Font Explorer Tip
October 2nd, 2005One of the best ways to keep fonts organized is by foundry. So all your Adobe, Emigre and House Industries fonts are grouped together. More adventuresome is grouping them by other designations. Dingbats, serifs, scripts and Pi/Symbols. In most font management apps, one would have to do this by hand. Every time you change jobs or get a new machine means a day or three organizing fonts.
Linotype’s FontExplorer X does this for you in about .3 seconds with its Smart Set feature.
You click the New Smart set menu item from the gear widget dropdown menu:
In the shade that slides down, filter by Copyright, Trademark and Manufacturer. This works great for foundries like T-26 and indie shops as well as the big guns like FontFont and Adobe:
(click image for larger size)
This works so well, I’ve got a ton of smart sets that enable me to find what I need in a fraction of the time it takes with other font managers. Font management the way it should be. o
October 2nd, 2005 at 11:18 am
Already downloaded it…and LOVE it.
October 2nd, 2005 at 12:00 pm
FontExplorerX really is a nice app. I used Font Book before finding out about this puppy (and, oddly enough, it never caused me a lick of trouble) and it seemed fine at the time, but now that I use FontExplorerX I’m seeing how incredibly lame FB really is.
Now if Linotype would set up FontExplorerX to give me my student discount when I use it to purchase fonts… I still have to go to the web site for that.
October 2nd, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Man do I wish I understood this language. What are you saying about me?!!?!? I know you’re talking about me!! I need to learn to speak this gibberish so I can catch you in the act and wouldn’t you just freak out if I suddenly started speaking it back to you all fluent, then you would think I was on to you the whole time!!!!!
October 2nd, 2005 at 2:49 pm
Thanks for the tip; I’m a regular reader and pass on Mac tips to my mac-user hubby. I’m a pc user so when I talk Mac, my hubby thinks I’m ¸ber sexy… Even better when he finds your tips to be as super useful as this one!
October 2nd, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Jon,
I don’t understand a single word you say, but I like you as a person… well, as much as someone can like another person having never ever met or laid eyes on that other person, I mean…
October 3rd, 2005 at 4:24 am
jon
i love your site. your photography is great. your writing is witty, apposite, challenging. i salute your decision to follow your dreams.
but please, for the love of god, or at least to satisfy uptight pedants like me, get your lovely wife to explain to you the difference between its and it’s!
October 3rd, 2005 at 6:27 am
Jon — hope they paid you for that endorsement.
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:08 am
parsnip, I’m aware of the difference. It’s called a typo.
October 3rd, 2005 at 9:25 am
I think I’ll try this FontExplorer - Suitcase is doing my head in! I’ve never hated a program so much. However, my studio has about 3,500 fonts, do you think this FontExplorer would cope OK?
October 3rd, 2005 at 10:27 am
minx, shouldn’t be a problem at all. I think you’lll be surprised at the speed.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:33 am
I never know what’s going on in this place…and now I feel inadequate. It’s like there’s this whole world of things out there I don’t understand.
Maybe that’s why I come here. It keeps me humble.
October 3rd, 2005 at 2:35 pm
I just love the concept of font management. Man, talk about manuscript empowerment!
3500 fonts? Minx, you’re the bomb, baby.
October 3rd, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Are you telling me that I can totally replace Suitcase with FontExplorer X? How well does it do with managing font conflicts? This seems almost too good to be true.
October 3rd, 2005 at 5:18 pm
So far, when it sees multiple fonts, it gives you the option to choose which one to activate, or you just let it activate what it thinks it needs. Activation works pretty well in Adobe apps, but I haven’t tried Macromedia Studio (would be mostly Fireworks). I was very skeptical, especially after being bruised by Apple’s Font Book.
I’ve gone to print using InDesign to package a production kit and Font Explorer (but Linotype suggests that you don’t use their software on a production system) because I was so damn tired of all the other options.
When you install it, you can check an option that will copy your fonts or move them. I chose the copy option, just in case Font Explorer was jacked or jacking my system. So far, so good.
October 3rd, 2005 at 6:30 pm
HUH??????
October 3rd, 2005 at 7:50 pm
I meant to say, multiple fonts with the same name. Oy.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:11 pm
Um, you and you font dorks are a total dorks.
(Not meant in the pejorative sense,of course. More in the defensive and jealous-because-I-have-been-outdorked sense… Actually, maybe I DID mean it pejoratively and I am just being passive-aggressive. I mean GOD, I’m not really a DESIGNER I’m a just a blogger a lowley BLOGGER. I use the templates! GOD! What do you want from me! GEEZ!)
Uh, sorry ’bout that. I’m okay now.
October 3rd, 2005 at 11:11 pm
Um, you and you font dorks are a total dorks.
(Not meant in the pejorative sense,of course. More in the defensive and jealous-because-I-have-been-outdorked sense… Actually, maybe I DID mean it pejoratively and I am just being passive-aggressive. I mean GOD, I’m not really a DESIGNER I’m a just a blogger a lowley BLOGGER. I use the templates! GOD! What do you want from me! GEEZ!)
Uh, sorry ’bout that. I’m okay now.
October 4th, 2005 at 12:44 am
Does someone who just writes email with Outlook express need something as complicated-sounding as this? I don’t want to download something I don’t really need…
B.T.W., I am a huge fan of you and your wife’s wonderful blogs, and have wanted to say this for some months… You guys rock. Good luck with this new endevor, and I hope you two will always be around.
October 4th, 2005 at 9:55 am
I was just given my first Mac (a powerbook to use for work), and you’d better believe I’ll be combin’ your site for Mac tips. My plan is to use your information to out-geek my boss, no small feat.
Oh, god, I so desperately need a life…
October 4th, 2005 at 10:46 am
The pic of Leta for 10/4/05 is so beautiful. She’s is turning into quite a little lady.
October 4th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
I have no idea what you’re talking about, but enjoyed the post anyway. BTW that kid of yours has quite the head of hair.
October 4th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
Great- I was actually wrestling with suitcase a while ago! suitcase for os x is definitely worlds away from os 9 (am a relatively late switcher) and for the worse. now hopefully you have some adobe distiller 7 advice, too- or maybe an alternative? i think it also got overcomplicated after 4!
Must download that font explorer and see what it does to freehand.
October 4th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Will you please ask Heather to email me. I have something funny to send to her. (To do with husband’s ability to drive to the grocery store. My five year old had a funny comment about his Dad’s driving ability and it’s a bit like Leta’s Dad’s.) I refer to Heather as my new best friend. My husband is used to my channel surfing through friends. Usually they’re women I’ve met at the store or at my kids’ school. But when I say “You know. Dooce. My new best friend” meaning my virtual new best friend, my husband pauses a pregnant pause, the contents of which might one day be revealed in couples therapy.
Love your blogs.
Aimstress
October 5th, 2005 at 6:29 am
So, it must be me - but how do you go about setting up smart folders for typestyles, such as sans serif, modern, serif etc. it seems to only be bale to pick the information from the typeface name and not any metadata about the typeface (if there is any)?
October 13th, 2005 at 10:51 am
Pardon me if I am being ignorant here, but is this program one to use with Tiger? My partner is having major font issues with Tiger…if Font Explorer can save us, we will forever sing your praises!
October 13th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Min.d, yes, this (font explorer x) is the one to use with Tiger.
October 13th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Bless you, Blurb. Bless you.
October 18th, 2005 at 8:48 am
Upon installing, did you select “Don’t manage font files,” “Manage fonts by copying files,” or “Manage fonts by moving files?”
I decided to take your advice after I discovered that InDesign and FontBook have radically different ideas about which fonts I have enabled.
October 18th, 2005 at 9:22 am
Nevermind- all is well!
Aaaaaaaaaaaalleluia!