Reviews: Font Manager Face-Off

Macs and Font Managers
Although font management is equally important on Windows and Mac, there’s a lot more to consider on the Mac side.
Not only does Mac OS X have three system-based font folders, but there’s also a lot more to troubleshoot, including problem legacy fonts (used in Mac OS 9 and earlier versions of the system software), empty suitcases, loose fonts that have escaped from a suitcase, and a font cache you should empty periodically to keep things running smoothly.
Font managers free you from some of this OS X complexity. They let you store fonts anywhere on your system, and activating and deactivating fonts (making them available or unavailable in application font menus) is a breeze. There’s no need to hunt down fonts and move them in or out of system folders: Just click a button in the application’s interface to turn a font on or off. To make things even easier, auto-activation can turn on all of the fonts used in your InDesign and Illustrator documents as you open them.
Ratings Key
1 – Not worth it even if it’s free
2 – Not recommended
3 – Average
4 – Exceptionally good
5 – A must-have

Suitcase Fusion 12.1.3
Extensis
www.extensis.com
$99.95/Upgrade $49.95
Mac OS X 10.3.0 or higher (PowerPC); Mac OS X 10.4.4 or higher (Intel)
Rating: 4.5
With Suitcase Fusion, Extensis has combined its venerable Suitcase application with some of the better features from Font Reserve (formerly by DiamondSoft). The result is a powerful font manager with reliable global auto-activation in CS2 and CS3, the option to copy fonts into a secure database, a thorough search engine, and some unique activation features. It’s the best choice for most Mac creative professionals.
Suitcase Fusion lets you add fonts temporarily, without adding them to either the secure database (called the Vault) or your managed database (Figure 12). This lets you manage fonts until the system is restarted. It can be a useful feature for production artists continuously outputting a lot of files.

Figure 12. The “T” to the left of font names indicates that they’ve been added to the database only temporarily. Click on the image for a larger version.
Rather than clutter up your font library with fonts that could potentially cause duplicate problems, you could instead add them temporarily by dragging a suitcase or a folder of fonts over the Suitcase icon in the Dock. You can remove them by restarting your system, or by choosing the Remove Temporary Fonts command under the Edit menu.
You can also create application-based sets in Suitcase Fusion. It automatically activates these font collections when you launch a particular application, including InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. You can nest application sets within other sets.
The quickest way to find a font using Suitcase Fusion’s search engine is to enter its name in the QuickFind field. You’ll see the search results in the Font View panel.
You can also apply the Find Fonts command to search the database using a dialog box. The Find dialog box lets you search for fonts by specific criteria, such as foundry, style, type, classification, version, and even keywords.
Using the Attributes panel (Figure 13), you can add keywords to fonts and filter which fonts display in the Font View list. Filters include foundry, classification, and style, but unfortunately not type.

Figure 13. The Attributes panel in Suitcase Fusion.
The easiest way to collect fonts in Suitcase Fusion to send to a printer or other members of a production team is to select them from the Font View list or Sets panel, then drag them to your desktop or any other location on our system. Suitcase Fusion will create a Collected Fonts folder.
The powerful Font Doctor troubleshooting software comes with Suitcase Fusion. Font Doctor is a separate application that lets you diagnose, repair, organize, and archive fonts, as well as empty the OS X system font cache. I highly recommend using Font Doctor to clean out your font library before importing fonts into Suitcase Fusion.
FontAgent Pro 3.3
Insider Software
www.insidersoftware.com
Standard $99.95/Workgroup $129.95
Mac OS X 10.3 and higher/10.3.9 or higher recommended
Rating: 4
FontAgent Pro 3 (FAP) is an excellent font manager that can help you maintain an organized, trouble-free font library.
Its advantages include reliable global auto-activation (including Adobe CS3 applications), unique preview options, and the ability to apply a diagnostic check every time you import or activate a font.
The disadvantages are that it doesn’t create a secure database, nor can it manage fonts anywhere on your system — all fonts must be moved into a FAP-created library. It also can’t automatically find and move fonts installed by the Adobe Creative Suite; you must move them manually into the FAP library from their default install location (LibraryApplication SupportAdobeFonts).
FontAgent Pro comes with an easy-to-use setup assistant that walks you through the process of choosing a location for your managed font library, setting basic FAP preferences, and importing fonts. To get the most out of FAP, enable the auto-activation and multiple libraries preferences before importing.
FAP is one of the few font managers that let you create multiple libraries. You can create separate collections based on job type (book fonts, brochure fonts, headline fonts), font type (script fonts, dingbats, sans-serif), or even by client name. Each library can be organized and managed differently depending on how you use your fonts.
You can view fonts in libraries and sets in FAP’s left or above-right panels, or both (Figure 14). It can display fonts by set or by library, or you can display all fonts at once. You also have the option to view the font lists by name or grouped by family using small, medium, or large WYSIWYG preview.

Figure 14. There are several places to view fonts in FontAgent Pro. Click on the image for a larger version.
The Font Player and Font Compare preview options are the same as the Windows version of FAP. The only difference is that in the Mac version, you can also activate selected fonts from within the preview panel.
FAP always runs a diagnostic check on all fonts before importing them (Figure 15). There are two key analysis options in the Setup Assistant import dialog box that you should always enable before importing: Check Font Metrics to Determine Exact Duplicates, and Do Not Import Incomplete Postscript Fonts. The alternative is a lot of unnecessary font problems and frustration.

Figure 15. The FontAgent Pro Setup Assistant.
Once your fonts are imported, you can run a verification check on the entire library at any time by choosing Tools> Verify Fonts. A useful troubleshooting preference allows FAP to verify fonts before activating them (recommended).
The one troubleshooting feature FAP is missing is the ability to empty the OS X system font cache. For this, Insider Software urges you to buy its $49.95 Smasher app. Unless you’re faced with a lot of legacy suitcase problems, which Smasher was specifically designed to fix, it’s not worth the expense. Note that Suitcase Fusion and Linotype’s Font Explorer come with this feature as part of the package.
The workgroup edition of FontAgent Pro ($129.95) lets you share fonts over a network without setting up a dedicated server. This peer-to-peer sharing setup is based on Apple’s Rendezvous when multiple users are working on the same network. With the FAP Workgroup edition, you don’t need a server configuration or administration to share fonts with other members of your design or production team.
FontExplorer X Mac 1.1.2
Linotype
Free
www.linotype.com
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
Rating: 4
If cost is your primary concern, I recommend Linotype’s Font Explorer X. It works well, is easy to use, and best of all, it’s free. Font Explorer X (FEX) has auto-activation plug-ins for InDesign and Illustrator CS and CS2. (Hopefully, Linotype will soon add plug-ins for CS3, as well). The application also includes good font export and a command for cleaning the system and application font caches.
FEX’s Setup Assistant helps you choose a location for your managed font directory and import fonts. It also gives you the option to either copy or move fonts into the directory. I recommend copying because you can use the originals as a backup if the FEX directory is deleted from your system.
The Setup Assistant can locate the OS X system font folders automatically, including the Adobe fonts folder (LibraryApplication SupportAdobeFonts). You can also drag additional font folders into the import startup window, or click the + button to find them via a separate dialog box.
You can install the auto-activation plug-ins during set-up, or at any time afterwards using the plug-in manager (Figure 16).

Figure 16. FontExplorer X’s Plug-In Manager. Click on the image for a larger version.
Fonts that are removed from the database are not removed from the managed folder. To remove the fonts from the folder, you must choose the Clean Manage folder option under the Tools menu.
All other activation features work the same as those found in the PC version of FEX.
The preview options in FEX for the Mac are the same as the PC version. There are custom text and foreign language preview options, as well as the option to hide and show the preview panel.
FEX performs an automatic check on new fonts imported into the database. You can also optimize the entire database at any time by going to Tools> Optimize Database.
Unique to the Mac version of FEX is the ability to clean system font folders. Applying this command allows the software to remove any fonts not installed by OS X from the three main system font folders. FEX places all removed fonts in a folder on the desktop. The option to clean the Manage folder (a.k.a. the directory) transfers all fonts that were removed from the database (but not from the folder) to the trash.
FEX has separate commands for cleaning the system and application font caches to help keep things running smoothly on your system. FEX prompts you to empty the cache during setup and when cleaning system folders.
Several export preferences in FEX let you compile fonts into a zip archive, a disk image, or simply copy the fonts without compressing them. The zip and dmg options result in much smaller files, so you can send large collections of fonts as email attachments.
Font Book 2
Apple
www.apple.com
Free
Mac OS X 10.4
Rating: 2
Apple’s Font Book 2 comes with Mac OS X Tiger, and its interface is reminiscent of other built-in OS X apps, such as iTunes and iPhoto. Font Book may at first seem suitable for creative pros, but it simply doesn’t have the right features.
The largest setback is its lack of built-in auto-activation. The only way to incorporate auto-activation into Font Book is to create a script using Apple’s Automator application — and who has time for that?
Except for fonts required by the system, Font Book can manage all fonts in the User library, Library, System X, and Classic fonts folders. The app automatically activates every font you import into it, and there’s no preference to change this. To make font management less taxing on your system, you must first manually deactivate all of the installed fonts, then activate just the ones you’d like to use. Again, that’s way too much time.
On the upside, you can create multiple user libraries anywhere on your system. Font Book checks these libraries first when handling duplicate fonts, ensuring that duplicate system fonts don’t override common fonts, such as Helvetica and Times. You can identify a specific font’s location on your system by selecting it from the Font panel and choosing Get Info (Cmd+I). Doing so replaces the display in the preview panel with a list of font information, including location.
Font Book displays activated fonts in black, while deactivated fonts are gray, with the word “off” next to each one. When you deactivate a font, Font Book displays a deactivation warning dialog box. If you don’t check the Do Not Ask Me Again option, you’ll be faced with the warning every time you disable a font.
Unfortunately, Font Book can’t preview multiple selected fonts and compare them side-by-side in the preview panel. However, if you set the Size option to Fit when previewing a font, the size of the preview text changes automatically as you resize the font Book Window or any of its panels. This interactivity also applies to the scroll button on the right. Dragging the slider up increases the size of the preview text; dragging down decreases it.
The Custom preview option lets you type directly in the preview panel. The Preview> Repertoire option displays all available glyph characters for the selected font but doesn’t indicate the corresponding keystroke.
Whether or not you use Font Book, double-clicking a font suitcase lets you preview the font’s full character set before installing it. If you are using Font Book, you can install the font directly from the preview window by clicking the Install Font button (Figure 17).

Figure 17. You can install a font from the OS X preview window.
Font Book automatically runs a validation check on all fonts imported into the database; you can also run a check at any time by selecting the fonts from the Fonts panel and choosing File> Validate Font. Font Book displays a separate dialog box with validation check results.
The Resolve Duplicates command works well but is very confusing. Since all fonts are listed by family, those containing duplicates are labeled with a black dot. To see which fonts are duplicates, you must toggle the triangle next to the family name and view the individual fonts. Black dots next to the individual font names indicate disabled duplicates. Font Book automatically activates all fonts imported into the database but only activates one duplicate at a time. When dealing with duplicates, the software uses a specific order to decide what gets activated and what doesn’t. First it checks all custom user libraries, then the UserLibraryFonts folder, then LibraryFonts, then System XLibraryFonts, then the classic System FolderFonts folder (if you’re running Classic on your system). When you apply the Resolve Duplicates command, Font Book activates the first of the duplicate fonts that it finds using this hierarchy. You can override this by selecting the disabled duplicate and clicking the enable button. When overriding Font Book’s duplicate choices for activation, always use Get Info to identify duplicates’ type and location.
There aren’t many other features included with Font Book (there isn’t even a printing option); however, it does have a nice font export feature. Simply select the fonts you’d like to copy and choose File> Export Fonts. You can name the folder and browse to a system location to save to using the resulting Save dialog box.
The Final Word
There are a lot of things to consider when selecting a font manager. My ratings are based on research and experience, but your workflow may be different enough that it has special needs my top-rated font managers can’t meet. If that’s the case, I recommend that you download a trial of the app you’re eyeing to try it out before you make a final purchase. All 30-day trials are free for the downloading.
Return to page 1 of “Reviews: Font Manager Face-Off.”
 
 


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  • anonymous says:

    You missed the better options for organizing fonts for a Windows machine. Neuber software’s Typograf, Proxima’s FontExpert, and High-Logic’s Main Type all offer font management options at a reasonable price.

    Linotype’s Explorer program caused a major computer meltdown on my XP Pro machine that I almost didn’t recover from.

    I use Typograf. It has an ugly interface but the features are outstanding and make my workflow much smoother.

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  • Cornan says:

    FontAgent Pro is still a beta almost one year after this review and I’ve experienced a number of programming glitches, from the program not accepting the location I provided for the library to inconsistent background colors and truncated text in a text box to the program rejecting all of my Adobe PS1 fonts as corrupt. I would also not like it that FEP insists on making (redundant / duplicate = bad) copies of all of my fonts, that is if it accepted them in the first place! I’m really just looking for an ATM replacement and though it might improve, FEP is not an ATM replacement at this time.

    I was inclined to try Font Explorer X due to my respect for Linotype, but that program is no longer available as either a beta or a released version, though apparently the released version is due “soon”.

  • stuf says:

    Was looking into switching over to Font Explorer, but after seeing that they’re going to start charging for it, I think that I’ll just stick with Suitcase. I’ve invested enough time creating all of my font sets in Suitcase, and sticking with Suitcase I’ll be able to retain all of that work.

  • Cristiano says:

    Extensis purchased Font Reserve from DiamondSoft a few years back, Extensis merged its own Suitcase dizi izle application with some of the better features from Font Reserve, creating Suitcase Fusion for Mac OS X. Unfortunately, a Fusion version of Suitcase hasn’t yet emerged for Windows; however, you can separately kiralık tekne purchase the older apps

  • Anonymous says:

    If cost is your primary concern, I recommend Linotype’s Font Explorer X. It works well, is easy to use, and best of all, it’s free. Font Explorer X (FEX) has auto-activation plug-ins for InDesign and Illustrator CS and CS2. (Hopefully, Linotype will soon add plug-ins for CS3, as well). The application also includes good font export and a command for cleaning the system and application font caches. by Chat for Sohbet

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  • Anonymous says:

    I’ve invested enough time creating all of my font sets in Suitcase, and sticking with Suitcase I’ll be able to retain all of that work.

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  • Anonymous says:

    I have been a loyal user of a program called Suitcase from the very beginning up until 3 weeks ago. I like others here had the same problem with CS5 hanging up with the dreaded spinning hour glass.

    I can not tell you who is to blame but I do know one thing FontAgent Pro WORKS!!!!! just as they promised. I am a font freak and I run a ton of fonts and that is no lie, I have at this very moment 30,000 fonts installed, as a graphic designer I feel the font is just as important as the design they all need to look perfect together, so I need a dependable program managing all of them. I can promise you if you are in need of such a program FontAgent Pro is the way to go.

    I don’t know about you but time is money and sitting and watching your programs held hostage is frustrating. If anything try the trial you will not go wrong and I will bet after you see how well FontAgent Pro works you will buy it for sure. How can you not want harmony this is a no brainier. 5 out of 5 adds up to value both time and peace of mind.

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