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I created several postscript fonts with Fontographer on the Mac back in the 1990s. I successfully converted them to OTF with FontConverter from the Apple App Store, but this did not change the fonts' names.

The problem is that FontBook on the Mac will not let me load the PS and the OTF versions of the fonts. It says the PS and OTF fonts are duplicates.

If I remove the PS version of the font from FontBook, the OTF version will load and work perfectly. However, I can then not open decades-old documents that I need to view and update without the PS version of the font being installed in the system.

I have found several programs that cost between $97 and $699, which might do the job, but they seem very complicated and are just overkill.

I just want to add "Pro" or "Std" to the existing OTF font name so that FontBook won't think the PS and OTF versions of the font are duplicates.

By the way, if you don't know, changing the name in the Finder does not work.

Ramhound
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Richard
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2 Answers2

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I found that FontForge, primarily a Linux program, does have a Mac version, but it's not functional in 2025. After hours of trying to use it and watching tutorials, I confirmed it doesn't work on my Mac today.

Python scripts and TTX may have been viable options twelve years ago, but they're unusable on my Mac in 2025. I decided to seek a more current solution, and after not finding a suitable answer here, I turned to Google.

I discovered that https://birdfont.org/ has a free font editor that allows you to create vector graphics and export TTF, OTF, and SVG fonts, supporting monochrome and color formats. It's available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

After making a $10 contribution, I downloaded and installed the software. Within one hour, I had easily renamed the fonts I had already converted from PostScript to OTF using FontConverter. A helpful hint: click the menu icon in the upper right corner of the program's window to access its options.

I renamed all my fonts by adding "Pro" or "Std," so FontBook no longer sees them as duplicates of the old PostScript fonts. I didn't explore Birdfont's many other features, but after wasting so much time with other options, I was so pleased with how easily I could rename my fonts that I made another $20 contribution.

Journeyman Geek
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Richard
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It's overkill, but the only tool I know of that will allow you to edit the font metadata on a Mac is FontForge, which is FOSS and available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. You will have to load the OTF into FontForge, which will create a project, then update the metadata to your needs, then re-generate the OTF and install the result.

Jeff Zeitlin
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