Have you ever been distressed by inclement using of fonts on your computer? Have you ever got angry when you have to spend the whole investigation just to find out how to make a simple operation with the text? Oh, you just didn’t know about font managers.
But let’s leave this commercial style, I’m not trying to make an advertisement.
First of all, a quick definition. Font manager is a tool that facilitates handling with fonts. Instead of working manually and wasting precious time a user can easily install and uninstall fonts, browse and preview any number of them (saying objectively, that is really needful if the amount is large). And these are features by default, developers are always trying hard to make use of their font manager utilities as comfortable as possible. Some interesting extra features, just for example: search for needed fonts; organize fonts by groups and libraries; sort fonts according to different criteria etc.
Wait. I’m sorry: most probably you are a web-cognizant person, or even a pro web-designer, that’s why you don’t need any noob-oriented explanations.
But still, you are reading this article about the font managers, so I dare to assume that you’re not satisfied with your current font tool (in case you have it: strange, but some web-guys really don’t know about that water in the typography desert) and you are searching for some helpful info that is guaranteed to improve and ease the process of working with fonts. Well, I’ve made research and below there is a list of the top font managers with detailed descriptions. I hope, the information will be useful for you, but anyway you’re always welcome to leave comments if something is missing.
Commercial Font Managers
Fontcase
License: $34.99
OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Awards: Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product 2009 Winner
Fontcase font manager elegance is not a cunning move to attract more clients, but just a nice addition to high-quality font tool. Still, the beauty of Fontcase interface is the main appeal for me (honestly, I didn’t know the simple process of fonts previewing can be designed so pleasing to the eye). Also I must mention about such useful and original feature as Typedia integration, which makes an organization of the fonts in the library really interactive and even a little bit social.
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TypeDNA
License: $49
OS: Windows and Mac
Awards: Macworld 2011 – Winner The 27th Annual Editor’s Choice Awards
The thing that immediately drew my attention was a sudden offer of a free TypeDNA application for Google Chrome. In few words, the font manager is connected with the internet browser. I haven’t seen anything like that yet, so I can state it’s not just a pleasant surprise for Google-lovers, but an original and handy way of using the font manager. I’ve immediately tried that really simple-to-use option and now I’m a new happy user of TypeDNA Google Chrome app.
Above that TypeDNA is one of the most popular top font managers, the main feature is that the tool equally works either independently or connected to different apps such as Adobe© Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, and InDesign CS6. Also Type DNA has option which can be interesting for young webmasters – trial font manager for students up to 6 months (student email address required).
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Suitcase Fusion 4
License: $99.95 for Windows and $99.95 for Mac.
OS: Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), Windows 7
This pro font manager helps to find, preview, and activate the fonts in no time. Suitcase Fusion 4 has plenty of useful add-ons, which more or less should work for everyone, not only professionals. The built-in Font Sense™ technology controls the fonts to be activated accurately; WebINK® and Google Web Fonts expand your library; FontDoctor repairs fonts if something wrong. I would call it harmonious extra features collection.
Maybe, you are a searching designer? Here you are: Suitcase Fusion 4 can be used directly from Adobe CS apps, including InDesign®, Illustrator® and Photoshop® using the Extensis® font panel. So wouldn’t you agree, this option makes the font manager appropriate especially for professional web designers?
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FontExplorer X Pro
License: $100
OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7; Mac 10.4.x, 10.5.x, 10.6.x, 10.7.x. and 10.8.x
One more professional font tool with many features for quick and comfortable font managing. I was glad to see the utility gives the detailed information about every font – a great opportunity for everyone to develop typography erudition. The most interesting as for me is the conflict resolution feature, which assists in eliminating the errors caused by software incompatibility. The developers are totally fair stating they want users to concentrate on designing, not the tech side of the font manager.
Font Explorer X should be indeed more attractive for Macintosh users, because the Mac version of the font manager brings more functions (for example, the integrated online font store is currently available in FontExplorer X Pro for Mac only).
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MainType 5.0
License: $39.00 – Standard and $79.00 – Professional
OS: Windows 2000 – Windows 8
I believe it’s the most professional of all the pro font managers in the list. Actually the tool was designed specially for graphic artists, typographers, and other specialists, with their severe demands taken into consideration. So, the main advantages of MainType are POWER (meaning ultra-high capacity), fastness and high-end functionality.
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MasterJuggler
License: $89.95 Download and CD; $49.95 CD Only
OS: Mac OS X.
Nothing special with this font manager, except MasterJuggler is developed specifically for Mac OS only. And I would say, it’s developed very reliably: MasterJuggler supports all Mac Mac OS X compatible font formats and gives wide range of options to manage them.
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Printer’s Apprentice 8.1
License: $24.99
OS: Windows 7, Vista & XP
Please don’t pay attention at the poor design of the Lose Your Mind Development website, we are talking about about the font manager. And Printer’s Apprentice is really a qualitative, modern (last update, 5/3/2012) and multifunctional utility, the tool will definitely work for a pragmatist, who understands that form is nothing, content is everything.
Free Font Managers
Cfont Pro
OS: Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7
This tool is most probably the best free font manager. All the general features are compactly included. So if you need a well-operating font manager for Windows with default options, you don’t need to pay – just download Cfont Pro and be done with that.
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Nexus Font
OS: Windows XP or later, iOS
I saw some bad reviews about Nexus Font, people state there are problems with downloading. Nevertheless, I haven’t got any issues with the font tool while trying. Nexus Font is free, good looking and simple-to-use tool. The utility has a simple, but useful option of adding tags to the fonts, the feature will certainly give an opportunity to develop an individual classifying of your fonts.
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A font management application for the GNOME desktop
OS: Linux/Unix
Of course, I couldn’t forget about the users of the operating systems different from Windows and Mac. This simple free font manager with no doubt will satisfy GNOME desktop users. The developers inform that the application should also work well with most major desktop environments such as Xfce, Enlightenment, and even KDE.
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I would really like to know what utility you are using. Please feel free to share your personal experience of font manager exploitation in the comments below.
Source : blog[dot]templatemonster[dot]com
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