cschildhorn / FiraSystemFontReplacement

Modified version of the Fira Sans fonts to replace the default system font on Mac OS X 10.10.

Fira System Font Replacement

These fonts are intended as a system font replacement on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

They are based on version 4.1 of the Fira Sans font family by Erik Spiekermann and Ralph du Carrois, and are licensed under the Open Font License version 1.1 or later. This package has been prepared by Jens Kutilek https://github.com/jenskutilek/FiraSystemFontReplacement.

How to install

Using the installer package

Download and unzip the installer file from http://www.kutilek.de/download/fira-system-fonts-installer.zip. Right-click Fira System Fonts.pkg and choose "Open" from the context menu. In the alert about the package coming from an unidentified developer, click "Open" again. Follow the instructions in the installer and restart your computer when the installation process has finished.

Manual installation

Download and unzip the font files from http://www.kutilek.de/download/fira-system-fonts.zip.

Copy the font file FiraSystem.ttc into the /Library/Fonts folder on your system disk. To locate this folder, use:

1. Open the Finder.
2. From the Menu Go, select Go to Folder ....
3. In the dialogue window, enter /Library/Fonts and click Go.

A new Finder window will open to the /Library/Fonts folder.

Troubleshooting

• You may have to log out and in again in order to see the change take effect, or better, turn your computer off and then on again.
• If you are seeing incorrect characters in modal (pop-up) windows, ensure you have placed the font file into /Library/Fonts and not ~/Library/Fonts. Check the file permissions of the font and set the owner to root and the group to wheel.

How to uninstall

Delete or move the font file from the /Library/Fonts folder.

How does it work?

These Fira fonts have a special name table with names identical to those of the system fonts. Because the font folder /Library/Fonts takes precedence over the fonts which are in /System/Library/Fonts, these specially crafted fonts are used for the user interface instead of the real system fonts. The original system fonts are not deleted or modified in any way.

How to compile the fonts from source?

You can use the Python FontTools to compile the provided XML files in the source folder, or to work all other kinds of font magic.

To build the TTC file from the 7 TTFs, you need the OS X Font Tools from Apple.