Font Management Programs

It's important to note that the font activation methods provided by your operating system are just thatfont activation, not font management. As an application launches, it takes note of all the activated fonts. Do you really need to have 500 fonts awake all the time? If you have hundreds of fonts active, you're adding to system overhead and slowing down all your applications. If you're tired of taking ten minutes to get from the As to the Hs in font listings, it's a sign that it's time to adopt some sort of font management.

Font management programs allow you to selectively activate and deactivate fonts as necessary to reduce system overhead. These programs also allow you to create custom sets of fonts, so you can easily activate all the fonts needed for a job or a particular customer with just one click.

Some of the commonly used font-management applications include Extensis Suitcase (Mac/PC), Extensis Suitcase Fusion (Mac-only as of this writing), FontReserve (Mac/PC; also owned by Extensis), FontAgent Pro from Insider Software (Mac only), and Alsoft's MasterJuggler® (Mac only). Which solution should you choose? There's no easy answer: It depends on your own tastes. These products provide approximately the same functionality, so your choice will likely depend on your fondness for a particular interface. Download a trial version of the software, give it a spin, and see if it fits with your workflow and requirements.

Note

As expected after their purchase of FontReserve, Extensis seems to be merging it with their venerable Suitcase product. As of this writing, the Macintosh-only Suitcase Fusion is the first product of that cross-breeding. Suitcase and FontReserve for Windows may have been merged into a Windows version of Suitcase Fusion by the time you read this.

Automatic Font Activation

In addition to allowing you to create and activate font sets, some font-management solutions provide the ability to automatically activate fonts as needed when document files are launched. Occasionally, autoactivation conflicts with other plug-ins in some applications. Symptoms may include minor effects such as display glitches or pauses while fonts are activated. Such glitches are rarely dangerous, but be prepared for them.

Font Conflicts

Imagine you're asked to pick up a can of BeanCo black beans at the grocery store. Sounds easy. But while the shelf tags read "Green Beans," "Lima Beans," and "Black Beans," all the BeanCo cans are labeled simply "Beans." You dare not go home empty-handed, but there's no assurance that you will find the correct can of beans.

That's how your font-management software feels when it encounters PostScript, TrueType, and Macintosh system fontsall named Helvetica. If one flavor is active, and you attempt to activate another, things get exciting, as shown in Figure 6.4.

Figure 6.4. Attempting to activate a PostScript version of Helvetica prompts an alert because the OS already has its own version of Helvetica. Fortunately, font management software (Extensis Suitcase shown here) allows you to sneak around and fix this.

To rectify this conflict, you need a third-party font management solution such as Extensis Suitcase, Suitcase Fusion, or FontAgent Pro. (These are the most frequently used programs, but there are other solutions as well.) They allow you to perform an end run around the operating system so you can manage the system fonts as you do all other fonts. It also pays to perform some font house-cleaning. Use a utility such as Morrison SoftDesign's FontDoctor™ to check for damaged and duplicate fonts. FontDoctor also organizes fonts into a sensible library to make your font life easier. You can discard TrueType versions of fonts in favor of the PostScript duplicates.

As you contemplate purchasing fonts, it's strongly recommended that you consider OpenType. While its typographic and linguistic features alone are compelling, OpenType is also a handy solution to the font-conflict dilemma. Since OpenType fonts have distinctive names, you won't have to worry about any naming conflicts.