Mac OS 10.5.3 Released!

Apple has released the 10.5.3 update for Leopard today, bringing the usual round of bug and security fixes that come in point updates as well as a few other goodies.

Some highlights, as I read the update document:

• Airport: Improves 802.1X behavior and reliability.
• Airport: Improves reliability when using Time Capsule.
• Time Machine: Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2.
• Time Machine: Addresses reliability issues when performing a full restore from a Time Machine backup.
• Time Machine: Updates Time Machine to reliably restore attachments and messages in Mail.

All those things are well and good, but the fix I'm really excited about is this:

Fixes a font issue that could result in Helvetica Narrow being used in applications instead of Helvetica.

You have no idea how much this issue has bothered me ever since I installed Leopard on my working Mac. It drove me nuts, seeking old font folders on previous Macs and even Windows computer drives to make sure I had correct Helvetica font files. All of this to no avail. Helvetica still looked wrong and narrow, and with its prevalence on web pages, it was more than annoyance; to someone who grew up proofing prepress negatives it was downright torture.

Thank the gods this issue has been fixed!

The update, available through Software Update as usual, comes in at nearly 200MB on my Intel Mac from 10.5.2, so it's got some heft to it and probably includes a good number of unmentioned fixes.

Happy downloading!