Font Explorer X by Linotype without a doubt, plus it’s free.

FEX is getting good reviews, but I’m still pleased as punch with FontAgent Pro.

A small selection:
http://www.typophile.com/node/18539
http://www.typophile.com/node/18363
http://www.typophile.com/node/17157
http://www.typophile.com/node/17089
http://www.typophile.com/node/15434
http://www.typophile.com/node/14702
http://www.typophile.com/node/12867
http://www.typophile.com/node/8647
http://www.typophile.com/node/5563

What do you think about Suitcase?

I should rephrase mine to say that ’For a free font management app, FEX seems to get the best reviews and I have 0 problems with it’

I agree with David Bailey — FEX can’t be beat for the price! I was previously using FontReserve and hated it — it constantly choked. I haven’t had a single problem with FontExplorerX.

FEX is superior, regardless of the price. It easily beasts the pants off every other option. Its features, usability, speed and stability are far better than the rivals. What’s more, it just feels right, as if Apple had written it.

What do I think of suitcase?
I think I’d rather go back to the letterpress than use that pitifully ported piece of junk.

Suitcase Fusion has plug-ins that bypass the Mac OS font system and talk directy to the application. Fusion also uses FontSense IDs, basically checksums generated from the font files themselves. For that reason, it is able to distinguish between two fonts of the same name during auto-activation. Other font managers tend to work off PostScript name only.

I tend to think that some Mac OS system font cache issues are related to activating an de-activating different font files of the same name. This may be why FEX has a feature for clearing font caches.

I don’t like any of them but am settling between Suitcase and FEX. Still up in the air.

I tried the FAP demo and didn’t like it one bit. Constant problems after reading nothing but good things about it.

FEX has been good to me but I don’t like getting prompted to go to the store all the time. Plus it does not have any font checking feature that I’m aware of.

Suitcase is - suitcase. But I’ve had far fewer problems with it than FAP.

Font management in OSX is painful.

peace

Font management in OSX is painful.

I agree. However, this is partly because Mac OS X is the most feature-rich operating system ever in terms of typographic functionality. It supports more font formats than any other platform. Windows doesn’t have any way of isolating font activation per user. Windows also doesn’t have any system-wide API that would make auto-activation possible, and I don’t think Vista is going to be adding it. While these features were present in OS 9 to some extent, the way they were implemented meant that there was a much greater danger of system instability. Also System 9, for practical purposes, never provided much language support.

This comment, of course, is from the perspective someone using a Latin-based language with an interest in graphic design. John Hudson would be quick to point out that Windows wins in terms of support for complex scripts such as Arabic.

@ Paul; you can turn off the store prompts. I have mine set so it doesn’t. And what kind of font checking are you looking for exactly?

That being said I use FEX, it’s the best I’ve had out of all OS X font managers. I’ve use Suitcase, FAP, and Font Reserve. I’d never go back to any of those; especially Suitcase and Font Reserve. I love FontExplorerX, it does everything I want and is fast and the plug-ins work like magic.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve downloaded and launched Font Explorer and am playing with it now. Seems to have most of the features I’m looking for and I like that the interface is compatible with OS X. I particularly like their character map. It’s designed SO much better than Fontbook!

quote - It supports more font formats than any other platform.

My problem is twofold:
All the obscure places that fonts are stored.
It’s far more unstable than OS9 ever was from a font management perspective.

My need is reliability, not compatibility.

ATM Deluxe worked like a charm comparatively. I never had to think about it.

===================

Thanks for the tip on the store prompts in FEX, I’ve just started evaluating it for my production environment. Other than that it seems pretty seamless, but I’m just using it at home and not in a heavy production environment.

Is anyone here using it in that way? What are your thoughts?

peace

I’m with Paul - tired of trying to track down all the different places the fonts are stored so I can delete all those Asian fonts I’ll never use. They keep turning up.

Every application seems to think they’re doing us a big favor by installing their select group of fonts in the appropriate Application Support folder. Thanks, but no thanks.

It’s a mess, and everyone who has to deal with production style font management knows it…

peace

@ Paul, my solution is to turn off the optional fonts in the System Fonts folder and let OS X just use the locked fonts. You can delete those directly off the computer but I keep them there, they are mostly all at the bottom of the font list in programs anyhow.

I don’t know how you set your fonts up but I create folders for the Foundries and place the respective fonts inside, and you can create sets inside there as well or on their own. That way I never deal with having all fonts in the same massive folder. I use FEX at home, and used to work out of my house. I recently moved to a studio and use it here as well, I love it. The only time it’s gone funky on me was when I tried to preview a corrupt font. Other than that activation and management has been instantaneous between programs.

Also, on my HD I created a font folder where I keep my fonts and organize my own fonts and have the preference set so FEX does not copy or move anything for me.

I did the same - left my fonts in their own font folder - but for whatever reason they seem to have copied themselves into my Library folder as well. Does anybody know why OS X does this?

jselig - Almost the same method here, with one difference. I have my large font library and then I have an “active” font library of copies that is smaller. I only activate fonts if they are in the “active” library. The way fonts get corrupted is often when a crash happens when they are active. This way you protect your main library.

But you’ve gotta admit it’s a little ridiculous. Every time you install something it places fonts wherever and then you have to track them down. I’ve got it really stripped down and it’s working, but I don’t think it’s very elegant.

pattyfab - Which Library folder are you talking about and which font manager are you using?

peace

pattyfab: Most font managers will only move fonts to your library if you have the preferences set to do so; I believe both Suitcase, FAP, and FEX give you the option not to move fonts around if you don’t want to.

Paul: Interesting, I’ve never heard of that method before. It would certainly be easy to set up though.

It’s very easy to set up and it works.

peace

I’m going to deal with the FEX font folder in my OSX library or in my left shoe. The interface is delightful and the price is right. It promises robustness playing around here on my home setup, i’m throwing it into the production environment tomorrow. Suitcase Fusion is making me ill.

I miss ATM.

Apparently FEX will not manage the fonts if it cannot move or copy them. Hence the question: does the pogram auto-activate without being able to manage?

tia

I have put FEX in place as my production font manager and am delighted with it. Less problems than ever before. I will now hold my breath…

peace

I love my Font Explorer X from Linotype; however, it is loading during my computers start up and causes my cpu to start slower. It also causes strange ghosts of letters on my mac when I erase letters that are typed in things like this comment box or an email. I followed the Apple techs directions to try to help my computer start faster. He helped me get the program off off my computers background. Then, I went into a illustrator file and (shock) the type was @#^$%. I had to go into the program and turn on all the types again. After that my computer started up slow like it did before because the program is on my background again.

Does anyone know a way to fix this? I despise my apple font book that takes 45 minutes to open and has the previously mentioned problems. The FEX is great. I love the way it is organized. I have had no problems other that what I have mentioned. I am pretty sure this is something I did. I had followed directions the best I knew how.

I don’t think it’s FontExplorer X or something you did. It sounds more like corrupt fonts. One thing I wish was in the Linotype program is something like Font Doctor that verifies the font file is fine.

Does this happen with only certain fonts?

peace

One thing I wish was in the Linotype program is something like Font Doctor that verifies the font file is fine.

This is not in FEX as an issue of “politeness,” for a lack of a better term… ;-)

Linotype’s EULA forbids the modification of fonts. Font Doctor modifies fonts.

Linotype also offers a free lifetime download guarantee on all of our fonts… if your font file becomes corrupted, you can just log-in to to your account and download it again. You will be able to do this for non-Linotype fonts bought via the FEX store as well.

Since Linotype’s EULA doesn’t allow Font Doctoring, we didn’t put this feature in FEX. We don’t want to mess around inside other foundries’ fonts, just like we wouldn’t want them doing the same to ours.

Hey Dan. I’m glad you brought up the EULA. Can you help us understand why Font Doctor’s operations, or any “font fixing” is threatening to Linotype? It is not as if the font is being renamed and sold or given away. In my experience, any action that inconveniences a customer usually has more disadvantages than protectionism.

What do you mean by “messing around”? Maybe I am missing the worst that can happen.

I think FEX is a remarkable achievement, btw. We’re all better off because of it.

BEWARE: rant ahead...

I know I shouldn’t hijack this thread, but these modification rules drive me crazy!

Look at FontFont’s EULA. It doesn’t allow modification:
“2.6. You may not modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, alter, or attempt to discover the source code of the Font Software. If you want to make modifications to the Font Software, you must obtain the prior written consent of FSI.”

So, if I want to run FontDoctor on a FF font, I need to get a letter! (And of course, there’s no assurance I _will_ get one.)

I’m really not sure what these no-mod rules are for. I’ve been told that allowing mods increases tech support difficulties, but I wonder, is Adobe flooded with tech calls for font mods? Was Linotype, when their MyFonts EULA allowed mods? It seems that most people who actually read and abide by EULAs would be able to understand a clause indicating that modifications would not be eligible for support.

These clauses offend a foundry’s most fastidious customers, customers who actually care about type, while leaving the uninterested unaffected! What a strange business approach: we only want customers who aren’t interested in our product. I certainly won’t buy font from outfits with that attitude.

By way of contrast, look at Village’s EULA:
“You may modify the fonts for your own purposes, but the copyright remains with Village, and the number of computers covered by the license remains the same. You may not commission a third party to modify the fonts without first gaining permission from Village. You may not sell or give away modified versions of the fonts.”

That seems to cover it in a fair way.

So if I run a Linotype font through Font Doctor I am in violation of the EULA? Wow.

Not that I would ever do that… :)

Must admit I just don’t understand a EULA like that.

peace

FEX is getting good reviews, but I’m still pleased as punch with FontAgent Pro.

I agree with you, Stephen. FontAgent Pro is really impressive.

Stephen, “Font Fixing” is still modification of font data, which is not permitted in our current EULA.

Besides, if our customers have a problem with one of their fonts, we would prefer that they come to us with the problem, rather than relying on external solutions that may or may not work. As I mentioned above, we allow customers to re-download their purchased fonts whenever necessary, so even if a font file goes corrupt, they still have access to back-ups, no matter what.

There are several things that can go wrong with traditional Mac fonts that simply don’t occur with later (data fork only) font formats. Some of these things occurred because of the way fonts worked under Mac OS 9 and before. For example, under Mac OS 9, the Finder would actually open fonts in a read/write mode and change font IDs if necessary. The Finder could modify fonts! (This cannot occur in OS X)Also, modification of font suitcases was an accepted practice under OS 9 and before. There is a lot of junk out there.

In these cases, the ’modification’ by Font Doctor isn’t related to outline shapes, hinting, kerning or other design aspects of the typeface. Typically the fixes are simply repairs to the structure of the font suitcase. In my experience, if table data is bad, FontDoctor lists it as irreperable.

In some cases font vendors may not be as forthcoming with replacements as Linotype seems to be. Many older vendors have disappeared. Font vendors depend upon selling fonts, and also re-selling the same fonts later. I don’t think it is reasonable to expect Linotype to help peoeple use fonts they already have.