Final Cut Pro: Free plugins to make all fonts available
For those of you who have been using Final Cut Pro for a while, there is a bug that has been hanging around for very many years. It usually crops up when a client brings you a font they want to use. You install it onto your Mac, but the font doesn’t work properly in the Final Cut generators and filters.
For example, your client might want to use various members of the ITC Century font family:
Once you install the font, there are two problems:
1. Final Cut Pro doesn’t give you the option to use all the weights available
2. It displays an incorrect weight (boldness) of the font when you choose the ‘Plain’ style.
In some cases, the font install doesn’t appear in Final Cut Pro’s font menus at all.
This bug is due to the internal names of fonts. Final Cut assumes all fonts come in four variations: plain, italic, bold and bold italic. It also assumes that the ‘Plain’ variation doesn’t have a name ending in ‘Book’ or ‘55.’ I have 19 variations of Univers installed on my computer. I can only choose one of these within Final Cut Pro.
It turns out that the problem is in the part of the Application that builds the ‘Currently available fonts’ pop-up menu that appears in text generators and a filter (‘Viewfinder’ in the Video category). Final Cut can display any font installed on your computer, but there isn’t a way of telling it which font you want to use: ‘ITC Century Light’ doesn’t appear in the pop-up menu.
Luckily text generators and the filter are written in Final Cut’s effects scripting language, fxScript. That gives us a workaround: I’ve modified the plugins that use different fonts to provide the option to type in the name of the font you want to use. It is less convenient to have to type it in, but much more convenient when it comes to using your whole font library in Final Cut.
Installing the plug-ins
Download the ZIP archive of the plugins. Drag the plugins from the ‘alex4d_FCP_fonts_plugins’ folder to one of two places on your computer:
Your Startup HD/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins
or
Your Startup HD/Users/your name/Library/Preferences/Final Cut Pro User Data/Plugins/
Restart Final Cut, and you’ll see a new set of generators and a video filter.
Due to the litigious nature of the world, I need to add the following weasel words: These plugins are provided ‘as-is’ and come with no warranty whatsoever. Under no circumstances is the author liable for any data loss or corruption. Use them at your own risk. Save copies of your critical projects when using these plugins. I’ve tested them on Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, but they should work on any version of Final Cut Pro or Express released in the last five years back to FCP4.
Using the plugins
They use the same names as the generators and filter you already know, but with ‘+ fonts’ on the end. They work the same way as before except where there were popup menus for choosing the font, there is a text box for you to enter the name of the font you want to use:
Getting the correct name for the font you want to use
If you want the correct name of the font you want to use, you can copy it from the name shown in the formatting palette in Word:
If you don’t have Word, you can use Apple’s Font Book application to get the correct name:
1. Select the font and weight you want to use
2. Choose Show Font Info from the Preview menu
3. Select the black text next to ‘Full name’
4. Use Command-C or choose Copy from the Edit menu to copy the full name of the font
As you can see from the Final Cut Pro screenshot above, both ‘ITCCentury Light’ and ‘ITC Century Light’ are equally valid when entering a name into the font field. However ‘ITCCentury Light Italic’ doesn’t work whereas ‘ITC Century Light Italic’ does.
I’ve tested this with the whole Univers family (eg “Univers 39 Thin Ultra Condensed” and “Univers 85 Extra Black Oblique”), the Helvetica Neue family, and many others – including a font with a very long name: “ITC New Baskerville Bold Small Caps & Old Style Figures”:
Future possibilities
Ideally it would be great if Final Cut’s font menus were more comprehensive, but the menus available to fxScript plugins aren’t. If you visit Andy’s plugin site, you’ll be able to download an improved version of the ‘Text’ generator – he made this fxPlug generator using XCode and a more advanced programming language than fxScript.
I might be able to compile a simple fxPlug filter that does nothing to the video output but simply displays a pop-up of installed fonts and puts the chosen font into a text field that can be copied from within Final Cut… but don’t hold your breath!
9 October, 2008 at 1:02 am
[...] Final Cut Pro: Free plugins to make all fonts available « Editing organazized – Free all Fonts on your FinalCut Machine for propper use with this free Plug-in [...]
9 October, 2008 at 7:38 am
Great detective work Alex! I have “fond” memories of having to remove all the weights of a font that I didn’t want to use, just to see the one that I did.
9 October, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I’m glad I haven’t had to fire ResEdit up for more than five years, I wasn’t FOND of that.
16 October, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I was under the impression that FCP font issues were due to FCP only recognizing truetype fonts and not postscript fonts?
16 October, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I found that only some of either kind were appearing in popup menus. With these plugins you can use any font – as long as you know the correct name.
15 November, 2008 at 3:50 am
Do you think this plugin would work for Final Cut Express. After reinstalling my system and application. I’m not seeing all my fonts.
15 November, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I think it will work on FCE. I don’t have access to FCE4, so tell me if you have any problems.
Install it in Your HD name/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Express Support/Plugins
27 November, 2008 at 10:55 am
Thanks Alex. It works perfectly. I had to edit a film with the Avant Garde Book font which FCP didn’t display right. Many thanks for the solution, I appreciate it.
10 February, 2009 at 6:49 am
Thanks, Alex — You saved my bacon! After upgrading to Tiger (and more likely, Quicktime 7.6), I had to go into an old project and the font I’d been using defaulted. This worked like a charm.
10 February, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Just found out that fonts I worked on a week ago were not displaying properly! After fighting with my font system I stumbled upon this, thanks a million.
Isnt this something apple should be aware of and fix promptly? If this were Microsoft the entire human race would be at meltdown point, how come FCP has issue with fonts on a Mac?
10 February, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Kay, I think that Mac users are used to being ignored by Apple. I imagine that they’d say “why not use LiveType or Motion to do your typography?”
I guess that Final Cut Pro 7 will probably be completely rewritten, and this bug will be fixed when it comes out.
27 April, 2009 at 1:27 am
[...] Final Cut Pro: Free plugins to make all fonts available [...]
30 April, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Fankoo Alex! I had problems with Avant Garde too, an old bitstream font, and this soooooo totally fixed it! You are a genius
thanks for sharing… helped me out lots
deb
6 May, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Thank you so much!
You saved my ass!
(And how I love that donkey…)
3 June, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hi Alex.
Thanks so much for your fantastic font + plugins. They are very very useful.
I was wondering if you have ever had a problem with using non truetype fonts with the plugin?
The problem seems to be isolated to one of my systems where the error code FXScript Error: TrueType Font does not exist. It only seems to happen with non TrueType fonts (works fine on our other intel based macs).
I’ve tried re-installing your plugins and the fonts in question to no avail.
Running on OSX 10.5.4
Thanks again!
Ben
3 June, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Ben,
I’m sorry but I haven’t come across that error, I can only guess that the way the fonts appear to the Mac OS is somehow different on the system with the problem. Have you tried converting the font into a different format and name, and install that as a replacement. Not a great solution, but might help track down the problem.
3 June, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Thanks Alex.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll see what I can do to test it further as per your suggestions. It may be something I can resolve buy rebuilding the machine.
All the best,
Ben
2 September, 2009 at 4:33 pm
It works with Final Cut Pro 7! I was trying to use Gotham font for a client and it didn’t work. I tried making the titles in Photoshop but they were changing proportions when I brought them in to FCP. So then I searched and found your plugin.
Thank you Alex.
Rod
17 September, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hi Alex,
thank you very much! It works perfect!!!
Manni
30 September, 2009 at 9:53 am
Many thanks, stopped me throwing abuse at my machine!!!
5 October, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Thank you thank you thank you! I was digging in my heels INSISTING on Helvetica Neue Ultralight, and you saved the day. Bless you!
19 October, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Hi I tried to put the plug-in in the first folder you mention: Your Startup HD/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins. But since this step nothing happens, Final Cut seems the same and there is no way or place I can write the type of fonts I want. I got Final Cut Express. When I go to Text then Controls nothing seemed to changed can you help?
19 October, 2009 at 11:28 pm
If you don’t have Final Cut Pro, putting the plugins in Final Cut Pro System Support wont work.
As you’ll see in a previous comment, try installing them in
Your HD name/Library/Application Support/Final Cut Express Support/Plugins
If it installs correctly, you will see new generators in the Text section. In these generators you’ll find the place to enter the name of the font you want to use.