# Freelancer Font problems.



## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

My computer screwed up royally a few days ago, and along with a plethora of other problems with other programs Freelancer's font is at least three times bigger then normal, both menu's and in game. I know its not a screen resolution problem, and the fonts folder in the Freelancer data folder is normal. So I'm guessing its an internal problem with the computer and its font folder. Any ideas?


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## BillC (May 29, 2003)

This may be a really dumb thought, but have you tried holding down the Ctrl key and turning the wheel on your mouse?


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

If that doesn't work, try reinstalling Freelancer, that should reset all the data for it.

If that still doesn't work, make sure your computer is completely clean of spyware, you can run Ad_Aware to find the stuff for you, you just have to select which ones you want to delete.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

I've ran spy bot and removed spyware with no effect. What does holding ctrl and moving the mouse wheel do? I tried it in the game and nothing happened.


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## BillC (May 29, 2003)

Try holding the Ctrl key and turning your mouse wheel on this forum page and you will see what I mean. Guess that was not your problem. I thought you could have made this change without knowing it.


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

Does reinstalling Freelancer help?


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

Na, the computer screwed up with programs and registry's. I never knew about that ctrl and mouse wheel thing, thats cool, but it doesn't work for Freelancer for some reason. I believe the problem may lay in the Fonts folder located in Control Panel. I've already tried reinstalling the game but it had no effect. Any other ideas?


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## BillC (May 29, 2003)

Christoph....Sorry my idea didn't work but at least you discovered the Ctrl/mouse wheel thing! Just out of curiosity, is it only the game with the font problem ?


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

That it is, as far as I know. I've tried a few others but no fonts are changed.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

I've ran spybot a few times, and the spyware has been lifted but I don't think its any spyware effect. Please, anyone help?


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

If you think it's a registry problem, you could look around in there....click Start->Run and type in regedit and hit OK. Then look around in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER, then probably Software->Microsoft->Freelancer, and see if there's anything strange. You could also delete the whole Freelancer folder, then try reinstalling it. Make sure you back up the registry firs though, just in case.

The fonts folder probably isn't the problem, as it just stores all the fonts, it can't make changes to them. Do you know what font Freelancer uses?

It could also be some sort of config file within the Freelancer folder that didn't get removed when you reinstalled it.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

I ran regedit, but I really don't know what I'm looking for (I found the Freelancer folder and everything, but then what?). And how do I find out what font Freelancer uses?

Also, I deleted all folders associated with Freelancer and then reinstalled, which did fix one unrelated problem, but not the fonts.


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

I'm not really sure what you would look for, maybe a key called 'fonts' would be helpful, but I doubt it would be there.

It's kind of an odd problem, are you sure there are no options within Freelancer for text size or anything?


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

Don't think so, no resolution changes or anything, and no options changed.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

I'm thinking there's an error with what Freelancer is reading to be the fonts from the computer, but how would I change the fonts in a game?


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

I don't know....how did your computer screw up? And what exactly is messed up now?


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

The computer replaced certain files with backup ones from 10-12 months ago, most things are fixed now, but Freelancer's font problems are the most bothersome.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

bump, please help?


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

I don't know, the only thing I can think of is to completely reinstall Windows, but unless you have been thinking of doing so anyway, I wouldn't consider it.


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

No, I'd rather not, but there must be another way. I might contact the people who designed the game though.


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

Microsoft? Good luck with that..


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## Christoph (May 1, 2003)

Lol, I was right there with you, but I actually (finally) found the technical support page for the game, and it turns out this problem is an ongoing one with various Microsoft games. I managed to fix the font issue using a method on the site, which said to move any font in the fonts folder 3kb or less into another folder (or basically out of the fonts folder). I don't understand why or how, but it worked and I'm happy lol. Beside that, thank you for all your help, not too many people would take time to aid someone with a small technical problem such as this.


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## McTimson (Aug 16, 2002)

Wow, thats an...odd solution

Just glad to hear you got it fixed


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## itchytf (Jul 27, 2003)

Ok, I've been having the same problem since I replaced my computer's mother board and a whole lot of other stuff - all the text in freelancer is far too big.

I don't suppose you could either link me to the site with the solution or run be through a step by step guide? I'm not too good when it comes to computers...


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## KeepGood (Aug 2, 2003)

the problem with the freelancer font being too large after formatting your comp (or it spazzing out, or whatever).

It is simply a font problem.

Run the installation again. you dont even have to actually install it again. Just run the setup and then cancel out of it.

I have to do it everytime I format the comp.


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## Stray (Aug 21, 2003)

hello all, i have had this problem for some time now on entering jumpgates to other systems my computer resets just as soon as the white screen apears i have tried reinstalling freelancer twice now to no avail.. my next move is format but the xp install is only a month or 2 old.. i dunno any ideas ?


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## counterpunch (Oct 11, 2004)

After much frustration, I solved this problem.

The font you need is Agency FB. Just download it off the Internet, copy the file into your fonts folder, and start up Freelancer. You don't even have to reinstall the game. I grabbed Agency FB and Agency FB Bold just to be sure, but Agency FB should be all you need.

I found that article by Microsoft about deleting the >3Kb fonts and all of that, and I thought, "Why don't they just tell us what fonts these games use?" I mean, if the font the game is looking for isn't in the fonts folder, putting it there should be the simplest fix. So I decompiled the fonts.ini and rich_fonts.ini files in Freelancer/DATA/FONTS/. The main two fonts were Arial and Agency FB. I checked my fonts folder by (in Windows 2000) clicking Start, Run, and typing "fonts" into the "Open" box and clicked OK. There was the folder, with no Agency FB. It's hard to believe it was so simple. When you find Agency FB on the Internet, it should look familiar.

PS I used a command line ini decomplier called bini.exe. You can find it at Lancers Reactor, a Freelancer fan site. If the fonts the games use are in a similar ini file, the technique should work for all the games listed in the Microsoft article. At least it's a first step.

PPS I'm guessing that the rerunning installation solution works because setup puts Agency FB into the fonts folder. If not, then maybe other people are having different problems with the same symptoms. As with anything, if this doesn't work, try something else.


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