Weird FEX Pro behaviour

[DigiCorn]

Do you have a shitload of fonts in your system fonts and/or Libraries?

To quote the great thespian of our time, Kool-Aid Man, "Oh Yeah!"

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Here are all my font locations. See what I mean?


Library Fonts Folder


System Library Fonts Folder


User Library Fonts Folder

[DigiCorn]

I think mine might be a little more organized. Obviously system fonts are in the system fonts folder/library. Then I have commonly used fonts (Myriad, Franklin Gothic, Futura, Optima, etc.) in a "Common Fonts" folder on my desktop. Then I have a "Live Job Fonts" folder on my desktop where I copy customer fonts from the server by job (i.e. "11334_Fonts") that I load temporarily for the job and then delete when completed. And I have on my local hard drive a folder called "Streamlined Fonts" (and backup copies of this folder in multiple locations on multiple servers) of every font in my collection cleaned by Font Doctor and organized into folders by font name where I go to pull a font when a customer has not provided it. Basically, I only load fonts into FEX from my local hard drive - never from a server. The "Common Fonts" I have loaded but not active in FEX at all times for quick activations. The "Live Job Fonts" are temporary. The other fonts I have I will copy to "Live Job Fonts" temporarily as needed to fill in the gaps. When loaded in FEX I try to keep them in folders for quick deletion. For regular customers, I have a folder in "Common Fonts" with fonts specific to their work, i.e. "Balanced Body". I posted a screen shot of my font organization.

[DigiCorn]

font locations

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

I doubt you are more organized. All the font sets on the left are the various collections I have that are sitting on my hard drive. These collections have been amassed over 20 years from all the various places I have been employed. All sorted, cleaned and validated. 20 years worth. Did you notice I do not have FEX manage my fonts? I do all this manually. I load fonts temp for every job, then close them and delete them when I am done. On to the next. The only active fonts I have are minimal system fonts to keep conflicts to a minimum.

[DigiCorn]

I doubt you are more organized. All the font sets on the left are the various collections I have that are sitting on my hard drive. These collections have been amassed over 20 years from all the various places I have been employed. All sorted, cleaned and validated. 20 years worth. Did you notice I do not have FEX manage my fonts? I do all this manually. I load fonts temp for every job, then close them and delete them when I am done. On to the next. The only active fonts I have are minimal system fonts to keep conflicts to a minimum.

That answers a lot of my questions, actually. The fonts I have, I have amassed over the past 15 years, and weeded out the undesirable crap and duplicates as well as cleaned them with Font Doctor. Because of the places I have worked, I know that my experience in the field differs from others. I think a lot of the people on this forum work in big shops, with 40" sheetfed presses or the larger web presses, and teams of prepress people. I only briefly worked in a shop like that. Most places I have been, it's been a one-man show. I have never taken a class in anything related to prepress or prepress software and am almost entirely self taught by on-the-job experience. In my early years, I worked exclusively with paper plates or poly plates. I never had a traditional RIP until 2003; It's only since then I've worked with quarter/half sheet shops.

I felt like my method of font management was pretty efficient, but if you're saying your way works better, I'm all for it. You are the ninja master!

[DigiCorn]

I just hit post #1,000!!!

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

I doubt you are more organized. All the font sets on the left are the various collections I have that are sitting on my hard drive. These collections have been amassed over 20 years from all the various places I have been employed. All sorted, cleaned and validated. 20 years worth. Did you notice I do not have FEX manage my fonts? I do all this manually. I load fonts temp for every job, then close them and delete them when I am done. On to the next. The only active fonts I have are minimal system fonts to keep conflicts to a minimum.

That answers a lot of my questions, actually. The fonts I have, I have amassed over the past 15 years, and weeded out the undesirable crap and duplicates as well as cleaned them with Font Doctor. Because of the places I have worked, I know that my experience in the field differs from others. I think a lot of the people on this forum work in big shops, with 40" sheetfed presses or the larger web presses, and teams of prepress people. I only briefly worked in a shop like that. Most places I have been, it's been a one-man show. I have never taken a class in anything related to prepress or prepress software and am almost entirely self taught by on-the-job experience. In my early years, I worked exclusively with paper plates or poly plates. I never had a traditional RIP until 2003; It's only since then I've worked with quarter/half sheet shops.

I felt like my method of font management was pretty efficient, but if you're saying your way works better, I'm all for it. You are the ninja master!

I burn through a lot of jobs, so I have to make sacrifices for the sake of font conflicts. My ways of output are often VERY untraditional, but I don't usually do what other people do, I do what works for me and my style. It is far from perfect, but it gets me through jobs with minimal headaches. I am no Master by any means, it's just experience.

I have worked for big web shops, service bureaus, Mom & Pop shops and commercial sheet-fed facilities. I go where the money is. Being in a fairly tight knit community, as opposed to somewhere like LA, reputations are very important. I have one, a good one, and I strive to keep it. It keeps me employed and it makes my marketability go up, which means better money.

[Joe]

Sorry, Digital Sig1, I don't have an answer for YOUR question, but I was going to suggest downloading and running FontNuke every once in a while to clear the font caches (if you have Snow Leopard), and Applejack for previous versions.
That should clear up a lot of font issues.

Just an FYI....The latest version of Applejack, 1.6, supports Snow Leopard.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Sorry, Digital Sig1, I don't have an answer for YOUR question, but I was going to suggest downloading and running FontNuke every once in a while to clear the font caches (if you have Snow Leopard), and Applejack for previous versions.
That should clear up a lot of font issues.

Just an FYI....The latest version of Applejack, 1.6, supports Snow Leopard.

Yes, have you seen the gaudy yellow disclaimer it throws up on the screen now? USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... ONLY IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY...

[DigiCorn]

Moot, since I do not yet have Snow Leopard.

But what do you have against Font Doctor, or the internal cleanser FEX has?

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Moot, since I do not yet have Snow Leopard.

But what do you have against Font Doctor, or the internal cleanser FEX has?

Me? Nothing.

[gnubler]

I just hit post #1,000!!!

Are you *wet* down there?

I know how it feels...

[Joe]

Sorry, Digital Sig1, I don't have an answer for YOUR question, but I was going to suggest downloading and running FontNuke every once in a while to clear the font caches (if you have Snow Leopard), and Applejack for previous versions.
That should clear up a lot of font issues.

Just an FYI....The latest version of Applejack, 1.6, supports Snow Leopard.

Yes, have you seen the gaudy yellow disclaimer it throws up on the screen now? USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... ONLY IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY...

Should have been there in previous versions as well. There is always risk associated with using utilities such as these.

[Joe]

Moot, since I do not yet have Snow Leopard.

But what do you have against Font Doctor, or the internal cleanser FEX has?

Nothing. Applejack does a lot more than font caches though.