back to article 'We are screwed!' Fonts eat a bullet in Microsoft security patch

Windows users were surprised to find that a Microsoft security update stopped fonts from working on their PCs. Security update KB2753842 has killed certain fonts on PCs where it has been installed, rendering many of them unusable, and causing problems for designers and businesses who rely on using the types in their work. …

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  1. Richard Wharram

    I'm sold

    If it gets rid of Arial and Times New Roman then this is the best patch ever!

    1. Androgynous Crackwhore
      Facepalm

      Re: I'm sold

      Hu?

      ...to leave what? ...comic sans? I'd gouge my eyes out with a pencil.

      1. Richard Wharram
        Stop

        Re: I'm sold

        There are more than 3 fonts on Windows!

        Calibri/Cambria is OK. Much better than the pre-2007 Word defaults of Arial and TNR.

        Verdana is more readable though.

        Comic Sans is not an option except for dicks.

        1. Dave Bell

          Re: I'm sold

          Any font can be used in the wrong place. For what I want to do, not every font is suitable. You likely have a different list. Comic Sans is used too much, but that isn't enough to make it a bad font. Anyway, since I often am not using Windows, the Microsoft-specific fonts are not so useful.

          That doesn't stop me looking at what Microsoft have done and thinking William Tare Fox.

          1. James O'Shea Silver badge

            that isn't enough to make it a bad font

            No. Being the last remaining vestige of -- drumroll, please -- Microsoft BOB is enough to make it a bad font. Comic Sans was so bad, so evil, that while it was _created_ for BOB, it wasn't used there. Kill it! Kill it! Kill lit with fire!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: that isn't enough to make it a bad font

              NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo...... "BOB" never died. It was just resting for a while after an extremely long squawk.... but... now it's risen again!!!!!!!!!! They've just renamed it Metro. Kill it too! Kill it! Kill lit with fire! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill lit with fire!

        2. Stevie

          Re: I'm sold

          And here was me under the impression that there was nothing more boring than Income Tax instructions. Learn something every day (unfortunately).

    2. Blitterbug
      Happy

      Re: If it gets rid of Arial and Times New Roman...

      Calm down at the back! TNR maybe, but good ol' 'fake Helvetica' is allright in my book...

      1. Richard Wharram

        Re: If it gets rid of Arial and Times New Roman...

        Arial is boring and was overused in the 90s. Get some imagination and pick something different :)

        Personally I'd go for Ubuntu web-font for websites and Verdana for Windows but there's plenty of decent choices that don't make you look like a bank 20 years ago.

        1. Blitterbug
          Unhappy

          Re: Get some imagination...

          Hmm... Didn't actually say I use it. It just doesn't offend me as much as TNR, but downvote away! Must have been a TNR fan at the back there.

          1. Richard Wharram

            Re: Get some imagination...

            Wasn't me downvoting you but I got 10 downvotes already for dissing Arial and TNR so they must have some fans on here :)

            Test: ARIAL SUCKS !!!!!!!!

            1. Blitterbug
              Unhappy

              Re: I got 10 downvotes already...

              ...and counting. I think you're right! Not from me btw...

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. t.est
      FAIL

      Re: I'm sold

      I would agree on that, except that Arial supports Unicode the best of all.

      For the other thing I never run into someone using Corel on a Mac. Corel is nothing that should be used by those doing DTP professionally (or what ever they call it what they do nowadays). Quark is a dinosaur that should have died already.

      Nothing much right on that department, go back to the mac and have stuff working. Unfortunately Macromedia overtook Adobe, so Adobe's products sux too nowadays. They simply used to be high quality back in those days. Not so any more.

      Corel on Windows it's just such a No No in this context. Corel never made it on the mac platform because they simply didn't cut it with the DTP people (who all used mac back then). Go back to professionals who work professionally that's what I say. And back to PostScript.

      1. sisk

        Re: I'm sold

        What is this Comic Sans you speak of. There is no such font. I refuse to believe it exists, much less use it.

      2. Christos Georgiou
        Devil

        Re: I'm sold

        I have completely replaced Arial with the on-purpose same metrics Liberation Sans, with much better glyphs to my eye. And for Unicode coverage, DejaVu Sans is great ( http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/Main_Page )

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          for unicode coverage

          code2000

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      Re: I'm sold

      "Windows users were surprised to find that a Microsoft security update stopped fonts from working on their PCs."

      I am surprised that their PC's even continued to work.

      Download, Update, Reboot = PC Death.

      LOL

      Linux - I love you....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I'm sold

        Better than than installing a Linux kernel update and finding that you Linux server doesnt even boot as it screwed up updating your boot img. Hello Centos im looking at you....

  2. Andrew Moore

    The Real Story here...

    ...is that some people are still using CorelDraw and Quark.

    1. detritus

      Re: The Real Story here...

      And then some - I have to keep a copy of CorelDraw on hand for laser cutting purposes.

      The shame is, although it's a grossly outdated piece of software, it has a couple (practically literally) of nice features and still, after all these years, represents Illustrator's only real competition out there for vector design packages.

      Adobe really could use a little more competition...

      1. t.est

        Re: The Real Story here...

        Adobe could use some competition, but from someone that keep the same high quality as Adobe used to have in the 80-90s. Not by adding features that messed everything up, Corels at it's best.

        Adobe got corrupted when they bought Macromedia in 2005. As a result less quality as with freehand. And not to mention Flash, which Adobe at first wanted to kill. But no Macromedia bosses got to run Adobe. Bean-counters, with no sense of quality.

        Want to do proper work, skip all those software and types that where written in the article. A little bit of professionalism I would hope from those in the industry.

        1. Mike Moyle

          @ t.est Re: The Real Story here...

          "Adobe got corrupted when they bought Macromedia in 2005. As a result less quality as with freehand."

          At the risk of further thread drift, I'm going to have to strongly disagree with you on the virtues of Illustrator v. Freehand.

          If you didn't routinely use Freehand and expected it to be Illustrator then, yeah, your experience with it would suck.

          OTOH if, as I did, you started using Freehand back in the day that it let you work in preview mode while Illustrator was still making you work in keyline and toggle back and forth into preview after every step to see what you just did, you asked yourself, "Why would I want to go back to doing it the old way?" You got used to the way Freehand worked and if you went back to Illustrator, many functions just seemed backwards and inefficient (In an Illustrator "punch" operation, the "hole" object sits BEHIND the "donut" object...? Really...? And if you want to manipulate it...?)

          After (Gad!) 30-some-odd years of doing illustration and graphic design on a professional basis -- with more than 25 of them working digitally almost exclusively -- I'm preferentially still using Freehand, both at the day job (illustrator/graphic designer for a governmental agency) and in my freelance work. I'm expecting to be upgrading one or both machines in the next few months and with the forced move to the new version of OS X that this entails, I dread no longer having Freehand available to me.

          YMOV.

          1. JDX Gold badge

            Re: @ t.est The Real Story here...

            What are we supposed to use instead of Quark these days... it was THE choice for newspapers when my dad retired from that world and since then I lost touch with what's used, though I note Quark is still selling new versions.

            1. Raz

              Re: @ t.est The Real Story here...

              Right JDX. I was doing pro DTP in the mid '90s and Quark was THE software to use. A true WYSIWYG, application, and was exporting to PS. Plus everything could be done by hotkeys. The best editor ever. I was using it instead of Word, it was that good. I looked for a bit at Illustrator, but it looked like I would be less productive with it, so Quark XPress it was.

            2. KroSha

              Re: @JDX

              Lots of places use InDesign now. The publisher I used to work at migrated when Adobe started selling CS2, as it integrated well with the in-house Repro solution as well as the obvious CS advantages. Plus the fact that Quark alone cost as much as the entire CS bundle!

    2. Jim Willsher

      Re: The Real Story here...

      Quark, no, but Corel is still a fantastic product. Outside of AutoCAD I've not yet found a better vector-based, layer-based package.

      Mine still works, no font snafus here.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The Real Story here...

        Try Xara Designer Pro X (www.xara.com). Fast, vector package for Windows and Linux. Seems to be getting bloated with Web effects lately though.

      2. t.est

        Re: The Real Story here...

        Corel merely cut it as a consumer product. The quality of what comes out from corel is just plain crap. I've been gone from the industry a few years. But I doubt corel has gotten any better. It makes a really poor job for DTPers and such alike.

        And the font type used, man oh man, Amateurs.

        1. The Flying Dutchman

          Re: @ t.est - The Real Story here...

          I currently use Inkscape for artwork, but there's a few font types I nicked from an old CorelDraw CD. Most fonts that came with CorelDraw were yucky "party-fonts" but it was one of the very few software packages I know of that came with Zapf Humanist a.k.a. Optima, a very classy typeface indeed and one of my personal favorites.

    3. Smallbrainfield
      Stop

      Re: The Real Story here...

      Cobblers. Corel Draw is a corking bit of kit and Corel Photopaint is extremely useful as well.

    4. PhilBuk
      Thumb Up

      Re: The Real Story here...

      Corel Draw was/is an excellent software package. I used it a lot in the Corel 2/3/4 days. I went right off it when they decided to milk the upgrade cycle and bring out a new version every year. The printing part of CD was suited to professional production - in fact, a lot of graphic shops used to use CD just for the print part of their workflow.

      Phil.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. DJV Silver badge

          Re: The Real Story here...

          Try Inkscape - price = free!

          http://inkscape.org/

          Seemed to work for what I wanted (but my drawing needs are small so YMMV)

      2. t.est
        Facepalm

        Re: The Real Story here...

        Yeah some amateurs did, not one professional.

        Ever seen the hassle that is needed with CD files in pre-press situation? I sometimes converted our clients CD stuff by remaking them in Illustrator instead. That way we would waste much less time getting it actually printed.

        Cause they never worked.

        If you wanted to trust what you saw on the screen, there was only one tool and that is Illustrator. Freehand worked sometimes, but you could not trust that either fully. If you worked with an print house for your work and had a deadline, it was only Adobe that delivered. Everything else would give you unpleasant surprises.

    5. Fatman
      Linux

      Re: The Real Story here...

      Is that WindblowZE 'patch Tuesdays' can be a source of angst for many.

      To quote from the article:

      CorelDraw is screwed, Quark is screwed, WE ARE SCREWED. We have client jobs that we cannot work on thanks to this update.

      Now, perhaps you can wonder why so many do not install patches - because they have work to do; and having a work PC fucked up by a bad patch, is bad for business!

      Patch Tuesday is slowly becoming a faint memory for this penguin lover.

      1. TheRealRoland
        Thumb Down

        Re: The Real Story here...

        > WindblowZE

        This.

        Stop it.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The Real Story here...

        Uhm, but a Linux distribution has like 10 time MORE patches - with LOTS MORE interdependency issues than Windows ever had - and no regular relaease schedule to plan around?! Pot, Kettle, etc....

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    darn, and I thought I waited long enough before installing them

    That any problems would have already surfaced...

    Now I've got to send questions to developers to find out if they use any of these fonts... and if so, I'll have to pull them.

  4. Esskay
    Thumb Up

    For the love of god, please...

    tell me comic sans was affected...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: For the love of god, please...

      I love Comic SANS.

    2. Blitterbug
      Meh

      Re: For the love of god, please...

      Font Snobbery, as observed elsewhere, is like sooo 2005. A knowing wink when you see a colleague using it, or an ascerbic post on an IT forum... Yes, we all *know* you know your fonts, now sit down and have a little rest. It may be clichéd, but Comic Sans still has its uses. It's a jaunty font for the less-jaded to make quick fIyers for the village fête or whatever. I haven't used Comic myself for a few years, but only for style reasons and 'cos I have about 900 fonts to choose from.

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: For the love of god, please...

        Comic Sans is one of the very few fonts that "draws" it's letters in exactly the same way that we write them - who on Earth writes an "a" like that? Hence the popularity of Comic Sans with teachers.

        1. FlingoBingo
          Thumb Up

          Re: For the love of god, please...

          This is true - Comic Sans may be offensive to many IT folk but it is used for good reason in education. The downvoters might like to reflect on how domain knowledge can sometimes be as important as technical knowledge.

          1. Esskay
            Stop

            @Flingobingo

            "This is true - Comic Sans may be offensive to many IT folk but it is used for good reason in education."

            Comic sans hasn't necessarily drawn ire from people because of an innate dislike for the typeface - it's commonly due to the fact that it's used inappropriately in many office environments because a manager thinks it makes them appear "on the same level" and "casual" when giving orders to staff, or because people think that it will make an otherwise shit boring event seem fun and relaxed - eg. "casual brunch" with the accounting team.

            "Snugglesville School Fete - cupcakes and lemonade 50c each, or three for a dollar!" = makes sense to use comic sans

            "Anyone caught using the printer for personal items will be given an official warning and be charged for the use of toner!" = Don't fucking use comic sans

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: For the love of god, please...

          Makes me wonder... what if the font was named something like "writestyle new sans" would people hate it so much? I recall an uproar from a few years ago regarding an execution order typeset to comic sans. Was it the hand-drawn look that upset people, or the name?

        3. sisk

          Re: For the love of god, please...

          Comic Sans is one of the very few fonts that "draws" it's letters in exactly the same way that we write them

          Not by a long shot. There are HUNDREDS of fonts that do that, most of them better than Comic Sans. There's a whole category of them, right up three with serif and sans serif fonts.

          1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

            Re: There are HUNDREDS of fonts that do that

            And there, in a nutshell, is the reason why the other 99% of the population will never, ever, care about fonts as much as the people posting here.

            Most of us can get by with only half a dozen fonts and (truly, you'll have to trust me on this, because I just know you won't believe it) cannot tell the difference between the hundreds of fonts you mention and frankly couldn't give a shit even if we could.

            What we do notice, of course, is when your chosen font displays our text as a series of black "character not found" rectangles. That's *far* more annoying than Comic Sans.

            So ... Arial gets my vote simply because, as another poster has already mentioned, it is most likely to actually contain a glyph for the character.

  5. Arachnoid
    WTF?

    Hmm....doesnt bode well to patch testing prior to general release MS!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      To be fair, if they have to test against Corel Draw, then the will have to test against the other 20 million packages out there.

      For god's sake, use bloody GIMP or Paint.Net if your that tight you're using software from 1990's cover disks.

      1. Aleph0
        Facepalm

        Latest release 8 months ago. Hardly '90s software...

        My brother still uses it daily at his day job. Hard to switch when you've got years of work saved in that format.

      2. Francis Boyle

        CorelDraw is a vector illustration/page layout tool and a powerful one at that. No image editing program can be expected to do what it does. You probably don't need it. Most people don't need it any more than they need, say, a CAD program but that hardly justifies the bizarre hate its getting here.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        None of the software's u mentioned is useful

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Err...

      So MS screwed up their testing, but the end users still blindly installed a fix to a production machine, without testing.

      Either they make money from these machines and should test fixes before installed, or they don't and are just willy waving about how inconvenient it is.

  6. Tom 7

    For the love of god please

    tell me <insert font I don’t like for snobbery reasons here> was affected.

    I love it that people can be so upset by fonts - much cheaper than statues in public places.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    For those who can't see the dangers...

    Think about all the fonts that may be smuggled onto your system every time you view a video that you have downloaded (cough, cough). For subtitled media the danger is clear, but even non-subtitled media could be deliberately infected with a "poisoned" font as some video players render embedded fonts to an internal buffer when the video is loaded.

  8. jason 7
    Happy

    Well just gone thorugh all the fonts on my web designer GF's machine.

    The update was installed on the 12th. She loves her fonts does this girl.

    All of them work fine. No issues using them in Word or Photoshop.

    Works fine for us ...so the problem must be you!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Jason

      Most likely you guys are using ttf fonts ?

      I was trying MS Expression Design and also noticed everything simply worked, then fired up Gimp and even there everything works (though I don't like the way the Gimp requires you to type the name o/t font first) then I checked my font library.

      'tis all ttf (true type; ttf) which is different from the mentioned fonts like opentype (otf), and the mentioned postscript type (pfb).

    2. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: Well just gone thorugh all the fonts on my web designer GF's machine.

      Punchline:- she uses a Mac...

      1. t.est

        Re: Well just gone thorugh all the fonts on my web designer GF's machine.

        Actually no, then she wouldn't had that problem and, she might actually have used proper postscript fonts.

        Corel never got into the mac market even though they tried twice to lure over the professionals to their software.

        But professionals are professionals, they use proper tools, corel never succeeded in that. But it amazes me that some of them used Macromedia products, they almost suck as bad as Corel.

  9. Sandpit
    Joke

    Those be high quality commentards at GrahicsUnleashed.

    Many Reg articles could benefit from their inclusion :)

  10. mastodon't
    Gimp

    Can't see the problem

    Comic Sans is unaffected

  11. mastodon't
    Windows

    If you really hate someone

    Teach them to understand bad kerning

    https://xkcd.com/1015/

  12. hplasm
    Happy

    So if the fonts are being patched ...

    Does that mean that the Windows kernel is *all* patches now?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: So if the fonts are being patched ...

      It has been for a decade. Weren't you told?

  13. fourThirty
    Facepalm

    wtf...

    For a site that calls itself <quote> THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE FOR GRAPHIC USERS </quote> it's a complete eyesore!

    It looks like it was designed in Frontpage '98, and they've even changed the colours of the scrollbars...

    Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you *should*...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: wtf...

      "they've even changed the colours of the scrollbars"

      Well, that's what you get for using an out-of-date non-standards compliant browser. :P

      I just hope it's IE7 and not 6 or I'll be collecting the troops for a witch hunt!

      1. fourThirty

        Re: wtf...

        It's actually IE9 on Windows 7...

        The home page doesn't do it, but if you go to the 'About' page (http://www.unleash.com/aboutupi/) it does!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: wtf...

          Interesting, I was under the impression that the ability to change IE's scrollbars was removed in IE8 although I'm not sure where I got that from and I am having difficulty finding any evidence of it - other than a post on stack overflow, but that's the only mention.

          I must be wrong. :(

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Facepalm

            Re: wtf...

            That truly is a poor website. I think they are "graphics" in the way a sign maker does "graphics". There, that's about the only nice and constructive thing I can say about it to avoid me having to press the "anonymous" button. :P

  14. CountZer0
    Joke

    May contain Comic Sans related humour

    Comic sans walks into a bar & orders a drink.

    The barman says, "I'm sorry, sir, we don't serve your type in here."

    /tumbleweed

    1. Arctic fox
      Coat

      @CountZero Re: "May contain Comic Sans related humour" Sorry, I did not get........

      ................the point of that joke.*

      *All right, I know I should be ashamed of that pun, I'll get my coat.

      1. CountZer0

        Re: @CountZero "May contain Comic Sans related humour" Sorry, I did not get........

        Can't claim its mine, it's from the book "Just My Type" interesting book too. Esp with the hate filled section on comic sans...

        http://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1846683025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355741169&sr=8-1

  15. Stuart Castle Silver badge

    I went to that site..

    All I can say is "Arrggh, my eyes!".

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fonts are evil

    Folks,

    We're talking about fonts sent down by the devil, sent to infestate human society and bring about the end of the world.

    We must trust Microsoft here. To not to is to lose faith in the system and invite Lucifer into our hearts.

    If anyone know what they're doing, Microsoft does... That's why we need to trust them and believe that their programmer knew what he was doing, instead of being a corporate drone, only caring about watching the clock until home-time and spewing out whatever code allowed them to have an easy life and go home early.

    I believe them. That's why I'll walk into the gas chambers if they tell me I need to because it's the best thing to do and it's in my best interest.

    I have faith in the system.

    It's also why Tony Smith is the sole beneficiary of my will.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A very long night

      Imagine being sat at a bar, alongside the four people who down-voted me. And Tony Smith.

      By the end of the night, I'd be calling at least one of them, "Spock". True.

  17. markw:

    Good fonts

    Times New Roman is an excellent classic typeface - designed in England for The Times. Ubiquity and association with Microsoft have not done it any favours though. A lot of people seem to think that it is some horrible Microsoft invention and not a "proper" font. It is often used to produce ugly, barely readable work by the typographically illiterate - though this includes almost everybody these days. Now if I can just work out how to type an em dash on the Nexus 7 ...

    1. Dave Bell

      Re: Good fonts

      Strictly, TNR is a clone of the original Times Roman, made by Microsoft for Windows. But you are right, it is a classic font design.

      It doesn't need much skill to produce a readable document with TNR, mostly just the size on the paper and the margins. I suspect there is an element of over-rigid specification in schools: print your essay in this precise style, and the teacher can see the amount of work you have done at a glance.

      I had a good many pre-Unicode fonts, and I rather liked Garamond and Palatino. I know Palatino is used in some printed books I have. But I don't see those CDs full of fonts in PC World any more.

      1. markw:

        Re: Good fonts

        "Strictly, TNR is a clone of the original Times Roman, made by Microsoft for Windows."

        No!

        Coat - mine's the one with the tin of Cow Gum in the pocket ...

      2. t.est

        Re: Good fonts

        Ah yes, Garamond was usable and Palatino for some tasks, hmm I think ours where included in MacOS. But that's long ago, can't remember exactly.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Yet to receive a reply ..

    "We've asked Microsoft for a comment, but have yet to receive a reply®.

    They possible can't read your fonts ...

    -------

    Are these those new-fangled vectored graphics fonts?

  19. Mikel
    Devil

    Oh, that

    1. They finally fixed the font rendering exploit bug? That only took nine years. I suppose in a few years they'll start looking at their gradient rendering engine. Or NTFS.

    2. Oops, the fix broke their competitors applications but their own applications were recently patched to not be harmed in advance? Who could have expected that to happen? That's odd. I am shocked.

    1. foxyshadis

      Re: Oh, that

      Ancient, long-dead software held onto by a vanishingly small old userbase is an interesting definition of "their competitors applications."

  20. Wombling_Free
    Headmaster

    Someone still uses Quark?

    We still use CorelDraw & Quark - WE ARE SCREWED!

    There, fixed it for you.

  21. bag o' spanners
    Devil

    I thought the world's entire stockpile of nasty fonts had been used up by the original Myspace. In magenta on a puce background. Aaah! Sweet innocence of yoof.

    Re: Disdain for free stuff...I still use Cool3D occasionally for texturing and tweaking true type fonts for banners.. Just because it was free on a cover disk, didn't make it any less useful for rapidly creating sets of unique graphics. The UI was way ahead of the game in the late 90s. Horses for courses.

  22. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

    What is this I don't even

  23. Rob Crawford

    Perhaps this is a bit mad but

    How about if there is an issue with certain fonts having an issue that may permit an exploit to be carried out

    Wait for it.....

    The people who produce the font should fix their side of the issue.

    How crazy is that?

    We had to ban several fonts which crashed 2 out of the 3 RIPs that we ran as they where doing some real nasty stuff (and don't even mention what Freehand used to do to any RIP I ever encountered)

    After playing about with embedding code withing postscript fonts and fractal fonts and the like back in the 90s I can understands the MS position.

    1. Mike Dimmick
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Perhaps this is a bit mad but

      A malicious attacker can construct a file that causes an overflow in the font parser. It's nothing about fixing known fonts. This is a security vulnerability.

    2. t.est

      Re: Perhaps this is a bit mad but

      Ah those memories. Unfortunately maker of freehand overtook adobe.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    let me just check the fonts are still working on linux

    .... yep

    1. The Real Tony Smith

      Re: let me just check the fonts are still working on linux

      Yes, and don't you just love ncurses :-)

      1. AlexS
        Headmaster

        Re: let me just check the fonts are still working on linux

        There are fonts on Linux?

  25. Mike Dimmick

    You *should* install this patch

    The issue is that someone malicious could create a specially structured OpenType font file (using Adobe Compact Font Format [CFF or Type 2] font outlines - OTF can contain either CFF or TrueType outlines), presumably where some field indicates a larger size than it should. They can then use that file from a web page, for example with Web Open Font Format (WOFF) download. It doesn't have to be a genuine font, it could be used for one letter on the page, all that matters is that the browser tries to render it.

    Because this only affects the Adobe CFF parser, any bugs won't affect most fonts on most people's systems - the Windows- and Office-supplied fonts are either TrueType or OpenType using TrueType outlines. However, most graphics professionals use one or more OpenType fonts, for their advanced features. The fonts using advanced OpenType features usually use CFF outlines rather than TrueType.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    scanners ocr readers databases

    guess we're all screwed

  27. Mpeler

    Writing one's wrongs?

    With fonts like that, who needs enemies?

  28. Chad H.
    Joke

    Isn't the bigger story here they still make Corel Draw? I thought that died decades ago.

  29. mikie
    FAIL

    font engine in kernel

    wtf?

    priv esc in win2012 using a font?

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Comic Sans Serf...

    ...is the perfect font for making a joke. In purple, and sometimes with a jaunty italics.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: Comic Sans Serf [sic]...

      "...Comic Sans Serf [sic]...

      ...is the perfect font for making a joke. In purple, and sometimes with a jaunty italics..."

      It's also great for making notices to stick in newsagent windows. But for maximum impact remember to make every letter a different colour and ensure some of them are yellow, so they can't be seen from more than three feet away.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    I'm surprised that MS screwed this up...

    I realize that they have a lot of complex interactions to guard against, but for a company who makes the commanding office productivity suite to degrade functionality on that suite (especially when so many companies/departments/teams have style guides they use) is pretty sloppy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Meh

      Missed the "meh" icon!

      a more fitting mood for the subject at hand

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And that is why...

    ... you do NOT auto-update all released patches from Microsoft.

    The company simply cannot be trusted.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: And that is why...

      But, but ... surely if it goes wrong you can just restore from that full system backup that you take every "Patch Monday"?

  33. Maty

    I'm still waiting for the first post that consists entirely of little rectangular boxes ...

    1. Androgynous Crackwhore
      Windows

      ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

      ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

      ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

      ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

      ☐☐☐☐

      ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

        ♪ɦʉʎ ʬʅʡʕȗ farted ȐǫLj¶Ӿ!!!!!!

  34. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    vi unaffected

    vi is my shepherd, I shall not font.

  35. Brent Longborough
    Headmaster

    I'm all right, Jack

    Just recently moved from Computer Modern to Latin Modern

  36. southpacificpom
    Windows

    N thing w ng wit my fo ts

    Wh t's ll t e fuss ab t?

  37. JDX Gold badge

    We've asked Microsoft for a comment, but have yet to receive a reply.

    Is that because they couldn't read your email?

  38. Rattus Rattus

    So long as we can keep Papyrus

    I use it specifically to annoy typography nerds.

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