🚀 go-pugleaf

FontAgent Pro is the best.

Thanks for the reply.

Since I'll be buying from new with no special offer or upgrade price, what makes it better than FontExplorer or Suitcase? The web site doesn't appear to indicate any compelling features over the competition.

This is why I'm asking for recommendations. Why did you choose FontAgent Pro?

Product reviews, users who hang around the Adobe Forums. But don't take my word for it -- download the demos for each and take 'em out for a drive if you wish. Just don't keep more than one active on your machine at a time. This includes Apple's Font Book.

Neil

Thanks!

I'm careful with my fonts, so don't have any damaged or dodgy ones. As far as I can see all these management utilities offer the same functions with slight differences.

One thing that irritates me somewhat about OSX font handling is the fact that some of my old PostScript fonts have screen fonts with no corresponding printer font - a situation that both FontExplorer X and Suitcase X1 were unhappy about.

I'm sure I read somewhere in the early days of OSX that PostScript fonts would no longer need the screen font suitcases to be recognised, but this certainly isn't the case with FontExplorer X. Also it doesn't seem to be possible to edit the screen font suitcases either directly in the Finder like you could under OS9 or via FontExplorer, so any font management utility that would allow me to remove screen fonts that don't have a matching printer font would go to the top of my list!

      Why did you choose FontAgent Pro?




It does not screw up InDesign like suitcase. Font Explorer was OK when it was free, but the best Is FontAgent Pro.

The, 

      so any font management utility that would allow me to remove screen fonts
      that don't have a matching printer font would go to the top of my list!




FontAgent Pro would recognize them as damage fonts, and notify you.

Neil

The, 

      so any font management utility that would allow me to remove screen fonts
      that don't have a matching printer font would go to the top of my list!




FontAgent Pro would recognize them as damage fonts, and notifies you.

Neil

But can it "fix" them by either removing the orphaned screen fonts (something that was easy to do under OS9 but seems to beyond the capabilities of OSX) or at least making them invisible to ALL applications once the rest of the suitcase has been activated.

The,

Yes.

Neil

Artworker, I've always liked Suitcase, but I absolutely love Suitcase Fusion (though I have not yet upgraded to SF2). I have no experience with FontExplorer or FontAgent Pro.

Yes, you still need both the screen fonts and the printer (outline) fonts for PostScript fonts to work properly. TrueType fonts and the newer Adobe OpenType fonts are the ones that consist of single files. OpenType fonts have many wonderful attributes including complete cross platform compatibility with Windows and MacOS, and the availability of many more glyphs per font than traditional PostScript fonts.

Yes, Suitcase Fusion will let you see and/or edit the contents of font suitcases within the application, though not within the Finder.

Yes, Suitcase Fusion (or more precisely, FontDoctor, which is included with Suitcase Fusion) will identify missing PS screen or printer fonts, as well as reunite them if they are present on your system but in different locations. FontDoctor will also purge font caches, which can become corrupt, sometimes causing font rendering problems or failure of certain applications to see active fonts. (By the way, font cache corruption should not be confused with the garbled text you might sometimes see in Apple applications such as Mail and Safari. This is typically caused by Helvetica PostScript being active. Turn it off, or better yet, remove it, restart your application, and the problem will be resolved.) Use Apple's Helvetica.dfont or, better yet, Adobe's Helvetica OpenType instead, or just load Helvetica Postscript as a temporary font in Suitcase whenever you need it.

Suitcase Fusion also uses a technology that Extensis calls FontSense, which precisely identifies fonts, even those with the same name, to ensure that only the exact font called for is activated.

Suitcase Fusion will give your font library an extra measure of protection from corruption by storing it in its own font cache called the Suitcase Vault.

Suitcase Fusion will manage your System fonts, ensuring that they remain available to the system as needed, but allowing the preferred PostScript or OpenType versions to take priority over Apple's OSX TrueType dfonts.

Extensis cares enough to detail the best practices in font management by regularly updating their free PDF publication, Best Practices for Managing Fonts in Mac OS X, available at <http://www.extensis.com/en/downloads/document_download.jsp?docId=5600039>.

And no, I do not work for Extensis. Rather, I manage and troubleshoot font issues as part of my job, and have never been disappointed with Suitcase Fusion.

I would also agree with Neil's suggestion to download trial versions of various font managers for testing. Best of luck to you in your search for the best font manager for your needs.

Thanks for everyones advice.

Since my fonts are all well organised in comparison with what I see on a lot of other users Macs when I go and work for them, my needs are somewhat different, and a lot of the management features won't be relevant to me. It looks as though the only way for me find out what works best for me is to try them all.

I'm making a complete backup of my MacBook Pro now so I can revert to a clean state should any of these utilities mess my (or the Mac's) font organisation up beyond easy repair.

Would anyone here find it useful if I was to report back with my findings - bearing in mind that I'll be focusing on only a small subset of all the features that these management utilities provide?

      OpenType fonts have many wonderful attributes including complete cross
      platform compatibility with Windows and MacOS, and the availability of
      many more glyphs per font than traditional PostScript fonts.




In general, yes. But not every font has extra glyphs. Some have no more than the older Type 1 fonts they replace. Also, for extended multilingual support, look at "Pro" rather than "Std" font versions.

Neil

Keep in mind of all the problems caused by a font manger most of them stem from Suitcase. This is my observation. FontAgent Pro is much more friendly.

do your self a favor download the demos and see which one you like the best.

Thanks.

I'll start with FontAgent Pro then and seen if it meets my requirements before moving on to the alternatives.

I have used both of these products extensively and own licenses for both. I will say that the Font Explorer free version is the only one that I've not banged my head on the desk over either due to it's total invasion deep into the OS (and causing all kinds of errors) or the complete evisceration of a once-clean font set (thank you, Suitcase!)

FAP was an okay product. But customer service when I did use it (it was a couple of years back) and support SUCKED. I would not hear back from them for days. DAYS.

Suitcase Fusion was better at support and had a much more robust knowledgebase, but I fear it was because so many people had gone from a clean set of fonts to a bruised and battered and unusable set after using it.

I will qualify that it's likely both products have improved since I had them on my machine. But I'm so scared to try them again I'm sticking with FontExplorer. I have not used the PRO version yet, but the free version works well enough for me, plus I like the iTunes filing/organization type system well enough I don't need to switch.

But what really seals the deal is the fact that this is an application that is SMALL in size and doesn't seem to embed itself so deep into a system that even the most minor crash reports point to their software as an offender.

My .02

No problems with FontAgent pro.

None.

Neil

No problems with FontAgent Pro....none....since I started using it after the demise of Adobe's ATM Deluxe.

Although I still wish that Adobe would release an updated version of ATM, FAP manages over 5000 fonts for me, and I've never needed tech support.

Neil

FAp has fallen over backwards to answer questions for me