To me, free is one of the best four letter words in the English language. That’s especially true relative to software, as some of the most amazing stuff is available completely for free. From the database engine that powers many web sites (including macosxhints.com) to programs that ease the creation of web photo albums to numerous text editors, there’s a wonderful world of free software out there, just waiting to be discovered.
But it’s not often you’ll find a large collection of high-quality fonts, also available free of charge. But that’s what you’ll get with today’s tip: free fonts. From where, you might ask? No less a source than Apple themselves. Just point your browser to Apple’s Scriptable Applications – iTunes page, then click the Download the iTunes for Mac OS X script collection link. (You’ll need Stuffit Expander to expand the archive.)
After expanding the archive, open the iTunes Scripts for Mac OS X, then navigate into AppleWorks 6.2.2 Stuff -> ITC Fonts. There you’ll find a collection of 25 fonts—everything from decorative to really clean and simple faces. To install these fonts for your user, drag and drop them (or some of them) into your user’s Library -> Fonts folder. To install for all users on the machine, drag and drop them on the top-level Library -> Fonts folder. Any program you launch after installing the fonts will show them as available for your use. You can also double-click any font (in 10.4) to open it in Font Book. When it opens, you’ll see a preview of the font’s appearance and a super-easy Install button. Click that, and the font is installed (for your current user).
So why is Apple distributing these fonts for free? Because the iTunes Scripts collection includes a few AppleWorks templates that rely on these fonts, as well as an AppleScript to send info between iTunes and AppleWorks. By distributing the fonts, Apple guarantees that the AppleWorks templates will look and work as expected.
There’s also a big collection of iTunes scripts in the collection (obviously, since that’s the main reason for its existence). However, please note that this collection dates from the days of iTunes 2.0, and many (most?) of the scripts may not work as expected, if at all. If you choose to try them anyway, the install location differs from that of the included directions. To install iTunes scripts for the latest version of iTunes, create this folder structure in your user’s folder: Library -> Scripts -> Applications -> iTunes. Now move the scripts into that folder, and switch to iTunes. You’ll now see the scripts near the top of the Scripts menubar item. (If you don’t see a scripts menubar icon, you’ll need to enable it first. Go to Applications -> AppleScript, run the AppleScript Utility, and check the Show Script Menu in menu bar item.) But if you choose to try these scripts, please heed the warning—they are old, and may not work, or may do unexpected things.
Personally, I wouldn’t try scripts from this collection. Instead, if you’re interested in iTunes scripting, check out Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes. There you’ll find a huge assortment of iTunes scripts, the majority of which will work just fine with iTunes 7. (Install them in the same manner as described above.)