Filed under: Software, Beta Beat
Beta Beat: Fontcase
A few months ago, a teaser appeared for a new Mac OS X font management app, Fontcase, developed by Pieter Omvlee and with an UI design by Laurent Baumann. Fontcase is designed to replace Apple's Font Book utility, which is not only a mediocre font management app, but has a less than nuanced interface.
For the last several months, Fontcase has been in private beta. Today, subscribers to the Fontcase newsletter were invited to download the latest beta. The app is very close to completetion, with a release date scheduled for sometime mid-January 2009, after Macworld. I used a few version of Fontcase while it was in private beta, and as a typography nut, have really been looking forward to this release.
First off, the interface is just beautiful. This won't be surprising to anyone who has seen Laurent's work in the past, but it is worth mentioning because of just how elegant and Mac-like the application feels. I think I've used almost every font manager available for OS X and Fontcase is certainly the most attractive.
When you open Fontcase, you are given the option to import your System and user fonts (basically everything that is already in Font Book). If you use Linotype's FontExplorer X , you can also import sets and meta-data directly from that application. You can share font collection via Bonjour to other computers on your network.
For the last several months, Fontcase has been in private beta. Today, subscribers to the Fontcase newsletter were invited to download the latest beta. The app is very close to completetion, with a release date scheduled for sometime mid-January 2009, after Macworld. I used a few version of Fontcase while it was in private beta, and as a typography nut, have really been looking forward to this release.
First off, the interface is just beautiful. This won't be surprising to anyone who has seen Laurent's work in the past, but it is worth mentioning because of just how elegant and Mac-like the application feels. I think I've used almost every font manager available for OS X and Fontcase is certainly the most attractive.
When you open Fontcase, you are given the option to import your System and user fonts (basically everything that is already in Font Book). If you use Linotype's FontExplorer X , you can also import sets and meta-data directly from that application. You can share font collection via Bonjour to other computers on your network.
After importing fonts (which you can do by dragging folders to the Library or via a menu command), you can rate, tag and organize your fonts into smart folders or collections. You can also add notes to a specific font. The program elegantly shows you what the font looks like, using a character view, the traditional waterfall and a "body text" view that shows what the font looks like in blocks of arranged text. Activating a font is as simple as either right-clicking and selecting Activate/Deactivate or clicking on the check button that appears at the top of the program.
Although I had no problem imorting my system font folders, when I tried to import a large font folder, the Fontcase beta did choke. I have no doubt that this will be improved before the final version is released, but it is worth pointing out.
Although most font management applications for OS X are aimed at the professional design community or users with lots and lots of fonts, Fontcase really seems best for regular users or users with moderate sized collections. I say this because Fontcase doesn't handle activating or deactivating of system fonts, nor will it autoactivate fonts (as far as I could tell) in other applications. Instead, it is a superior front-end to the built-in Font Book, with the added advantage of making organzing, tagging and sharing fonts much, much easier.
For the last several weeks, I've been using Insider Software's FontAgent Pro 4, and I have to say, it has become my favorite font management utility. Of course, that utility comes at a price ($99 for a single license), but if you have an extremely large font collection, as I do, it becomes necessary.
If your font collection isn't in the 10,000+ range (I'm at 14,007, myself) -- Fontcase is a great Font Book alternative.
If you haven't subscribed to the Fontcase newsletter, you can still do so at the Fontcase website and receive a link to the beta download.
Although I had no problem imorting my system font folders, when I tried to import a large font folder, the Fontcase beta did choke. I have no doubt that this will be improved before the final version is released, but it is worth pointing out.
Although most font management applications for OS X are aimed at the professional design community or users with lots and lots of fonts, Fontcase really seems best for regular users or users with moderate sized collections. I say this because Fontcase doesn't handle activating or deactivating of system fonts, nor will it autoactivate fonts (as far as I could tell) in other applications. Instead, it is a superior front-end to the built-in Font Book, with the added advantage of making organzing, tagging and sharing fonts much, much easier.
For the last several weeks, I've been using Insider Software's FontAgent Pro 4, and I have to say, it has become my favorite font management utility. Of course, that utility comes at a price ($99 for a single license), but if you have an extremely large font collection, as I do, it becomes necessary.
If your font collection isn't in the 10,000+ range (I'm at 14,007, myself) -- Fontcase is a great Font Book alternative.
If you haven't subscribed to the Fontcase newsletter, you can still do so at the Fontcase website and receive a link to the beta download.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
dandaman said 3:33PM on 12-21-2008
laurent's work is great, I've been using the "iphoney" bowtie theme for itunes controls
Reply
Olligarski said 6:37PM on 12-21-2008
And I thought 4711 was a lage number!
14007 made me :-)
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Mark S. (Skram) said 6:43PM on 12-21-2008
I signed up for the newsletter.. the article is unclear-- do you get a beta download link right away?
Looking forward to it!
Thanks
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Christina Warren said 7:12PM on 12-21-2008
You should get it tomorrow. They aren't sending out new newsletters today so they don't get tagged as spammers.
itadmin said 6:47PM on 12-21-2008
great software...
Reply
Scott said 8:40PM on 12-21-2008
Christina, you shouldn't use an "an" before UI. The use of "an" is determined by pronunciation rather than spelling. UI, whether said as a word (yoo-ee), or as an acronym "U-I," or as the expansion, "user interface," would be preceded by "a," not "an." Hence, we say, "an hour," although "h" is a consonant.
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Aaron Belafonte said 11:32PM on 12-21-2008
Thanks for that English lesson. While you have a point in terms of how it should be written, there's a time and a place for everything.
Not only that, but for all you know, the writer could pronounce the acronym like a word instead of the actual letters.
Mike said 2:42AM on 12-22-2008
Seriously... I'm so tired of people like Scott. Dude, shut up. No one cares. If you need to criticize people to feel good about yourself, do it somewhere else. Or beat up a first grader. Just as pathetic. Shut. Up.
John said 3:11AM on 12-22-2008
God, guys, calm down. I don't think the commenter meant it personally toward the writer, who in all fairness as a professional writer and being paid to write probably should consider this stuff. It's part of the editing process and something she's probably heard before and probably will again.
I don't think pointing this stuff out is tantamount to beating up a 1st grader, which given some of the 1st graders I know, sounds kind of fun. :)
Aaron Belafonte said 11:29PM on 12-21-2008
I am a HUGE fan of Linotype's Font Explorer X. So I'm interested to see how this compares.
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Joseph said 11:56AM on 12-22-2008
amen, now lets hear it. because i am not going to beta test.
Dave said 12:40PM on 12-23-2008
Same here, although I'm still not using it as often as I should.. Interested to see how Fontcase works compared to LinoType.
Alex said 1:37PM on 12-23-2008
I've also used Linotypes FontExplorer for about 2.5 years now and am extremely happy with it. If FontCase has no way to auto-activate fonts in Adobe's applications, it will be of little use for me.
Lets hope they take another look at this missing feature.
Philby said 3:36AM on 12-22-2008
Thanks for the review - I've been looking forward to Fontcase for quite a while now, and am now relieved that it might not have been for me anyway.
When I recently bought a new Glossybook Pro, I decided to do a complete clean install. For testing purposes, I installed Suitcase Fusion 2 instead of FontAgent Pro, which I'd be using for a few years. While Fusion's auto-activation of fonts is not yet up to FAP standard (e.g. Flash CS4 is somewhat unpredictable), it is very fast, and not having dozens of shared library files also make it feel "cleaner".
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Tom Waterhouse said 4:04AM on 12-22-2008
This app certainly looks the part - does anyone have an idea of pricing yet?
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AussieCasper0219 said 4:41AM on 12-22-2008
Call me ignorant, but can anyone tell me what the point of an application like this is? I don't quite see why anyone would need it.
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KA said 5:03AM on 12-22-2008
I use Font Book when I'm looking for the right font for something, and it is a real pain. I'm hoping this will actually be of some use in that respect.
David said 5:09AM on 12-22-2008
Let me enlighten you sir. You see graphic designers have thousands of fonts (this one does) and often use a small selection per client. As each clients identity often requires a certain kind of font selection. (e.g. Apple use Myriad Pro in their identity). The ability to group fonts by clients or by type is very useful. (e.g. Web safe fonts, grungey fonts for your skateboard clients, clean beautiful sans-serif fonts for your classy restuarant places...etc).
The real power comes through the fact we all use applications like Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator etc. IF we have thousands of fonts installed and we were to launch one of those appliations it makes no sense to sit there for 10 minutes while that app 'spots' all those fonts. It is much cleaner and less resource hogging if we can simply and quickly activate and deactivate the fonts at will through and application such as this. We can also quickly deactivate those nice little collections of fonts we have organised per client. Oh, my client wants me to edit his promotional leaflet for his club? Sure just activate all his fonts at once and I am off. (Plus it serves as a reminder of the fonts I used).
Finally, the ability to preview fonts in a much more effective manner than Apples own and dreadful Font book is an added plus. The font previewing in this app looks to be good with a variety of view options. (Although the Betahas proven very clunky at this but...it can be optimised).
AussieCasper0219 said 5:12AM on 12-22-2008
That makes total sense, Thank you for answering my question in such a clear and concise manner.
Galley said 1:12PM on 12-22-2008
I'd rather have the five dozen liquor jugs.
Reply