How to restore default fonts on Mavericks?

Question

I have deleted the Lucida Grande font from my system, and system bars and menus are full of weird characters. I cannot use my MBA properly. How can I restore system fonts without losing my data?

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 08 '13 at 07:12

5

You can also copy the font from the recovery partition:

diskutil mount Recovery\ HD;hdiutil mount /Volumes/Recovery\ HD/com.apple.recovery.boot/BaseSystem.dmg;sudo cp /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Library/Fonts/Base/LucidaGrande.ttc /System/Library/Fonts

answered Dec 08 '13 at 07:12

Lri

105,117

good option if one does not have the install media! – Ruskes Mar 28 '14 at 19:12
should one run diskutil unmount Recovery\ HD or something afterward? – Andrew Hundt Mar 28 '14 at 19:13
Yeah, you can unmount the volume with diskutil unmount Recovery\ HD but it doesn't matter if you leave it mounted. – Lri Mar 29 '14 at 09:23

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

4

Place LucidaGrande.ttc in /System/Library/Fonts/.

You can extract fonts from your OS X install media using Pacifist or grab a copy from your backup or another Mac with similar build/version.

For more information regarding recovering system files, see:

How can I get back a system file after deleting it from my Mac?

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Dec 07 '13 at 21:10

grg

201,078

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited May 30 '14 at 16:18

You can also use sudo fontrestore default.

From the man page:

NAME
     fontrestore -- Restore the available system fonts to a pristine state, if
     possible.
SYNOPSIS
     fontrestore default [-n]
DESCRIPTION
     fontrestore detects fonts in /Library/Fonts, /System/Library/Fonts, and
     ~/Library/Fonts which are not part of the system install and moves them
     to /Library/Fonts (Removed), /System/Library/Fonts (Removed), and
     ~/Library/Fonts/Fonts (Removed) directories. Critical fonts required for
     operation of the user interface are also restored.
 The [-n] option performs the same operation without touching the disk,
 describing what would be done without actually doing it.

How to restore default fonts on Mavericks?

3 Answers3

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