Please include the flowing when reporting a bug:
I’ve seen the issue before, but then tried finding a different version of the font. This time however i really need it to be activated
After checking the fonts in FontForge to other fonts in that folder. I noticed some have a dash in the fontname, while other not. Weird thing is, when i checked “Helvetica Narrow CS” it also has dash in the fontname section and does load.
When i adjust those Helvetica fonts and removed the dashes, they do load. So i really dont understand why certain fonts do load and others do not?
The section “Fontname” show dashes, where some of the same family do not
By removing the slash it does load
Yet other family or version loads just fine
Im just thinking out of the box here. Could it be that in this Helvetica family, that when some of the fonts have that dash in the name section, it causes errors with FontBase? It does seem so, because removing it does load it.
Also that Narow CE version, both version have dashes in the name. Where with that other Helvetica some do and some do not.
PS this is something else, but why does this random font show here in this font family. Its not even in the same folder?
Is this because of search. Because i used search “Helvetica”. Guess so, because this is “Helvetica Swiss” and on the fontname section, it only shows "Helvetica
Hello @rombout, thank you for your post 
And an additional thank you for the investigation conducted. Looks like that “Fontname” you’re mentioning is the “postscriptname” font property. Just checked a Helvetica Light Oblique, seems to load into FontBase and activate without a hitch, but having a deeper look it did not have any dashes in the postscriptname at all. This is a bit uncommon in my experience, given that it’s usually something like e.g. “MyFont-BoldItalic”.
By “load” do you mean being added into FontBase, or activation?
Regarding the PS question, those two fonts don’t seem to be random, since they have the same postscriptname put there by the font file creators, intentionally or otherwise. That’s why FontBase recognised them as duplicates.
Thank you again,
Well i think the issue perhaps is that the family is Helvetica, but since the bold didnt have the dash in the “fontname” and the others did, they dont load. Because i change them all and they load fine. However, as i stated later. The narrow version has all “fontname” with a dash. and the activate fine. By load i meant activate (as like in the title, sorry for confusing it)
But you are right, about that part “MyFont-BoldItalic”. But i think when they are in the same folder and they used it mixed, this causes the activation issue.
PS i didnt actually checked what would happen if i did it the other way around. Perhaps i should have done that. Simply only adjust the HelveticaBold to Helvetica-Bold. Would have been less work 
Thank you for the quick reply @rombout
The font that you had issues activating - was it unedited in FontForge or other software at the time when activation failed?
I just tried editing a Helvetica Light Oblique font file (initially didn’t have “-” in the postscriptname, but I force inserted it). The font is still recognised by FontBase and activation works in my case, that’s odd 
Correct, it was not edited. Only one in that family had no dashes in the FontName part and that one loaded. But the other did not, i think i removed the dash at one point to see if it would load
Okay i found the original folder. I downloaded this from apple dev site in 2019. I used to work on OSX and there it loads just fine. I now added this fresh folder to FontBase and see the same issue. All the fonts have a dash and wont load. So, its not what i thought, i though because one font in the family didnt have a dash in the name, all other wont load.
No this complete folder wont load, untill you remove the dash in FontForge. Which is strange because i have other fonts, which also show a dash in FontName and load just fine
PS by fontname i mean in in the Font Information window. See attached screengrabs from the menu im describing
ive attached a zip with the font folder. Makes it easier for you to test
Thank you for the detailed reply @rombout
The dash itself doesn’t seem to be an issue for FontBase, since other fonts have it in their postscriptname and they are opened/activated by the app without any issues from what I understand, and the opening/activation logic is not specific to a particular font family.
I wonder if the fonts being downloaded for dev purposes could be the culprit here?
Well i downloaded these in 2019. I remember also looking for the San Fransico font and they didnt show at the old location
But what i find weird is, when i adjust the name and remove the dash. Why does FontBase do load it. Makes really no sense to me, as where other dont seem to influenced by that dash in “FontName”.
Thank you for the update
Yes, same here, this is indeed very odd, but doesn’t seem to be associated with FontBase’s font opening process from what I’ve researched so far. Otherwise the dash issue would’ve come up in other fonts as well under the same conditions, not just in this case
Thank you again,
