Technical Support
If you encounter a problem with one of our products,
please follow these simple steps to ensure that you
receive the quickest access to a solution:
- Check the manual which came with your product.
- Consult any errata sheets accompanying your package,
for any known problems and solutions.
- Check the list of frequently asked
questions below.
- If none of the above contain the answer, contact us at
support@crazydiamond.co.uk giving as many details of
your problem as possible.
Note that we can only provide support for our own
products; if the fault is with your own equipment or
computer set-up, we may be able to suggest courses of
action, but cannot provide further assistance. To
determine where the problem lies, it may be useful for you
to try using our fonts within another program, to see
whether you can duplicate the error.
Frequently asked
questions
All Versions:
Macintosh:
Windows:
I am having
difficulty downloading single typefaces I have ordered
electronically:
After clicking the link provided in your confirmatory
email, and entering your password, you will be provided
with a choice of options depending on your computer:
Windows:
You will need WinZip or a Zip extractor
to open the downloaded file: this is supplied on most
modern PCs, but if you do not have it, the commerical WinZip can be
purchased here; or freely download the small
non-commercial FreeZip
from Dariusz Stanislawek.
- You will see a licence text file (which you should
click first to download and read before proceeding).
There will be one other file per typeface family
ordered, ending in .zip - click on this file to start
the download.
- You may be asked whether you want to save the file to
disk or open it: choose to Save it,
and choose a suitable location where you will be able to
find it.
- Once the .zip file has downloaded, find it on your
computer, and double-click to open it. You will need
WinZip, Stuffit Expander or a similar utility to open
and decompress the file.
- Save the expanded files to disk (by choosing Save or
Extract from the File menu), again to a suitable
location.
- Find the installation guide file, and follow the
instructions within there.
Macintosh:
Fonts are provided in DMG format for Mac
OSX, which once downloaded and double-clicked, will open
and appear as a new disk on your desktop. Some older font
downloads include a SIT option for System 7-9: you will
need the free Aladdin
stuffit utility to open these.
- You will see a licence text file (which you should
click first to download and read before proceeding).
There will be a file labelled (fontname).DMG for MacOSX
(and, if supported, another for OS 7-9 labelled
MacOS9.sit). Choose the appropriate file for your Mac,
and click on it to start the download.
- You may be asked whether you want to save the file to
disk or open it: choose to Save it,
and choose a suitable location where you will be able to
find it; alternatively, it may automatically be saved to
your download location (you may have set this in the
preferences; the default is usually the desktop).
- For Mac OSX:
Double-click the .dmg file. A disk image will appear on
your desktop, double-click on this to open it and follow
the instructions.
For Mac OS 7-9:
Double-click the .sit file. A new folder containing the
fonts will be created in the same location as the .sit
file: open this and follow the instructions in the
Installation Guide.
I am having trouble
installing the fonts on my Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP PC:
- Click the Start button, choose the Settings button and
then Control Panels.
- A window will appear containing various icons.
Double-click the Fonts icon.
- Either: double-click the Add Fonts icon if one is
available, or choose Add Fonts from the File menu.
- Follow from step 4 in the installation reference.
An alternative method is to find the Fonts folder on your
hard disk (usually within the Win95/98/NT/XP folder on the
C: drive) and drag-copy the fonts from the CD directly
into the Fonts folder.
Word is not
showing 17th Century Italic in the font menu:
Word (and possibly some other applications) is
unexpectedly clever with regards to 17C Print and Italic.
It only gives the option of selecting 17C Print OT from
the font menu, but if you switch to Italic text within
your writing, Word will automatically select the 17C Print
Italic OT font for you.
17C Italic OT is therefore not missing, but is invoked by
using the Italic button in the toolbar when typing in 17C
Print, rather than choosing it from the font menu.
I am having trouble
installing the fonts on my Macintosh:
Go to the Apple menu, and choose About this
Macintosh/Mac/Computer. In the top part of the box which
appears you should see a value marked System or MacOS or
Version. Take a note of the number.
If the number is below 7 (eg. System 6), you have a very
old Macintosh and need to use the Font/DA mover utility to
install fonts - contact us for details if you have never
installed fonts in this way before.
If the version number is between 7 and 9, you should open
your hard disk (usually called Macintosh HD and sitting in
the top right of your desktop) then drag your fonts over
the System Folder you find in there:
this will install the fonts. Ideally, you should then
restart your Macintosh, to ensure that all applications
will have access to the new fonts.
If the version is OS X, or 10+, you should open your hard
disk (usually called Macintosh HD and sitting in the top
right of your desktop), find and open the Library
folder directly within there, and then open the Fonts
folder within that. Drag your fonts into this Fonts
folder. This will give all users of your Mac access to the
fonts. You should not need to restart, but you may find
that some applications won't recognise the new fonts until
you close and reopen them.
If you have Adobe Type Manager or Extensis Suitcase
installed (both font management utilities), you do not
need to put the fonts into the System or Fonts folder;
they can be placed anywhere on your hard disk - see your
Adobe Type Manager or Suitcase manual for details of
finding and activating the fonts.
How do I
access the special historical characters?:
Refer to the reference sheets which accompanied your
typeface (either printed sheets if you purchased a boxed
product or PDF documents in a 'References' folder if
purchased via download or on CD): these explain the method
to use.
If you have newer OpenType or AAT
fonts, the instructions are available on our Advanced Type page, and the
Standard Character Reference
which is available for download.
If you have TrueType fonts in Ancient
and Modern forms, refer to the notes here and the ALT codes
support problem here.
My Macintosh tells me
that I have too many fonts installed:
Macintoshes using System 7.1 or MacOS 8 or 9 can only have
128 fonts in use at any one time. If you receive a warning
message that you have exceeded this limit, you will need
to remove some fonts from your Fonts folder (situated
inside the System Folder) in order for your new fonts to
work.
If you regularly need to have access to more than 128
fonts, you will need to obtain a font organisation utility
such as Extensis Suitcase.
I am having trouble
using the ALT codes to access the special characters:
The reference sheets for the PC typefaces provide
three-number 'ALT' codes to obtain most of the special
characters. Some early versions of our references omit a
preceding zero before the three-digit codes.
For example:
the reference sheet lists the thorn character as ALT + 2
5 4
you should actually use the code ALT + 0 2 5 4
Other problems relate to the use of the numeric keypad:
To type the 'ALT' code:
- Before starting, ensure that your NUM LOCK is on
(press the key in the top left corner of the numeric
keypad to the right of your keyboard. Usually a light
will appear above the key to indicate that NUM LOCK is
on).
- Hold down the [ALT] key
on the keyboard (usually next to the spacebar).
- Whilst keeping the [ALT] key depressed, type the
number keys as listed (in the above example, type [0],[2],[5],[4]
one after the other).
- Let go of the [ALT] key.
- The character will now appear on your screen.
Laptop/portable users: there is not usually a separate
numeric keypad: the numbers are embedded within the main
keyboard and are accessed via the Num Lock key as above.
However, if you experience problems trying to use the
embedded keypad, try using the standard number keys across
the top row.
Further (rare) problems include one 'ALT' key on the
keyboard not working whilst the other does: if the method
fails with one ALT key, try it with your other (usually on
the opposite side of the space bar).
Some of the typefaces
appear smaller than my other fonts:
Because many of our fonts have very high ascenders (the
upright strokes on h,d,k etc) and low descenders (g,y,j)
they have an overall size which is much greater than
modern fonts such as Times or Helvetica. They are
therefore the same height as Times when printed at, say,
14 point, but will appear much smaller because the main
part of the letters are relatively small compared to their
overall height.
To compensate, simply use a larger point size for the
fonts which are affected.
The line spacing seems
unduly large
Many of our fonts contain extremely high ascenders and
low descenders; in order to ensure that these are visible
and can be printed in the Windows/Microsoft environment,
we have had to compromise on the line spacing. The
workaround is to adjust line spacing manually within your
particular application.
Details of our recommended manual line spacings are given
in individual font references.
Some fonts do not work
with PopChar or KeyCaps (Macintosh)
We have discovered that some of our typefaces do not
display properly within PopChar and KeyCaps (the 3rd-party
and Apple character finders respectively).
In some cases, changing the display size within PopChar
helps.
As work on these utilities under Mac OS classic is now
frozen, no fix is envisaged. We suggest use of the
reference sheets.
The Italic Ancient font
does not work in Word for the Mac (Macintosh)
It has come to our attention that the Ancient version of
the Italic TrueType font appears as a default Times
typeface within Word for the Macintosh. This bug is caused
by Word's proprietary font coding and outside of our
control.
The fix is to select the font through the Format
> Font (or Format
> Character) menu item, rather than
the toolbar palette font menu.
|