Font Management: Font Agent Pro Tiger Update

I used Suitcase with Panther, but it broke under Tiger so I tried to work with FontBook. FontBook is useless if you have more than a dozen fonts. (as a Graphic Designer I use hundreds). So I switched to FontAgent Pro 3.0.2 which worked fine until I updated to 10.4.2. MSWord, Photoshop & Illustrator refused to launch, the system slowed down to a crawl, and fonts in web browser windows changed without warning - sometimes to an unreadable symbol font. I downloaded the FAP uninstaller app, but all it removed was the contents of the FAP folder in applications - all the other dozens of assorted files were left behind and continued to wreak havoc. I had to boot into safemode and track them all down and delete them manually. I'm shocked that Apple - the inventors of the desktop publishing revolution back in 1984 - hasn't managed to provide a usable font management tool within the system in 20 years! FontBook is no better than the Font/DA mover from system 2.0!

I have tried font book and while sometimes it works, other times is sucks. Often I can't get a font to install which becomes a major pain. The same font will install on one machine but not another. Lately, I have been dealing with fonts "dropping out" of activation. They are there one minute and gone the next. All this despite the font being in the system/library/fonts folder. Maybe this has nothing to do with font book but I need to try something different. PS. I am using the panther fontbook.

Had a problem with Suitcase 10 and Illustrator. It seems that the auto-activation plud-in for Extensis stalls the startup of Illustrator. Not an issue I was looking to deal with after my big bank purchase of Suitcase. Temporarily fixed the problem by removing the Suitcase plug-in from Illustrator preference folder. Need a real solution though.

As a design pro I look for companies that are responsive and quick with updates so apps dont get crippled by every OS update for months. Also price and upgrade policies. I stay away from those with new versions coming out hard and fast with little improvement to reliability -just neat new features you will never use all so they can stick users with another upgrade cycle. After trying everything out there I am using Font Agent Pro and very happy with it. I especially like their two year licencing scheme- free upgrades no matter what the version number for two years. Also leveraging OSX power and decent interface.

I use text edit... it is the roxors... I mean I mabe change what font I am using once a month... and even thats pushing it..

Another vote here for Font Agent Pro. I liked Font Reserve for many years but the bugs eventually took over and made it near unusable. Didn't like Suitcase at all, and MasterJuggler 3 is beyond bad. Font Agent Pro has its quirks, too. But it's solid and the auto-activation works well 95% of the time which is good enough for me. I have over 8000 fonts...I can't imagine keeping all those fonts active at the same time. The menus would be ridiculous. As a matter of fact, I like keeping my font menus as lean as possible. When it starts getting too long, I'll go into FAP and deactivate fonts or I'll reboot to reset things.

Being a graphic designer and typographer for years, I also fall into the camp that ATM Deluxe was still the best. Since OS X, I have been with suitcase. And I hated it, mostly for the fact that it took so long to start up, slowing everything else down. Since Tiger, I have switched to FontBook. No problems at all, its fast, starts up quickly, no issues. Meanwhile, last I checked, suitcase still had not updated for tiger. So good riddance to suitcase.

My company recently switched from Suitcase X1 to FontAgent Pro, and we haven't regretted it once. Today's update to 3.0.2 fixes several bugs we were experiencing, but even when buggy it works so much better than Suitcase. It activates fonts automatically system-wide, not just in Illustrator or InDesign (try going to a web page that requests a font you have, but that's inactiveFontAgent will activate it in the background). Also, it opens in seconds and you can quit it when you're not using it and still have automatic font activation. Also unlike Suitcase, their customer support people will get back to you in a matter of hours.

I use Suitcase as I always have. Had a couple problems so far with fonts staying active using Illustrator, but if I quit everything and reactivate the needed fonts, it seems to work. I have not searched yet for a Suitcase update

I use FontAgent Pro. I tried Suitcase for a couple of months then tried nothing for 6 months and finally ended up buying FA at MacWorld SF this year. I manage close to 10,000 fonts on my machine with it and it seems to handle organization and verification well. However, the auto-activation is pure genius and can't be lived without. There is a good write up from Typographica which initially pushed me over the edge to give it a shot: http://typographi.com/000767.php