Font Management OS X - Please help...

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hype

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Hi, I'm new here. :rolleyes:

Firstly let me apologize in advance because I've got a feeling this will have been discussed before but I desperately need some advice.

I currently use ATM running under OS 9.2.2 to manage about 500 or so fonts. I am now looking at switching to OS X - and all I've read so far on the web about type management under OS X is putting me off.

Seeing as Adobe have no plans to release ATM for OS X (god knows why) I have a few of questions about alternatives.

Firstly I'd like to know whether 'Font Book' that comes with OX Panther is any good and if it would do the job ATM has previously done for me?

Secondly, if 'Font Book' is not up to the job, would I be best purchasing 'Suitcase' as an alternative. Is it stable under OS X?

Thirdly, if both the above are no use are there any other alternatives?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who replies!!!
 
Welcome to the forum.

Font Book is supposed to do the job, but it doesn't by most accounts. It is slooow and I don't know why no one at Apple looked at the functionality of ATM Deluxe before making it, it is weak in features...

If you go to the search function at the top of this page and type in suitcase, you'll get a list of threads talking about the relative merits of various alternatives. The 5th or sixth thread down on the first page should help a lot.
 
I use fontbook. And, even though it's pissey, it works for me. I only add fonts as i need them, not all 2000 at once.
 
I used FontBook and as a longtime Suitcase user I prefer Suitcase. However, that is just becaue I've used it longer. I think the most logical approach, if you have the time and patience, is to try FontBook first. I say this for the simple advantage that is it FREE. It comes with OSX.

Now, if you don't like it or you find that certain applications don't autoactivate fonts that you turn on in FontBook, then Suitcase is the way to go. Suitcase is much more like ATM than FontBook is.
 
Harvestr said:
I used FontBook and as a longtime Suitcase user I prefer Suitcase. However, that is just becaue I've used it longer. I think the most logical approach, if you have the time and patience, is to try FontBook first. I say this for the simple advantage that is it FREE. It comes with OSX.

Now, if you don't like it or you find that certain applications don't autoactivate fonts that you turn on in FontBook, then Suitcase is the way to go. Suitcase is much more like ATM than FontBook is.
Click to expand...

I would have to recommend FontAgent Pro 2 <http://www.insidersoftware.com>. FontAgent Pro is much more like ATM and is much better than Suitcase. I have had nothing but trouble with Suitcase. FontAgent Pro has become a powerful font manager. You should give it a try.
 
I use Suitcase X1 for my freelance design work and it has it's problems—conflicts with other programs that have their own font loading steps on start up (everything from Microsoft, it seems!) But all in all it's a good program.

I agree that not loading all your fonts, just the ones you need, is the way to go.

Suitcase also comes with some font utilities, but I wouldn't recommend using them. You can actually screw up your fonts that way. Just deactivate and reimport the offending fonts.
 
I have had **plenty** of problems with previous versions of Suitcase, but so far Suitcase X1 has been pretty good. I tend to keep a handful of fonts loaded all the time, but leave the others dormant in various style folders (display, pixel, grunge, serif, etc.,). This means that they are easily viewable all of the time, and can be loaded in an instance.

Although I try to stick to PDF's when sending stuff to print, I generally collect for output (ID, Quark) and archive the job fonts with the working files. When I need to open an old project I just drag the job fonts folder over the suitcase icon, and the fonts are temporarily installed until the next time I reboot, or restart Suitcase.

It couldn't be easier really.

However, setting it up is another thing altogether (it would seem). My boss at work used to use ATM on OS9. When we changed over to OSx he messed his fonts up big time, creating loads of orphan fonts.

Does anybody know how to mend these orphan and sceen only fonts??

Cheers
 
Try FontDoctor - it comes with Suicase X1. It's not magic and can't create a PostScript outline from a bitmap - and it can do funny things with the locations of your fonts if you're not careful - but it is very thorough. It's been around for many years - the curent incarnation much better than that of 1997 - which was good but flawed.

Try it out on a duplicate set of your fonts and see what you can recover...
 
I think the fonts were orphaned because they were partially corrupted in 9 and OS X is only highlighting (exaserbating) the problem. Sometimes FontDoctor makes things worse so make sure you have copies of all your fonts before you use it.

I would recommend reloading the orphaned fonts to see if they work, or gather them all together and put them in their own folder in OS X instead of grabbing them from where they were in OS 9 (if they are on the same computer). I know since Suitcase can function in 9 or X, that might be what's causing the orphaning of fonts. Just a guess! :)
 
OK, thanks. I've got Type Tool here too, so when I get a moment I might just have a go at regenerating the fonts.

Could be a long process though!!
 
I have used FontBook, however briefly, with Tiger; and like many Mac appl's, it is enhanced under OS X 10.4. Under Panther it is rather starkly featureless.
 
If you had Suitcase you'd have the program "Font Doctor" which is pretty good (though not perfect) at fixing font issues.

I have also removed the preference file from Suitcase so it would create a new one. Sometimes after lots of use the pref file goes bad. :)
 
For my two-pennys-worth, IMO Font Reserve is the way forward - v1.7.3 solves many of the issues that I had with it and am now testing it to roll out...
I had Suitcase for a while - but toooo many user probs (including a wierdo one in Quark, which whilst rare caused me to remove the .xnt).
You need Quark v6.5 with FR v1.7.3 BTW.
FYI, I spent many a happy :rolleyes: day 'converting OS9 versions to OSX - complete failure on 10 families out of 3000 odd founts. Font Doctor and Type Tool help, but not as much as resaving the files under OS9 in Fontographer!
ATB
 
I use Suitcase X1 too. But it does behave weird sometimes. For example, does anyone know why the hell sometimes when I drag a folder of fonts into Suitcase, it only recognizes part of them? I mean, there are 10 sets of fonts in the folder, but when I drag it to Suitcase, I only get 5 in there...
Then I have to remove those 5, quit the program and do it again and... Puf! Now I see all the fonts! Weird...

I try not to install the auto-activation plug-ins... I like to have full control over what's activated or not.
 
Maybe those fonts are partially corrupt?

I have weird gripes with Suitcase as well. It seems to corrupt fonts as a matter of course, but that's why I keep a spare copied somewhere else…

Don't EVER use the auto-activation because you'll never be able to turn it off again. :)
 
why is MacOSX's font management so poor? it seems to be one of the only weaknesses in an otherwise solid os. it's RAM management is impressive, it's font management system shoddy - windows (i know) can have thousands of fonts intstalled and they are an insignificantly small factor. they're just fonts....
 
Another little thing came up yesterday which I thought I'd share with you all...
A colleague opened up a quark v6 file (he still has Suitcase) and it said it was corrupt... I opened it on mine and it was fine (I have FR v1.7.3)... Make of that what you will.
On another note, it would seem highly likely, that since both programs are now owned by Extensis, they will, at some point amalgamate - why would they want to develop/support two progs that do the same thing?? I'm gonna go on a limb and say a Suitcase looklikey client and a FR Server type thing.
 
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