Linotype Library released a beta version of their free font management tool, Font Explorer X. It was previewed at TypeCon in New York and is now available for testing for Mac OS X — with a Windows version in development.

You can download it at http://www.fontexplorer.net/

I tried it out this morning and I’m pretty impressed. It seems to be stable and fast. The user interface is not unlike iTunes or iPhoto, with some very cool features such as smart sets (dynamic searches in your libary). Just like iTunes, it includes an integration with Linotype’s web store, for fonts of course. But even if you don’t buy fonts from Linotype, you can use FontExplorer X to manage your fonts, and it’s free (and the final release version will also be).

Good work Linotype!

A.