1 min read 255 words Updated May 10, 2026 Created Mar 29, 2026
##homebrew##imagemagick

Updating Homebrew's ImageMagick loses fonts

A recent update of ImageMagic using Homebrew on Mac OS X led to all the fonts disappearing. Of course, this happened at a time when I was in a rush to produce something and didn't have time to sort out what the proper solution was. Doesn't it always?

Here's a quick fix:

List all the fonts that are currently installed using: magick list -font.

Assuming this list is empty, you need to find out where ImageMagick keeps its configuration files, including the list of fonts it has access to (in a file called type.xml).

The command identify list configure outputs the configuration, within which you will find a variable termed CONFIGURE_PATH which on my machine was here: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/imagemagick/7.1.2-18/etc/ImageMagick-7/. Within that directory you'll find type.xml.

  • Rename type.xml to something else e.g. typeOLD.xml.

  • Download and save this perl script from ImageMagick, and save it somewhere convenient. Make it executable using chmod +x ./perlscriptname.pl

  • Run the following command to retrieve the names and locations of all system fonts and create a type.xml file that ImageMagick can read: find /System/Library/Fonts /Library/Fonts ~/Library/Fonts -name "*.[ot]tf" | ./perlsscriptname.pl -f - > ./type.xml

Note This command is executed in the directory containing the perl script you downloaded, and generates the type.xml output file in the same location.

  • Move type.xml to the CONFIGURE_PATH directory … which for me meant typeing mv ./type.xml /opt/homebrew/Cellar/imagemagick/7.1.2-18/etc/ImageMagick-7/type.xml

List the fonts that ImageMagick can now access using magick list -font and order should be restored 😄.

#homebrew
#imagemagick