Filed under: Software, Apple Professional, Surveys and Polls
Font Management: Font Agent Pro Tiger Update
Insider Software has announced Font Agent Pro 3.0.2 for Mac OS X, which offers Tiger compatibility alongside a whole slew of font management features.
I'm curious, though, font-fanatics: How many of you use font management software? What is your favorite and why? Are any TUAW readers in page layout and typography using Apple's OS-bundled Font Book in your workflow in the stead of a pro package? Let us know in the comments below.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
FontAgent Pro absolutely ROCKS. It beats all the others, hands down. Which is to say that it WORKS, and works reliably.
Font Book, which ships with OSX, is total garbage.
Bear in mind that these comments all apply to people like myself with hundreds (not dozens) of fonts.
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Ben McElroy said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Yes I use font management software - Extensis Suitcase. Trying to keep track of over 500 fonts requires font management software. After a horrible experience with Font Book v1 which caused system instability and application lock ups, eventually resulting in a complete system re-install, I refuse to install or use Font Book on my personal machines. However, to Apple's credit, the updated Font Book is much better and I can recommend its use to casual font users. I do miss Adobe's ATM (Adobe Type Manager to the uninitiated). That was an application that knew how to handle itself.
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ICD Studio said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have been a print/web designer for six and a half years now. I have a little over 1700 fonts. I've found it easiest of all not to use any font management software at all, except when installing a new font with Font Book.
Why not have all of your fonts installed at once, so they are there when you want to use them. Making up a reason to use an application when you don't need one just makes things more difficult.
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ICD Studio said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I have been a print/web designer for six and a half years now. I have a little over 1700 fonts. I've found it easiest of all not to use any font management software at all, except when installing a new font with Font Book.
Why not have all of your fonts installed at once, so they are there when you want to use them. Making up a reason to use an application when you don't need one just makes things more difficult.
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j. said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
When working as a support technician for Apple, I found that having too many fonts installed caused 90% of startup problems, even in OS X. Font management software is a necessecary evil, in my opinion, and I use FontBook now for all of my font management. I have a couple thousand fonts used for graphic and webpage design, but I only have a few hundred enabled at any one time.
The thing is, though, that you find software that works for you, and use it. Not everyone likes FontBook, but for me it works just fine.
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mike lorenz said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
As a designer for over 10 years now, I've dealt w/ many different font management tools... ATM mostly on OS 9 & below, then Font reserve from 9.2 to present. Seems like since extensis bought it it's sucked. I would not reccomend buying it as they haven't released any updates since the acquisition, & I would assume they don't plan to (seeing as how they also distribute Suitcase). Not that being said, Using Font Reserve for 5+ years, if you know it's limitations, & you baby it, it works fine. It is quirky, & sometimes you need to restart it.... but hey... I'm kinda used to it. The auto activation works great w/ indesign (the Illustrator plugin I've found to be UBER buggy... ie crashes when trying to save documents...)
But as far as suitcase goes, I didn't like it either.
Presently I am deciding on new software for the entire office (5 workstations). I'm leaning towards Fonr Agent Pro, as it seems to be getting the best reviews. But at the same token, wondering whether it is worth it or not to go to a server based solution...
To be honest, all I need is something that works. I can turn a font off or on... basically that's it. In addition it' snice to have somethign that would address conflicts w/ system fonts & damaged/corrupt fonts (which font reserve does not to, & probably never will)...
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kc! Bradshaw said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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
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Robert said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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
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Feaverish said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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.
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modulate said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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.
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Judi Sohn said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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.
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Dominic Frascella said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
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..
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lil' typo said 7:22PM on 6-22-2005
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.
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Garen said 10:14AM on 6-23-2005
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.
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Brad said 11:02PM on 7-08-2005
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.
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carl said 12:56PM on 7-21-2005
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!
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