Why should I manage fonts?

[michaelsanford]

I don't know anything about font management.

I remember using apps like Extensis Suitcase to manage fonts for high-end graphics apps when I worked at a newspaper.

Why should I bother managing fonts? And what's wrong with loading a million fonts at boot time? Is it because they're all stored in RAM (the only problem I can think of)?

 

[DeltaMac]

Some of this info may not be technically accurate, but is my own way of interpreting how fonts are used. Managing fonts gives you a chance to organise the fonts that you have, in an easy-to-use, or convenient-to-use format. A million fonts, with no organization, LOL. Most font management software gives you the tools to test and repair your fonts, as a corrupted font can cause extraordinary problems from time to time on any system. Most fonts are not stored in RAM continually, but the OS provides for quick loading when a font is used. The problem is, that fonts are provided with a quasi-active directory, unlike other types of files, and too many fonts can make that directory structure very tricky to maintain. Some apps struggle with fonts after 128 fonts or so (example is Appleworks 6, try to set this to display actual Fonts in the selection list, refuses to work for me, with about 200 fonts). You can use that font management software to create a list of fonts that you use for specific purposes, avoiding problems with huge numbers of fonts. Someone can quide this to a better technical answer.

 

[Lyra]

From a non-technical viewpoint, I'd say that whether you manage your fonts or nor depends on what you use your computer for. I'm a typesetter - if I'm setting a book in Times New (which I usually am) I don't want to have to wade through even dozens of fonts, let alone hundreds, if I need to use a Slavic letter or a mathematical symbol or whatever. If that isn't a problem for you, font management needn't be an issue.

 

[michaelsanford]

Cool, thanks you two, I'm clear now.

 

[adambyte]

Not to mention, the more fonts you have, the longer it takes an app to load... you you might want to lay off using "a million" fonts at a time.