I've had it with Font Book

Lammy · May 17, 2012, 04:59:39 PM

At home I have a shiny new iMac, but since that's about the extent of my budget I've been trying to scrape along with the built in font book. I didn't even make it a full year. It sucks, it's slow, there is no good way to turn on and off large groups of fonts if they aren't all in the same set, it's slow, it sucks, it give all sorts of errors not to use fonts that are perfectly fine, it's slow, it sucks, did I mention it's slow?

I'm very used to Suitcase, but it's on the very pricey side for "at home" stuff. I don't find any free apps that look trustworthy or any better than font book.

This leaves me with Font Explorer and Font Agent. I've had no experience with Font Agent and very little, and not very good, experience with Font Explorer. Of the three what do you recommend? Is the extra price worth it for Suitcase since I have very little bad to say about it?

Joe · May 17, 2012, 05:06:06 PM

I still use the free version of Linotype Font Explorer. Works great for me.

We had some copies of Font Agent Pro and it worked good but we never upgraded since, at the time, Font Explorer was free.

Manually moving fonts to and from the Users/~/Library/Fonts folder is a free option as well and the fonts work across all applications. If you are just using InDesign you can put them in InDesign fonts folder and they will work fine but only in InDesign. Or in 5.5 and later you can put them in the Document Fonts folder in the same folder where your InDesign document lives and InDesign will find them there too.

Lammy · May 17, 2012, 05:15:00 PM

I tried finding the free version of Font Explorer, no luck. I manually move the fonts Font Books insists are no good, but that's not a real good way to manage them really.

Joe · May 17, 2012, 06:02:33 PM

Quote from: Lammy on May 17, 2012, 05:15:00 PMI tried finding the free version of Font Explorer, no luck. I manually move the fonts Font Books insists are no good, but that's not a real good way to manage them really.

You want it?

Linotype Font Explorer - Last FREE Version

G_Town · May 17, 2012, 06:34:28 PM

In the same vein, I've been skimping alone this way and now have a copy of fusion, how do I clear out non-system fonts out of my system?

Or is it a manual PITA?

Joe · May 17, 2012, 06:57:46 PM

Quote from: G_Town on May 17, 2012, 06:34:28 PMIn the same vein, I've been skimping alone this way and now have a copy of fusion, how do I clear out non-system fonts out of my system?

Or is it a manual PITA?

What version of OS?

G_Town · May 17, 2012, 07:48:49 PM

Quote from: Joe on May 17, 2012, 06:57:46 PM
Quote from: G_Town on May 17, 2012, 06:34:28 PMIn the same vein, I've been skimping alone this way and now have a copy of fusion, how do I clear out non-system fonts out of my system?

Or is it a manual PITA?

What version of OS?

10.5.8

Joe · May 17, 2012, 08:03:36 PM

This is the required font list for OS X 10.5.x You can get rid of anything except these for the OS to work. You could delete some fonts that get installed by applications though and then those apps may not work correctly.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1642

DCurry · May 18, 2012, 05:58:29 AM

I hate Suitcase. Free version of Linotype FontExplorer for me, too.

StudioMonkey · May 18, 2012, 06:48:55 AM

Yep free version of Font Explorer get the nod from me - I tried using FontBook and it sucks big time.

I used Suitcase for years and its hard to beat, but I can't afford it / can't justify the cost right now.

Before Suitcase (on the Mac anyway) we just had a Font folder and everything went in there. I used to spend hours opening the actual font suitcases and moving the font files around to build sets.

DCurry · May 18, 2012, 08:29:26 AM

I've gotten into the habit of letting InDesign auto-activate fonts for me by making sure the fonts for a document reside in a folder called "Document fonts" and making sure the folder resides at the same level as the ID document. Works great without having to go activate or deactivate fonts in a font manager.

Lammy · May 18, 2012, 09:21:15 AM

OH yeah, prolly an important bit of info. I'm running Lion at home. I've got the list of minimum font, but I didn't clear them out of the system folder, just organized them in font book so I knew which were the required ones and which ones I could turn off. I don't think it's works all that well because after an hour or more last night, did I mention font book is slow, I got every thing turned off in font book except the required fonts and the two fonts I was working with. When I went to my menu in InDesign there were still a few hundred fonts listed. I guess I gotta hunt around now for the Adobe font folders?

gnubler · May 18, 2012, 01:56:29 PM

Quote from: Joe on May 17, 2012, 05:06:06 PMI still use the free version of Linotype Font Explorer. Works great for me.

I still use the free version of Linotype Font Explorer. Works great for me.

I use it on all my Macs, home and work.

"I've had it with Font Book" I said that in 2004 and have never used it since. Garbage.

Stiv · May 19, 2012, 12:45:26 PM

Our Macs have the InDesign font folder permissions locked out. In fact, all of the Adobe font folders are locked out.

I use FB and it has its issues but it works 99% of the time. The issue I have with it is not being able to turn off system fonts like Helv Neue. The system fonts have priority over the fonts I want activated. Too often I get the bullet of multiple fonts activated with the same name. I can't resolve it by turning off the system fonts.

I don't mind the restricted permissions as others here are not as up-to-speed on taking care of fonts. Nothing worse than spending 30 minutes cleaning out a system just to load a job.

News:

I've had it with Font Book