Are you really sure you deleted it? In Yosemite this font is kind of hidden, in Library/Application Support/Apple/Fonts/iWork.

I've never heard of the OS being dependent in any way on that font.

Apple used Garamond in advertising in the past, I'm not aware that the OS was dependent upon it.

But if it is, it should be on your original OS installation disks that came with your Mac and you can do a custom install to reinstall it.

Not the os-itself, it’s some Apple utilities and apps that ship with the machine and/or OS X. Dictionary is just one giving me grief. Similarly botched are a handful of third-party apps I got from the App Store.

I'm not a programmer, but with some research and the little I do know of web-coding has given me a couple insights into my font problem. Of the apps affected, there are two basic categories: those whose fonts CSS controls, and those whose equivilant technology, css or otherwise remains obfuscated in the compiled code of the app itself.

There are two workarounds one can achieve with these stylesheets to solve the glitch. The first involves editing css file, swapping garamond.ttc and baskerville.ttc (which is gone as well) for the font of your choosing. Make sure to back-ups both before and after files. Good news: you get to further customise your apps. Bad news: running Software Update (Tiger thru Mavericks) or App Store updates (Yosemite) will overwrite said css file. The other work around is to merely consult the stylesheet, to see what you need to rename your with a stylesheet, to verify the file path to these system font suitcases. These are generic, non-commercial versions of these fonts. Before deleted, it appeared in Font Book as simply “Garamond.” The next step is to obtain another free version of the font from one of the million free font sites out there, open the font file in your favourite editor and change the font name info to “Garamond” like it was. Export as truetype (.ttf). Repeat with the italic, bold, and bold italic versions. Finally, compile these as a truetype font suitcase, add the extension .ttc onto the end of the file name, and move into the directory specified in the CSS file.

I haven’t tested it cause, while a sound theory, it doesn’t solve the core issue, like the majority of apps that don’t have a stylesheet ofr reference. Even if you are like me and own several commercial versions of fonts like Garamond, it won’t substitute Garamond Premier Pro (for example)—or any other—when it is looking for something altogether different: another version in another directory, with another filename and type with metadata that won’t match.

If I weren’t on dial-up in Vermont I would download the installer from the app store. An installation disk wouldn’t help as I don’t have a drive in my Macbook. So PLEASE somebody, upload the TTC files to dropbox or something!

"I don’t have a drive in my Macbook"

Mac laptops that don't have a CD drive come with the OS on a thumb drive.

If the font is free you could also get it at an Apple Store, there are many in Vermont, just take in a thumb drive. Or from a friend who uses a Mac.

People in this forum are unlikely to upload a font.

there are no apple owned stores but there may be some liscenced retailers. Thanks I hadn't thought of that. And btw, I just got this macbook pro new from apple.com, straight out of the box, no thumb drive was included. Should there have been?

You're right, no official stores in Vermont, sorry. My understanding is that the OS was included on a thumb drive, at least it used to be, but the page below seems to indicate that recovery is now via the internet.

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718

Installing an entire OS via dialup would be very difficult, but a custom install of one font included with the system should be doable.

Or a licensed retailer may be willing to give it to you. Or if you use Apple's backup software, Time Machine, or other backup software, you may have a copy of it already.

So you do not have a copy of Garamond in the Application Support folder I mentioned earlier? On my machine there is a second copy as well installed by MS Office.

Why do you think Dictionary.app depends on Garamond?

Well like I said its either baskerville and/or garam0nd (or both in a css file) which I know cause I've encountered this before. Open Fonk Book and disable both those faces justy for a minute if you don't believe me, then reopen Dictionary. All the text will be in some hideous extrabold all-italic generic looking serif.

@JamesM:

I just found one of those apple flash drives on eBay, so I'll be able to fix the problem myself.

I would like to know, however—for my own purposes—how to group fonts into suitcases: postscript, dfont, and especially ttc. I looked all over GitHub, finding descriptions of different methods which I was not able to emulate. But that's an issue for another thread...

Thanks to all responders.

Cheers

You might want to download a PDF by Extensis (they make the font organizer Suitcase Fusion) — it's called "Font Management in OS-X, Best Practices Guide". It gives a lot of practical advice concerning fonts.

(I haven't looked at it for a while so I'm not sure how much it assumes they are using their software.)

http://www.extensis.com/downloads/font-management-best-practices-guides/

Disabling Garamond has no impact at all on Dictionary.app on my clean Yosemite install. And that makes sense because this font does not even appear in Font Book unless you go get it in the Application Support folder and install it, or if you have it from another app like Office. As far as Apple is concerned, only iWork might need this font.

I would be careful about using a boot drive bought off EBay. It would more expensive but maybe more prudent to get a local Apple repair shop to make a Yosemite boot for you.