[LightWaver-67]

I seem to be striking-out on finding any links on the web comparing features, stability, ease of use... etc.

I am mapping-out a migration path from OS 9.1 to OS X at my current job. One product in their (our) workflow is ATM (Adobe Type Manager) which is not going to be released for Mac OS X or ever again for Mac (as far as I can tell from Adobe's statement).

The only two remaining choices for a production environment are Suitcase & Font Reserve. Oddly enough... I think Extensis OWNS Font Reserve now... right...?

Anyhow, I would like to know people's feedback on the pro's & con's of either/both in a multi-user production environment.

I currently use Suitcase at my home studio... but I'm a team of one. We need something that will act like ATM and auto activate... yet be easy to use.

I'm not 'hugely' impressed w/ Suitcase... but then again, I downloaded the DEMO of FontReserve and I absolutely HATED the UI. It was very klunky and buggy. (It was the newest version.. is it Beta...?)

Anyhow. I'd like to make some educated recommendations, but I'm striking-out finding any comparisons on the web.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!!!!

[LightWaver-67]

- bump -

C'mon now... No one has any experience with either app worth sharing...?

How 'bout just a link you might know of... anything...

danka...

[lookmark]

Well, Extensis just bought FontReserve, and will be folding it's technology into Suitcase, so it's rather half a dozen on one end and six on the other, isn't it?

The real decision I think is Suitcase vs. Font Agent Pro.

Personally, I've been using Suitcase since moving to OS X, most recently Suitcase X1, and it's... all right. It handles a thousand fonts generally well, though there's a considerable pause starting the quitting the app with about 20% of these fonts active. It has some good features (along with some grating UI decisions); X1 in particular had some long-delayed improvements. It works as a decent font manager.

I'll be taking a good look at Font Agent Pro when they come out when their next release, though. An eye on Font Book as well, if Apple can make the thing work.

[workerbee]

There's also Alsoft's Master Juggler 3, which is now OS X native. Somewhat slow, puzzling UI decisions (showing every font file separately without font families, no font foundry info), but which does not need to be running constanty -- they have a background process.

[koffedrnkr]

i've been using font reserve 3 for about a year now. i'm a designer / animator but my font needs are very straightforward...turn fonts off and on, be able to print a specimen book of all my fonts, and run without crashing. diamondsoft used to be timely with updates and while i never felt the software are particularly intuitive or elegant, it was OSX compliant and ran pretty well, so i really had very few complaints.

that being said, there are things to dislike about font reserve. searching for fonts can be more involved than it should be...since it depends entirely on filter settings. set the filter incorrectly and you won't find what you're looking for also, once a font goes into the "vault", it goes into a dark maze of subfolders and is a pain to retrieve. i never liked having 2 apps...one control panel app and the font app itself. it seemed like a thoughtless port of the OS9 app with it's "control panel" which i think it basically was. while it scanned fonts frequently, it never seemed to "fix" anything...other than renaming duplicates. unlike font doctor, which would find and fix all kinds of issues, font reserve never seemed to do more than act as a lightswitch...but it ran, so i used it.


now extensis has bought diamondsoft and there are rumors they want to merge font reserve and suitcase into a single product. whatever.... what i do know is that both products are currently "investigating" panther compatibility and given how long the new OS has been in development, i think their lack of support is indefensible. they've basically hung both suitcase and font reserve customers out to dry for the foreseeable future. this to me says it's time to investigate alternatives.

font agent pro was the other contender before i bought font reserve. it looks even better to me now. a straightforward interface and the promise of better font diagnostics and repair. they're not panther ready either, but in speaking to one of their tech support people, they expected to have a patch in a week or so. when they do, i think i'm going to make the switch.

at the end of the day, i want to give my money and my business to a company that cares abut font management and supporting their customers. now that font reserve is now the smallest ship in the large extensis navy, i think it's time to jump ship and look for a better alternative.

i hope font agent pro will be it.