wezm.net/content/technical/2010/08/howto-install-consolas-font-mac.mkdn

I've [previously](/technical/2009/03/install-consolas-mac-osx/)
[written](/technical/2009/03/consolas-on-mac-update/)
[about](/technical/2009/09/font-smoothing-in-snow-leopard/) installing the
Consolas font on Mac OS X. This post bundles up those posts
into a single reference.

Installation
------------

1. Download the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac from the
   [Microsoft Mactopia download page][download].
2. Double click the disk image if it wasn't automatically mounted. You will
   see an Open XML File Format Converter meta package (.mpkg).
3. Right click (or Control-click) the meta package and choose "Show Package Contents".
4. In the Finder window that opens, click "Contents", then "Packages".
5. Double click "OpenXML\_all\_fonts.pkg", which will run the installer.

[download]: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx

<figure>
  <a href="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-show-package-contents.png" rel="prettyPhoto[openxml]"><img src="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-show-package-contents-small.jpg" width="600" height="325" alt="Step 1: Show Package Contents" /></a>
  <figcaption><span class="label">Step 3:</span> Show Package Contents</figcaption>
<figure>

<figure>
  <a href="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-all-fonts.png" rel="prettyPhoto[openxml]"><img src="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-all-fonts-small.jpg" width="600" height="180" alt="Step 4: Navigating to the package" /></a>
  <figcaption><span class="label">Step 4:</span> Navigating to the package</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <a href="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-all-fonts-installer.png" rel="prettyPhoto[openxml]"><img src="/images/2010/08/open-xml-converter-all-fonts-installer-small.jpg" width="600" height="426" alt="Step 5: Running the OpenXML_all_fonts.pkg installer"></a>
  <figcaption><span class="label">Step 5:</span> Running the OpenXML_all_fonts.pkg installer</figcaption>
</figure>

Fine Tuning
-----------

At this point Consolas is now installed, but depending on your font smoothing
settings it [may look a bit thin and ugly][smoothing]. This can be fixed by
adjusting these settings.

[smoothing]: /technical/2009/09/font-smoothing-in-snow-leopard/

For Mac OS X Snow Leopard its necessary to set the right value in the Terminal
because Apple removed it from System Preferences:

1. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
1. Copy and paste the following at the terminal prompt and press Return:

    `defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 2`

For the Terminal shy, this is what the command is doing: The
[`defaults`][defaults] command manipulates the user defaults, also known as
preferences. This particular use of it sets the AppleFontSmoothing setting at
the global (I.e. all users or system) level to the integer 2, which corresponds
to the Medium font smoothing setting in previous versions of Mac OS X. 

[defaults]: http://developer.apple.com/DOCUMENTATION/DARWIN/Reference/ManPages/man1/defaults.1.html

For Mac OS X Leopard or earlier its easier:

1. Open System Preferences
1. Click "Appearance"
1. At the bottom, set Font smoothing to, "Medium (best for Flat Panel)"

You will need to restart any running applications for them to pick up the new
font smoothing settings.