I hoard. But the essence for me is setting up sets in FontExplorer X so that if I want to browse I don’t need to go thru my entire library every time.

A font is a terrible thing to waste :-)

ChrisL

Like pattyfab, I use FontExplorer X, and it’s really easy to manage by just categorizing the entire library once. Right now, I’d prefer to buy small, essential families then work my way up by selecting high quality type from other foundries; however, at the time, I went ahead and purchased the Adobe Type Collection. Though expensive and it has some junk, I should be fortunate to have many high-quality families and the best well-known classics (though often overused) to choose from. In the end, though, I’d still rather pick and choose type from other foundries because there’s some amazing typefaces out there. Ah well.

I go through this all the time, but not only for fonts. My natural instinct is toward hoarding, it runs in the genetic line.

But my esthetic and philosophical leanings sway toward a yearning for Zen-like simplicity.

To quote Edward Tufte:

“What can be done with fewer is done in vain with more.”

I like to keep my font collection at less than 1000 typefaces, so if I purchase a new family I “retire” old fonts by archiving them in a fonts folder.

> some of which aren’t exactly of the highest calibur, but I can’t bring myself to prune them.

Are you hoping to do work of the highest calibre? If so, then prune out the weeds from your font list. You can’t do good work with bad tools.

Since the dawn of DTP there seems to be a competitiveness about font acquisition. It’s like a contest, where the guy with the most fonts wins. The free and warez font sites seem to feed that.

I’d rather have 100 good quality fonts than 5000 poor quality ones. Over 95% of the free fonts are . Now, if you paid reasonable money for fonts, you should never completely eliminate them. Archive them to a CD if they have gotten old and tired, as some have, but be ready to spring them back to life when you get the project that will be perfect for that particular look.

Prune! I do this mainly with Font Explorer as well, but I’ve trashed a few fonts as well.

But more importantly, stop before you download and think “is this really going to give me something I don’t already have or have in a better form?” I do this, in part, by avoiding free font dumping sites and sticking to foundries and designers who also make commercial type.

I’d rather have 100 good quality fonts than 5000 poor quality ones.

Even though I am by nature a packrat (books, records, magazines... etc.), I am with Don on this one.

I have a complete font library and a working font library. The second is “pruned”. But I never know when I might need something so I keep a complete one on my hard drive too.

I only add to my font manager out of my working font library. If I need one of the fonts in my main library I dupe it into the working one first.

I don’t like FontExplorer to manage my fonts so that also doesn’t let programs crash with activated fonts out of my main library, the primary reason that fonts get corrupted.

pbc

I started out with just two typefaces (purchased ones, that is, not the freebies that came with the computer operating system): Garamond and Myriad. Then I added gradually: workhorse text fonts that I use all the time, project-specific fonts (usually display fonts) that are archived and might never be used again, and beautiful typefaces that I didn’t really need but couldn’t resist buying because they happened to be on sale you never know, they might be perfect for a project one day.

I don’t use a font manager. I manually add/remove fonts from the active font folder as necessary. Generally have only a couple of dozen fonts active, mostly text fonts (as my job is typesetting books).

I have pruned the odd font that proved disappointing. Although I try to buy only from reputable foundries, I’ve been burned a couple of times with supposedly pro-quality fonts that were badly kerned or, as I’ve discovered now that I purhased Typetool, have outlines that resemble bad autotraces that were never cleaned up. Of course I steer clear of those folks now.

I don’t think I could ever have too many typefaces.

As someone who mainly plays with free fonts, there is a point where I draw the line.

If I try and put it on a vector curve and it goes awry (what’s up with that?), out it goes.

I don’t mind some kerning, because I rarely have more than a few lines in my stuff. Someday when I get one of those round tuits, I will go back and check some of the old fontplays for bad letter spacing. I wasn’t very aware of that kind of thing for a long time.

And after I use them a few times, out they go. I can always get them again if necessary.

But if I was a pro designer, I doubt I would put up with much grief. Life is too short. And if you have a deadline, what price can you put on headaches?

And with a couple timely purchases (for very little money), I have enough good fonts to design up a storm, if I had a clue about what I was doing.

But I’d definitely keep an eye out for sales, like that half-price sale one of the designers was doing last week. I have a bit of bargain hunter in me, that thrills in an extra good deal.
; )

> I don’t think I could ever have too many typefaces.

Agreed, if you change it to: I don’t think I could ever have too many good typefaces.

Right: I don’t think I could ever have too many GOOD typefaces. Good design and good digitalization together.

I don’t feel the dilemma at all. FontExplorer means I can hoard masses of fonts (If there were great quantities of good fonts that I want), while keeping the few I’m using activated, so my font menu is trim. Other font management tools do similar things, so I don’t think anyone has to make this choice unless your total hard drive space is a few measly gigs.