Fonts. You can't live with them, you can't kill them. A system heavy with installed fonts is slow to start up and can also see slow downs in applications that load your installed font list like Word or Photoshop. There are lots of font managers out there, but the commercial applications are usually overkill for a photographer and a lot of the free ones lack the ability to load a font on the fly. Today, we recommend to you Linotype FontExplorer X, a freeware font manager for Windows and Mac OS X.
This little freeware goody will not only allow you to load fonts on the fly, it also has a very iTunes like ability to create sets of fonts to organize your collection. You can create a simple set that will allow you to drag and drop fonts in to, or you can create a smart set based on a number of criteria like name, postscript name, font family and so forth. Add to this the ability to compare multiple fonts at once and it becomes all that a photographer or photo lab needs to manage a large font collection. This one has become one of the standard install items in the lab and though it is listed as being a beta application we love it here.
To go with your new found font manager have a look at this zip collection of freeware fonts. This 108 MB file contains over 4,700 freeware fonts from various sources on the Internet.
I downloaded that 108 MB zip file of fonts and discovered my first problem with this application. It doesn't do large imports without crashing. I got around this limitation by importing 2 folders at a time, setting my import to skip fonts already imported and it worked just fine. This was also a reminder to me that the program does not like OpenType fonts. There is another little dinger for you.
Here are the known issues for the beta:
Known Problems
Restrictions:
The functionality of the FontExplorer X is severely limited under Windows Vista due to issues with user privileges. For this same reason, a user with limited privileges and in the Admin free mode may also experience problems under Windows XP.
Export Error:
Errors occur when exporting the preview of a non-TrueType font to a PDF.
Linotype Font Store:
If the Internet connection is interrupted while surfing in the Store, the Store will no longer function even when the connection is restored. In this case, FontExplorer X should be restarted.
Jumping to the previous or next page is not always correct; therefore functionality of the back and forward buttons is limited.
XTensions/Plug-Ins:
There are some known problems with auto activation in the QuarkXPress XTensions and discrepancies in functional consistency with the Adobe Plug-Ins.
Cosmetics
Manual sorting of Folders and Sets in the source list is difficult. This will be improved in a later version.
Occasionally the focus is incorrect which may result in information not being updated at all or with delay.
When activating a single part of a TrueType Collection, the path may be incorrectly set and the status incorrectly displayed.
The font preview can be lost after multiple activation and deactivation of TrueType Collections and System fonts. This behavior can be resolved by restarting the FontExplorer X.
Performance issues with TrueType Collections while displaying Information/Characters.
Performance in the WYSIWYG Font list and maintaining WYSIWYG view following selection of a font needs to be optimized.
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Filed under: Download - Mac, Download - Windows
