Mac Mail crashes

[David]

okay, I've been jackin with this thing for about a week now.

After updating the OS and doing a security update, now my mac Mail crashes randomly.
Sometimes when I try to print an email, sometimes when I just click on it to read.

done all the good stuff:
repair permissions
repair disk
run Onyx
rebooted
run fsck
reinstalled the combo updater and security update
checked console logs (kern protection failure, whatever)
checked crash logs


need a gun now...


any ideas?


TIA,
David



PS.

here is a portion of the crash log (the only thing I can see that gives me any clue to what is going on):

Jan  9 11:45:34 lead-macs-computer /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail: can't find glyph 213.
Jan  9 11:45:34 lead-macs-computer /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail: can't find glyph 204.
Jan  9 11:45:34 lead-macs-computer /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail: can't find glyph 220.
Jan  9 11:45:35 lead-macs-computer crashdump[249]: Mail crashed

[DCurry]

Mail needs Helvetica loaded to run reliably. If you are like me, then you don't have a Helvetica loaded permanently on a production machine, right? I've found that turning customer's supplied Helveticas on and off can crash Mail or make it act up.

[David]

got the fonts all set
using FEX with the four common fonts loaded at start-up Helvetica, Zapf Dingbats, Symbol, and Times, that was my first instinct.

It almost has to be a font problem, but I can't seem to find where it's coming from.
I suspect a conflict, but I can't find one.
that's why the comment in the crash log makes me curious.
it looks like it needs a font glyph, but I got no idea what glyph 213 is (much less 204 or 220).
still digging, tho.

thanks

[Zimmy3]

In typography, a glyph is the shape given in a particular typeface to a specific grapheme or symbol.
The term for the abstract entity represented by a glyph is character: a typographical character may be a grapheme (an element of a writing system), but also a numeral, a punctuation mark, or a pictorial or decorative symbol (such as dingbats, or Unicode's "Miscellaneous Symbols").
Two or more glyphs representing the same grapheme, either interchangeably or context-dependent, are called allographs.
In graphonomics, the term glyph is used for a non-character, i.e: either a sub-character or multi-character pattern.

[David]

oh man, did a google on glyph 213:








no wonder, I need more monkey heads!

[Joe]

Well there is one monkey that frequents this place. If I were him I'd be laying low for awhile!

[Ear]

Yep, nerverackin fonts! I keep a standard set that I load for everyday crap but sometimes I shut it off and load certain client sets and mail goes bonkers. It doesn't happen every time and i haven't tried to track it down specifically but it seems to happen more when I have mostly postscript fonts open as opposed to open face. When it does happen, I finish what I am working on, kill the font set and restart my standard font set which cures it.

[David]

I think I may have fixed it.
not sure...

it appears that when I did my OS update and subsequent Security update, it managed to corrupt my Helvetica font.
got me a fresh one (from another Mac) and dropped it in, and it appears to be stable now and hasn't crashed in about a day and a half.


cross my fingers XX
knock on wood