Fonts appearing as Unix files

[Ro]

Sometimes clients fonts will unstuff/unzip as Unix Executable Files and will not load for us. They display with an icon that looks like the console window. On, say a quark file, all I need to do is add the extension (qxp) and it opens. A long, long time ago I used to use ResEdit to fix resource-type issues. Is there any way now to fix these font files so they can be seen and loaded in Suitcase?
We are running Mac OS 10.4.10

 

[nicmert]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

It has been a while since I have seen this problem. If I remember right at some point the creator code has been stripped off by a pc. On a font, once that is lost, you are toast. You can fix other files, but not fonts for some reason. Good luck.

 

[chasd]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

I'll bet the fonts are zero in size too.

That means the resource fork has be stripped off. With a traditional Mac font, there is no data in the data fork, it is all stored in the resource fork. Whatever tool they are using is not aware of resource forks, or they are copying the files off of a Mac before it is zipped.

Another problem is where the client uses the "Create Archive" contextual menu choice in the OS X Finder, but someone uses StuffIt to uncompress the archive. Use the BOMArchiveHelper application instead. Right or control click on the zip file and choose "Open With . . ." -- DON'T double click. If you don't see BOMArchiveHelper listed under "Open With . . ." then choose "Other . . ." and navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper and choose that. Check if the fonts are OK.

Doing that should also place BOMArchiveHelper in that contextual menu from now on.

Or switch to OpenType fonts, they don't have this problem, the file format is cross-platform.

Chasd

 

[Cory Smith]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

> {quote:title=chasd wrote:}{quote}

> Another problem is where the client uses the "Create Archive" contextual menu choice in the OS X Finder, but someone uses StuffIt to uncompress the archive. Use the BOMArchiveHelper application instead. Right or control click on the zip file and choose "Open With . . ." -- DON'T double click. If you don't see BOMArchiveHelper listed under "Open With . . ." then choose "Other . . ." and navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/BOMArchiveHelper and choose that. Check if the fonts are OK.
>
> Doing that should also place BOMArchiveHelper in that contextual menu from now on.
>
> Or switch to OpenType fonts, they don't have this problem, the file format is cross-platform.
>
> Chasd

Excellent tip! I have had this problem in the past with client supplied zipped files...will give it a shot next time.

 

[Bobmorli]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

The BOMArchiveHelper trick works here. Just stays 0kb sometmes but it's a step forward. thanks!

 

[Rick@IPCO]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

We've run into this before and it turned out to be the way the archives were being saved. If the archive is generated by StuffIt Deluxe, have the sender be sure to turn on "Preserve Macintosh Content" in the Preferences: Compression window. That should take care of it.

 

[SlaveToTheMan]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

Very interesting, but why even use Stuffit to open a .zip file? I'll have to try that anyway, just because I'm curious.

Edited by: SlaveToTheMan on Sep 14, 2007 12:21 PM

 

[chasd]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

>Very interesting, but why even use Stuffit to open a .zip file? I'll have to try that anyway, just because I'm curious.

If you install StuffIt, it makes itself the default program to open .zip files. Then, if you double-click a .zip file, StuffIt decompresses it. On a fast machine with small .zip files, you might miss StuffIt even opening.

I personally prefer to put the StuffIt icon in the Dock and drag-and-drop .sit archive to that. I rarely double-click anything, I prefer to choose what app opens a file. I might want to open a JPEG in Preview or a PNG in Seashore rather than haul out PhotoShop. If I double click, I curse to myself the entire length of time it takes to open PhotoShop.

More info on the BOMArchiveHelper :

When you use the "Create Archive" contextual menu choice in the Finder, it separates the resource forks into a folder named "__MACOSX"

This folder is decompressed by other zip utilities like StuffIt or the CLI "unzip" in OS X. However only BOMArchiveHelper knows what to do with the resource forks in that folder when decompressing, and join them up with the data forks. The resource forks are in the standard dot-underbar format, so if you unzip an archive made in the OS X Finder on a Windows server from Windows, you can move the dot-underbar files next to the data files, and then when a Mac client connects to the Windows server via SMB, it will pick up the resource forks and the data forks.

( Also works with FAT32 volumes and WebDAV volumes )

Chasd

 

[Rick@IPCO]

Re: Fonts appearing as Unix files

Sorry if my answer was confusing. The StuffIt issue (if this IS the issue) is not how you are expanding the files, but rather how the Preferences in StuffIt are set when the files are compressed at the sender's end. StuffIt can save a compressed file in several different archive formats, including .zip, but it must be told to Preserve the Macintosh Content in the Compression pane of the Preferences. If the files are compressed correctly, they should expand correctly.