First of all: I like my MacBook. I think Leopard is one of the best OS I’ve used so far. But there are some little tiny things that make me want to jump out of my skin. Sometimes. As a long-time Windows user I’m not used to all ideas and approaches of Mac OS. Anyway step by step I resolve problems and get to know the system better.

My latest problem was with fonts … if you google for font problems in OS X you’ll find thousands of pages. My problem was with the Dashboard. There was something wrong with the fonts and so it looked weired (see picture). Anyway I fixed it and then another problem came. Firefox was acting weired with the fonts than … no aliasing. This is how you fix most of the font problems in OS X:

1. Download Linotype FontExplorer X.
It is free to use and a little more comfortable than font book. If you don’t want to install new software, I think everything I describe here can be done with font book too, I just wanted to give you a link to some good freeware.

2. Clean System Fonts Folder
In Linotype Font Explorer, click on tools > Cleanup System Fonts Folder. Duplicate Files and broken files will be removed from the system. Never mind, there will be backup folder on your desktop with all the removed fonts.

3. Check your Helvetica, Helvetica Neue
My Dashboard Problem was because I accidently installed a broken version of a Helvetica font. After I deactivated “Helvetica CY” my Dashboard looked fine again.

4. (Re)Install Verdana
My Firefox font problem was because of a missing Verdana font (I know, the web-programmers should offer alternative fonts in their CSS files, but sometimes they don’t … and sometimes the design is just made for Verdana). You can download verdana here. Just add it with LinoType and activate it

5. Trebuchet MS
Lately Trebuchet MS got more and more popular for Webdesigns, so you might want to install it to. Download it here and install it as described in point 4.