Insider Software just released version 3.1 of their font management software. Version 3.1 is said to be much faster with auto-activating fonts. Our tests with InDesign CS2 prove Insider right. But there’s more than this update than just performance. There’s better handling of Postscript 1 fonts as well, and a little more control in the hands of users.
Suitcase Fusion’s launch now brings the total of serious font managers to three: Suitcase Fusion, FontAgent, and Linotype FontExplorer X. FontAgent has long been the worst of all font managers, but the last two years, Insider Software has turned this application into a small gem.
When Suitcase XI was no longer really compatible with Mac OS X “Tiger”, FontAgent Pro could make an entry into many workshops where font libraries are among the most important tool chests. Managing large quantities of fonts is not easy. But FontAgent Pro takes the pain out of font management, and makes activating fonts almost a no-brainer. For people who would like to work with the Mac OS X Font Book, Apple publishes a font management training online.
In short, you can just forget about the program and fonts altogether. Just leave the daemon running in the background, and occasionally maintain your libraries and you’re done. If you’re a printer, even better: when a customer insists on you using his fonts, you can just drop them on FontAgent, and the program will do the rest.
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Auto-activation, however, did take a while, at least with InDesign CS2. With version 3.1 the wait is over. Fonts are faster activated and there is also a preference which allows you to turn off the activation messages you’re getting by default. Importing fonts is much faster as well. It’s faster than with any other font management program I know.
Daemon
FontAgent has one disadvantage: it requires a daemon running all the time. Other font managers don’t need a daemon, simply because you have to run the applications all the time to enjoy font management. FontAgent works differently. The daemon constantly monitors documents that require fonts which are not active. If a document in any application that supports auto-activation at all, uses fonts which are not active, the daemon will activate them.
This also means there’s something running in the background that can cause incompatibilities. The FontAgent daemon is actually very well behaved. I’ve never experienced it being the cause of an application crash, but in very rare circumstances can it cause FontAgent itself to become unstable.
Interface
The only real drawback of FontAgent Pro, even in the latest version, is its interface. It’s not particularly difficult to work with, or understand, but it’s, well, rather ugly.
It also uses some concepts that are perhaps better implemented differently. For example, FontAgent allows you to have different Sets, different Subsets, different Libraries. I can go along with the idea of sets. The idea of subsets is already less appealing to me. Perhaps other users actually need subsets. But different libraries?
Insider Software’s well-written FontAgent manual explains that different libraries come into their own when different customers want you to temporarily load their fonts on your system. Apart from copyright issues playing here, I don’t see why you should have to enter yet another level of font container.
Why not just use a set with the customer’s name? But again, perhaps I can’t see the usefulness of this feature because I’ve never had to deal with customers asking me this. Actually, that’s not true either. I had one client asking, but even then I didn’t find it necessary to set up a new library.
Conclusion
FontAgent Pro 3.1 is one of the two best font management applications available on Mac OS X. It’s not very expensive either. This being said, Linotype’s FontExplorer (final candidate) comes for free and is still a tad better than anything else.
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