Insider Software Releases Industry's First Automatic Preventive Font Maintenance Tool

James Fritz

Insider Software, the makers of FontAgent® Pro, announced today the immediate availability of Smasher version 1.5, its multipurpose font utility that enables creative professionals to extract optimal performance from their design applications. An industry first, Smasher 1.5 introduces automatic preventive maintenance that takes corrective action to ensure that applications avoid common garbled-text problems, and image and print documents properly. After simple setup, Smasher automatically addresses problems commonly seen in leading creative applications including Adobe Creative Suite, , QuarkXPress, Microsoft Office, and the Mac OS X operating system.
Making Fonts and Suitcases More Efficient
Smasher enables users to view all fonts in a suitcase — including legacy Mac OS 9 suitcases that may contain numerous fonts from a multitude of families and foundries — and smash the suitcases into their smallest components. Also new in this release is the ability to split font suitcases directly down to the single style level — such as Myriad Pro Bold Italic — and create style-level suitcases ready for use in Mac OS X. To smash a suitcase, users drag it into Smasher, then click the Smash button, or simply drag their desired fonts to a Mac OS X folder, and . Smasher automatically creates new, more efficient and manageable suitcases.
Using Smasher, users can:

• Use smashed fonts with any font management utility or design application
• Stop wasting system resources by activating individual fonts rather than entire suitcases
• Improve system stability and reliability by verifying basic font integrity
• Simplify font menus by creating smaller, more precise suitcases for activation
• Examine and simplify Multiple Master fonts to extract them intact from suitcases
• See individual fonts in their native typefaces
• Compare contents of multiple suitcases
• View file permissions and foundry information with a click
• Keep bitmap and printer fonts together to ensure proper printing and PDF generation
• Create Mac TrueType versions of Mac OS X dfonts for running Mac OS 9 and Classic applications

Like Antivirus Software for Fonts
“Smasher is the essential partner for every font manager, not just FontAgent Pro,” said Bob Leeds, Insider’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Fonts that were working perfectly one minute can fail the next, and Smasher’s new automated repair functionality means designers can focus on creativity and not troubleshooting. It’s like having anti-virus protection for your fonts,” he added.
Pricing and Availability
Smasher retails for $49.95 and is available immediately from Insider Software and resellers worldwide. Smasher requires a Macintosh computer running Mac OS 10.3 or later, 7 megabytes of RAM and 5 megabytes of storage space.
Smasher will be on display this week at Insider’s booth S-2518 at Macworld Expo 2007 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
About Insider Software
Insider Software is known for its products that streamline the creative process, including FontAgent Pro, the award-winning font management application for Mac OS X systems.