Too many fonts - where are thay?

[marty39]

Using either Gimp 3.0.6 or Gimp 2.10, on a Mac currently running Sequoia 15.6.1, the font list shows a lot of fonts with names beginning with a dot, including a lot of ".SF ..." fonts. I don't know where they are. I can't find them on the drive. I want to delete them or at least keep them from showing up on the Gimp font list.

Same thing occurs on an older Mac running High Sierra 10.13.6, but on that system the "dotted" fonts are in alphabetical order ignoring the dot, while onthe newer Mac they're at the top of the list.

I still want to know where they are and whether I can get them off the font list.

[rich2005]

Not many MacOS users ever visit, if one does maybe they will give advice.

A quick search and Sequoia come with a multitude of fonts see: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/120414 I think those SF are quote " ...the system fonts of iOS 9 are now changed to the Apple’s new San Francisco fonts, replacing the previous Helvetica Neue." Also those fonts showing and starting with a dot are duplicates.

I had a similar issue in linux and had to use a font manager to hide many unnecessary fonts. I understand you can use MacOS FontBook for this.

[AdmFubar]

Check the preferences in gimp. there should be a path to the fonts gimp can access in the path list in preferences. The paths are at the bottom of the preferences list.

You may wont to create a directory in your user directory for fonts. Then point gimp to that directory. This way you arent cluttering up your system's font directory with a large amount of fonts. (not to mention bogging your system down with large amount of fonts)

[marty39]

(12-25-2025, 09:45 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Not many MacOS users ever visit, if one does maybe they will give advice.

A quick search and Sequoia come with a multitude of fonts see: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/120414   I think those SF are quote " ...the system fonts of iOS 9 are now changed to the Apple’s new San Francisco fonts, replacing the previous Helvetica Neue."  Also those fonts showing and starting with a dot are duplicates.

I had a similar issue in linux and had to use a font manager to hide many unnecessary fonts.  I understand you can use MacOS FontBook for this.

The SF—"San Francisco"—fonts are the system fonts for Sequoia, but I don't know where they are on the drive and I don't know how Gimp finds them.

Mac has a native font manager, and others can be installed, but they are not allowed to deactivate built-in fonts.

So I don't know where those fonts are, and couldn't hide them if I did. What I want is to tell Gimp not to use them.

[Ofnuts]

Gimp uses the standard Linux font configuration system (aka fontconfig), and you can tweak at the user level which fonts are used by fontconfig applications.

This is done by creating/editing a ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf file, and adding rejectfont elements in it. A <rejectfont> element may contain a <pattern> element which itself is made of a <patelt> element that tells which part of the font spec the pattern is matching and what the pattern is. Usually you target the family part. So for instance to hide the system installed TeX Gyre Schola fonts, my fonts.conf file is:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
    <selectfont>
        <rejectfont>
            <pattern>
                <patelt name="family">
                    <string>TeX Gyre Schola</string>
                </patelt>
            </pattern>
        </rejectfont>
        <rejectfont>
            <pattern>
                <patelt name="family">
                    <string>TeX Gyre Schola Math</string>
                </patelt>
            </pattern>
        </rejectfont>
    </selectfont>
</fontconfig>

After editing the file you normally run fc-cache -r to rebuild the font cache  (this is a standard Linux utility...), and if Gimp is up you just use the right-cick menu in the fonts list to rescan the list.

Of course, I can't tell how much this applies to MacOS (or Windows, for that matter) but that can tell you what to look for.

[marty39]

(12-27-2025, 02:45 AM)AdmFubar Wrote: Check the preferences in gimp. there should be a path to the fonts gimp can access in the path list in preferences. The paths are at the bottom of the preferences list.

You may wont to create a directory in your user directory for fonts. Then point gimp to that directory. This way you arent cluttering up your system's font directory with a large amount of fonts. (not to mention bogging your system down with large amount of fonts)

Did that.

Gimp's Settings, Folders, Fonts points to two places, one in a system area on the drive and one inside the Gimp application. Both are empty.

Mac provides a font folder in the user folder, and I have some fonts in it. Like the fonts that the Mac provides in the system area, they are automatically installed, so they bog down the system if there are too many. However, the fonts in the user font folder can be deactivated by a font manager app. Gimp sees all the installed fonts except the fonts that have been deactivated.

The dotted fonts, including the SF (San Francisco) fonts, are not in any of these places.

---

(Yesterday, 12:45 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Gimp uses the standard Linux font configuration system (aka fontconfig), and you can tweak at the user level ...

...

Of course, I can't tell how much this applies to MacOS (or Windows, for that matter) but that can tell you what to look for.

Thanks for the suggestion, but in the end it didn't help. MacOS has a different configuration file structure from Linux. I was looking for a preferences file for Font Book, couldn't find any, and then realized the problem is in the first sentence of your comment. In the Mac, Gimp evidently does not use the standard macOS font configuration system, as it has all these SF fonts that other applications don't have. It's finding fonts that I can't even find on the drive.

[Ofnuts]

(Yesterday, 02:51 PM)marty39 Wrote:

(12-27-2025, 02:45 AM)AdmFubar Wrote: Check the preferences in gimp. there should be a path to the fonts gimp can access in the path list in preferences. The paths are at the bottom of the preferences list.

You may wont to create a directory in your user directory for fonts. Then point gimp to that directory. This way you arent cluttering up your system's font directory with a large amount of fonts. (not to mention bogging your system down with large amount of fonts)

Did that.

Gimp's Settings, Folders, Fonts points to two places, one in a system area on the drive and one inside the Gimp application. Both are empty.

Mac provides a font folder in the user folder, and I have some fonts in it. Like the fonts that the Mac provides in the system area, they are automatically installed, so they bog down the system if there are too many. However, the fonts in the user font folder can be deactivated by a font manager app. Gimp sees all the installed fonts except the fonts that have been deactivated.

The dotted fonts, including the SF (San Francisco) fonts, are not in any of these places.

---

(Yesterday, 12:45 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Gimp uses the standard Linux font configuration system (aka fontconfig), and you can tweak at the user level ...

...

Of course, I can't tell how much this applies to MacOS (or Windows, for that matter) but that can tell you what to look for.

Thanks for the suggestion, but in the end it didn't help. MacOS has a different configuration file structure from Linux. I was looking for a preferences file for Font Book, couldn't find any, and then realized the problem is in the first sentence of your comment. In the Mac, Gimp evidently does not use the standard macOS font configuration system, as it has all these SF fonts that other applications don't have. It's finding fonts that I can't even find on the drive.

I believe that Gimp overlays the Linux way over the MacOS way, in otherwords, the part in the GTK font library that get the system-installed fonts use the macOS calls, and then it adds its own processing over that local fonts.

Some fonts (typically: Serif, Sans and Monospace are virtual and are mapped to your default Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospace fonts (historically, Times New Roman, Helvetica and Courier).

[marty39]

(Yesterday, 09:35 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: I believe that Gimp overlays the Linux way over the MacOS way, in otherwords, the part in the GTK font library that get the system-installed fonts use the macOS calls, and then it adds its own processing over that local fonts.

Some fonts (typically: Serif, Sans and Monospace are virtual and are mapped to your default Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospace fonts (historically, Times New Roman, Helvetica and Courier).

What would its own processing do?

In Gimp 3.0 in Sequoia, the first font in Gimp's list is "Sans-Serif." I set a sample in that font and then looked for another font like it. I set the same sample in Tahoma and Verdana and Sans-Serif looks exactly like Verdana. Not Helvetica, not Arial, not San Francisco, not its own "System Font Regular." Why does Gimp use Verdana? Does your Gimp use Verdana as the default sans?

[Ofnuts]

(3 hours ago)marty39 Wrote:

(Yesterday, 09:35 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: I believe that Gimp overlays the Linux way over the MacOS way, in otherwords, the part in the GTK font library that get the system-installed fonts use the macOS calls, and then it adds its own processing over that local fonts.

Some fonts (typically: Serif, Sans and Monospace are virtual and are mapped to your default Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospace fonts (historically, Times New Roman, Helvetica and Courier).

What would its own processing do?

In Gimp 3.0 in Sequoia, the first font in Gimp's list is "Sans-Serif." I set a sample in that font and then looked for another font like it. I set the same sample in Tahoma and Verdana and Sans-Serif looks exactly like Verdana. Not Helvetica, not Arial, not San Francisco, not its own "System Font Regular." Why does Gimp use Verdana? Does your Gimp use Verdana as the default sans?

Gimp does what the GTK library does.