[WakaWakaWaka]

I recently been evaluating some utilities for organising fonts and am finding myself extremely underwhelmed.

I've tried ATM Deluxe but its features are limited (doesn't show a font's class or foundry). Suitcase is ok but seems a bit buggy and is also feature short. Font Reserve is nicer but buggy too.

Of the various menuing options they all pretty much stink (suitcase menu is the nicest I think but way to limited). Ones that show the fonts in the menu are usually unreadable. None of the utils make good use of catagories and, just as bad, none seem to allow subcatagories. Why?

What I wish for is a stable font manager sort of like Font Reserve but with a menuing util that allows (sub-)catagories and shows a font sample in a floating window beside the menu. Even better would be if it showed a word i had highlighted in my document.

After all these years as the premier publishing/arts platform I'm very surprised at the primitive state of font control on the Mac (and other platforms?).

Does anyone know of utils that will satisfy me better? What do you use? Is there an organisational trick I'm not getting?

Waka

[KidRed]

Well, I personally love, and couldn't live without, Suitcase. The bugs were worked out and 9.1 I believe is what I use and is rock solid for me. I can drop in a font and make it live instantly while photoshop is still open. As for the menus, I think that also has to do with the program your trying to access the menus from, a lot of apps show the menus but PS doesn't.

I recommend you look at Suitcase (10 is in beta testing right now, although I don't have time to test it) I think 9.1 or 9.2 was the latest.

[MikeM32]

I've used Suitcase 3 of all things for years. The only downside is that a while ago Adobe Type Reunion was a freebie included with an older version of Photoshop or Illustrator (not 100% sure which one though). This old version of ATR (I believe it was 1.2 or something) used to handle the font sub-menus well in QuarkXPress. Quark's the app. I'm using 90% of the time at work.

When we upgraded all our workstations to OS 9.X we lost the sub-menuing capabilities because ATR doesn't work with the new OS. Suitcase 3 surprisingly still does work however, so we haven't looked at anything else for a while, but will have to eventually. Symantec Suitcase 3 also didn't require a separate use license for each system it runs on. Once Extensis took the "ball into thier court" that all changed. We couldn't keep running different OS's on different mac's so we just "ate-it" where the submenuing goes.

I'm not bashing anyone elses preferences here, but I demoed Suitcase 8 and 9 and didn't like the sub-menuing capabilities myself. At least where using QuarkXPress is concerned.

The new ATR is only bundled with ATM~Deluxe, but if it still works sub-menuing fonts the way the older one did, I'd think ATM~Deluxe will be the way for my place of work to go. We'll just have to pay the extra $$$ for a multi user license or something like that.

Mike

[WakaWakaWaka]

Originally posted by MikeM32:
<STRONG>
When we upgraded all our workstations to OS 9.X we lost the sub-menuing capabilities because ATR doesn't work with the new OS. Suitcase 3 surprisingly still does work however, so we haven't looked at anything else for a while, but will have to eventually. Symantec Suitcase 3 also didn't require a separate use license for each system it runs on. Once Extensis took the "ball into thier court" that all changed. We couldn't keep running different OS's on different mac's so we just "ate-it" where the submenuing goes.

I'm not bashing anyone elses preferences here, but I demoed Suitcase 8 and 9 and didn't like the sub-menuing capabilities myself. At least where using QuarkXPress is concerned.

The new ATR is only bundled with ATM~Deluxe, but if it still works sub-menuing fonts the way the older one did, I'd think ATM~Deluxe will be the way for my place of work to go. We'll just have to pay the extra $$$ for a multi user license or something like that.
Mike</STRONG>

I've tried ATM/ATR but don't like it. Why? It only allows one level of sub menus and I would like three or four levels. Also, previewing fonts in ATR is awful. Also, ATM doesn't give very much information about the fonts. If you're planning to spend a lot of money on ATM/ATR be aware that Adobe has announced that they will not be developing the product for OSX. Still, it seems to be the only product that isn't bug ridden; I can see why you'd choose it for your workplace. I work alone so I'm a bit more flexible/tolerent about bugs (but just barely!).

Suitcase is actually pretty nice. A bit buggy and the font menu, although quite nice, doesn't allow multiple levels.

Font reserve seems to be the most powerful but is very buggy and the menu system is the least desireable.

I'll probably give my money to Extensis in th end. I wish they'd go a little farther though.

Waka

[WakaWakaWaka]

D'oh

[ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: WakaWakaWaka ]

[drfrank]

I have been using Font Reserve with no problems for the past few years. I changed from ATM Deluxe when OS 9 was released (it did not support OS 9). If you have a lot of fonts this is the best font manager to use.

[WakaWakaWaka]

I tried Font Reserve 2.5.2 and found that the database corrupted very quickly. FR didn't seem to have any way to recover from this and usually just stopped loading. I checked the fonts and they seemed fine so it wasn't a font related problem.

I noticed that 2.6 is on their site now; I'll down load it and give it a second chance.

I also noticed an old ad for TypeTamer 2. Anyone tried it?

I appreciate the responses I've gotten. Thanks for the help.


Waka

[MikeM32]

I've tried ATM/ATR but don't like it. Why? It only allows one level of sub menus and I would like three or four levels. Also, previewing fonts in ATR is awful. Also, ATM doesn't give very much information about the fonts. If you're planning to spend a lot of money on ATM/ATR be aware that Adobe has announced that they will not be developing the product for OSX. Still, it seems to be the only product that isn't bug ridden; I can see why you'd choose it for your workplace. I work alone so I'm a bit more flexible/tolerent about bugs (but just barely!).

If ATR still works the way the old one did, it'll put a single "Helvetica Condensed" menu with it's separate styles in the sub-menu (I.E. Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique, etc., etc.).

Two different opinions here, but that's the way I prefer the fonts to appear. With Suitcase 8 and 9, I noticed that it took Helvetica, Helvetica Condensed, Helvetica Neueu and stuck 'em all into a single "Helvetica" with a single sub-menu.

That's way confusing for me. But it's a matter of preference really.

Mike

[prolix]

font management gives me a headache. its bad enough having to do this crap on my own systems, but trying to balance what i do on my equipment and then having to move files between my work and then the university design lab.. ugh.

anyway, i want a program that i can load up my list of fonts in and just LOOK at them. i want to see what they are and flip through then i can say "oh that may work" then i can jump to whatever i'm using to load fonts (ATM and ATR right now...) and make my set. i use font folio 9 on my systems and loading all of my fonts to look at them isn't realistic at all. we have a limited set of fonts at school so its easier there but i do most work on my own systems (g4 tower and new ibook). i just got a copy of suitcase 10 so maybe it will do a better job for me. i don't really care what i use to load the font sets, but some way to preview fonts before i load them would be great. so far i haven't found anything. better yet would be a single app that did all of this but i don't think one exists.

[vsurfer]

5 months later

what's everyone's favorite font management program for Qrk and PS?

[Apple Pro Underwear]

i cannot believe nobody really liked ATM.

when i use a font program....i use it for about a minute. i load my fonts or turn on a pre-existing folder or whatever...done in a minute and close the program. That is why ATM is the best. it isn't buggy. it works GREAT with adobe products. It works about the same with quark if not better than the other programs.

I used suitcase at a former job and i assumed that they used it because the could not afford to buy ATM Deluxe. I was going to tell my boss that adobe was selling a more barebones form of ATM but then i found out that he actually liked suitcase better.

Suitcase worked decently but i have to admit....that whole program looks amatuer. I thought it was shareware the first time i saw it. I also had to restart a program to get the font to work all the time. In ATm it only happens with Flash 5 but the adobe stuff works perfect. I couldn't get suitcase to real-time font management . I think they may have changed it but i didn't want to deal with what i felt was a "amateur program" at the time. I didn't have the trust in it like i did with ATm.

By the way, i'm a print/web designer.

[was WakaWakaWaka]

I finally broke down and bought Suitcase. I'm not really all that impressed but I needed something and right now it's the only game in town.

The down side is that, in many ways, it's a downgrade from the OS9 version. No font menu app, no temporary activiations, doesn't auto-activate at all for many apps. Not impressed.

If I had a really good menu organiser with good previews I could probably live with it but I have to say--I'm waiting for Font Reserve to hit the streets.

I don't think I've ever seen a font/menu manager that I thought was really good. They all seem like half efforts (though it may be much harder than I realize to write these things?). ATM/ATR was pretty good but it didn't have very many ways to slice and dice the collection: it didn't report on foundry for instance.

On the bright side, suitcase has made working in OSX much more smooth fo me.


Waka &gt; MemeTransport