and location from being saved between launches.
finagler: fixed a bug that prevented finagler from properly seeing registration information if Font Finagler was only registered in the user domain rather than for all users (h/t Jonathan Hoefler).
Fixed a bug that prevented the finagler helper tool from properly being installed in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
Version 1.5 beta 10 (160), June 15, 2010
Fixed a bug that prevented the Administrator-Free feature of Font Finagler from being able to properly clean the font cache files.
Version 1.5 beta 9 (159), June 1, 2010
Removed the expiration date: Font Finagler beta 9 does not expire.
Font Finagler’s command-line helper tool, finagler (installed at /usr/local/bin/finagler), now has a publicly available set of commands that System Administrators (or any users comfortable with the command-line) can use to list the font cache files, to clean the font cache files, to register Font Finagler on a Mac, and to manage the “Administrator-Free” mode and types of font caches that are allowed in this mode. For full details on the available commands and syntax, type /usr/local/bin/finagler --help or man finagler in a Terminal window. (You may want to add /usr/local/bin/ to your $PATH if it isn’t already included).
Users who are installing or upgrading to this version of Font Finagler by using the drag-and-drop disk image method, or Font Finagler’s built-in auto-update feature will need to enable the Administrator-Free feature at least once before the new helper tool will be installed. To do so, launch Font Finagler 1.5 beta 9, choose Preferences… from the application menu, and then switch to the Administrator pane. Simply clicking the authorization lock in the lower left hand corner of the window and entering your name and password should be sufficient to assure that the new finagler helper tool and manpage are installed.
System Administrators who are upgrading to this version of Font Finagler by using the Installer Package, note that the installer package will take care of installing the new helper tool and manpage itself, in addition to the Font Finagler application.
Version 1.5 beta 8 (158), March 31, 2010
Updated the expiration date to June 1, 2010.
Version 1.5 beta 7 (157), January 31, 2010
Updated the expiration date to April 1, 2010.
Version 1.5 beta 6 (156), November 30, 2009
Updated the expiration date to February 1, 2010.
Version 1.5 beta 5 (155), October 29, 2009
Worked around a bug that could prevent Font Finagler from launching properly on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) and Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard).
Version 1.5 beta 4 (154), October 19, 2009
Fixed a bug that could prevent Font Finagler from accepting a serial number from a purchase that was made on or after October 1, 2009.
Adds support for automatic updates via the Sparkle.framework.
Improved the Problem Font feature for 64-bit Intel Macs.
Updated the expiration date to December 1, 2009.
Version 1.5 beta 3 (152), September 22, 2009
Updated the expiration date to November 1, 2009.
Version 1.5 beta 2 (151), September 9, 2009
Fixes an issue with CodeSigning that could prevent Font Finagler’s secondary helper applications from launching properly.
Version 1.5 beta 1 (150), September 3, 2009
Features:
Adds a “dfontifier” feature to convert Mac TrueType fonts to Datafork TrueType fonts and vice versa. (This feature is the same as in my “dfontifier” application, but it fixes the incompatibility that dfontifier had with OS X 10.5).
Built as a 3-way Universal Binary (32-bit PowerPC, 32-bit Intel, and 64-bit Intel) to run natively on both PowerPC Macs (G3, G4, G5) and Intel Macs.
Adds preliminary support for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
Bugfixes:
Worked around an NSBundle-caching issue that could prevent Font Icon Helper from restoring the original PostScript Type 1 outline font icon.
Clicking the “Stop” button while Font Finagler is searching for the font cache files now works properly. (Font Finagler 0.5.3 was too busy searching for the font cache files to allow the Stop button to be clicked).
Interface enhancements:
If you are running OS X 10.5 or greater, the Font Cache Cleaner window now shows a Path Bar similar to the search results window of the Finder.
Version 1.0, January 23, 2008
Features:
Built as a Universal Binary to run natively on both PowerPC Macs (G3, G4, G5) and Intel Macs.
Adds support for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
Adds support for cleaning the font cache files of Adobe, QuarkXPress, and Microsoft applications. The method Font Finagler uses to search for these additional files is both incredibly fast and thorough. Font Finagler can often find up to twice the number of font cache files as other applications: potentially thousands of files in seconds. Try a competing application first, and then use Font Finagler to see what files their application missed.
When cleaning the OS X font cache files, Font Finagler now examines your ~/Library/FontCollections/ folder for any corrupt font collection files and will include these in a clean if needed. Corrupt font collection files can cause Font Book to hang or crash at launch, can cause applications to crash, and can prevent applications from opening the standard Font panel
Adds the ability to preserve Font Book’s disabled fonts for the current user when cleaning the OS X font cache files (only applies to Mac OS X 10.4.x and later).
Adds the ability to preserve Font Book’s external libraries when cleaning the OS X font cache files (only applies to Mac OS X 10.5.x and later).
Font Finagler now only requires authorization (entering an administrator name and password) if it’s absolutely necessary to successfully clean the font cache files.
Adds a “Problem Fonts” feature: when you launch Font Finagler, it automatically checks the active fonts on your Mac, and if it identifies any that are known to cause problems, such as Helvetica Fractions or Times Phonetic, it’ll alert you of this. To aid in troubleshooting, Font Finagler provides information about the font’s name, type, location of the font files, and what font manager application (if any) is responsible for activating the font. It also provides the ability to reveal the font files in the Finder and to deactivate the problematic fonts.
Adds an “OpenType Font Cache Cleaner” feature that’s designed to clean only the OpenType font cache file and doesn’t require a restart. This feature addresses an OS X font-handling bug present in OS X 10.4.7 - 10.4.10 that affects the use of OpenType fonts in certain applications such as QuarkXPress, Macromedia FreeHand, and possibly others. The bug can cause those applications to crash when they try to work with OpenType fonts, and can also lead to a general instability in other applications as well. Many users have found that using Font Finagler to clean the font cache files seems to alleviate the crashing problems at least temporarily. Once they shutdown the machine and start back up, however, the crashing problem returns until the font cache files are cleaned and the Mac restarted. While a daily cleaning of the font cache files prior to shutdown is a possible workaround, it’s rather inconvenient. That’s where “OpenType Font Cache Cleaner” is designed to come in: it can quickly fix the crashing problems with OpenType fonts without requiring a full restart after cleaning. It can also be run automatically at login. (Note: you can permanently avoid this bug by updating to Mac OS X 10.4.11).
Adds a “Font Icon Helper” feature to make PostScript Type 1 printer fonts easier to recognize. (This feature is the same as in my “Font Book Helper” application, but it fixes the AppleScript error/incompatibility that Font Book Helper had with OS X 10.4).
Unregistered users can now freely try any and all of Font Finagler’s features, including Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner. (Previous versions of Font Finagler required that you be registered in order to use Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner).
Bugfixes:
Font Finagler is now able to function properly even if the BSD Subsystem is not installed. (In the rare case where a user didn’t have the BSD Subsystem installed, Font Finagler 0.5.3 and prior would hang indefinitely while searching for the font cache files).
Clicking the “Stop” button while Font Finagler is searching for the font cache files now works properly. (Font Finagler 0.5.3 was too busy searching for the font cache files to allow the Stop button to be clicked).
Interface enhancements:
With font cache files that are listed in the inspection table view of Font Cache Cleaner, you can hold your mouse cursor over the file icon to see the path to the file shown in a tooltip.
Adds new high-resolution 512 px. x 512 px. icons.
Registration enhancements:
Adds a separate preference file just for the registration. That way, if you need to disable your Font Finagler preferences for some reason (troubleshooting a crash, etc.), it will still be registered. At the same time, it’s also backwards-compatible: if you register with this version of Font Finagler, previous versions will be registered as well.
You can now clearly choose whether to register Font Finagler for the current user (default) or for all users. If you choose to register it for all users, you’ll be prompted for administrator-level authorization to assure that the registration preference file can be saved successfully. (Previous versions of Font Finagler would always attempt to register the application for all users as well as the current user. If the current user didn’t have administrator privileges, however, the attempt to register for all users would fail and wouldn’t provide any direct feedback of such failure).
Version 0.5.3, May 11, 2005
Revised the Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner feature for increased reliability during use. (The Administrator-Free feature in Font Finagler 0.5.2 proved to be somewhat unreliable). If you are using OS X 10.3.9 or OS X 10.4.x and a version of Font Finagler prior to version 0.5.3, you’ll need to update Font Finagler in order for the Administrator-Free feature to work properly. Anyone using Font Finagler 0.5.2 who needs to use the Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner feature (regardless of what version of OS X you’re using) should update to Font Finagler 0.5.3 for improved reliability.
A couple of minor interface enhancements.
Version 0.5.2 April 27, 2005
Rewrote the Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner feature (again) so that it will work properly in OS X 10.3.9 and OS X 10.4.x. All users who are using the Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner in OS X 10.3.9 or in OS X 10.4.x must upgrade in order for this feature to work properly.
Fixed the immediate crash upon launch that may have affected some users of OS X 10.2.x. (This appears to be a bug [correction: feature of gcc 4.0] in Xcode 2.0 which causes all compiled applications to be unnecessarily linked against the /usr/lib/libmx.A.dylib dynamic library, a library which exists in Panther and Tiger, but does not exist in Jaguar; the result in Jaguar is an immediate crash when the library cannot be found).
This version adds to the preliminary Tiger support that Font Finagler 0.5.1 included to make Font Finagler fully compatible with Tiger.
Version 0.5.1 March 16, 2005
Rewrote the Font Cache Cleaner and Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner features for increased reliability during use. Additionally, the Administrator-Free Font Cache Cleaner feature is now better able to detect problems, and if it encounters any, will alert you and allow you to repair the feature if necessary.
The size of the main window and the size and arrangement of the columns in the table view should (for the most part) be preserved between launches.
There is now an optional restart warning sheet that’s displayed prior to the cleaning. (If you’d prefer not to have this warning shown before each cleaning, click the “Do not ask me again” checkbox. To reset this (and all other warning dialogs), choose “Reset All Warning Dialogs” from the Help menu).
There is now a View Options panel which allows you to adjust the font size and icon size used in the table view.
Added a contextual menu to the table view.
Numerous other minor user interface enhancements.
Version 0.5 November 5, 2004
Rewritten from the ground up in Objective-C and C. (Good riddance AppleScript! :-D)
I’ve changed the name from Font Cache Cleaner to “Font Finagler”, to better reflect where I hope to take the application in the future, namely, a general font utility/font management tool.
Added a table view which lists the font cache files which were found, and which will be deleted when using the “Clean” feature (so you know what’s going to be deleted before deleting it).
The Font Cache Cleaner feature now uses the standard OS X authentication dialog obtained through the use of the Authorization Services framework.
Added the ability for the Font Cache Cleaner feature to be run from a non-administrator account by typing an administrator name and password.
Added the ability for Font Cache Cleaner to be run from a non-administrator account without requiring an administrator password for each subsequent use. (This feature is intended for design firms where the normal artist lacks administrator privileges. It works by allowing a system administrator to come to their machine once, and, from within the non-admin user’s account, enter their administrator password to enable Font Cache Cleaner to work in “Administrator-Free” mode from then on.)
Added a feature that shows the number of active fonts and the number of cached fonts.
Added the ability to choose between a Shutdown or a Restart.