Is Font Manager X3 still available?

[Ken]

To the original poster:
I've got a brand new, totally unused copy of Fontmanager X3 (came as part of a bundle).
You're welcome to it for free if you can pay the postage via Paypal
You can contact me via my website link below / contact form

[sunset]

Interesting thread. I couldn't work out what to do with my copy of Font Manager X3, nothing that I tried actually worked. I had thought that I would be able to organise my fonts - keep collections together, have a section for my everyday fonts to save looking through such long lists, but it just either was unfathomable or didn't work.

[kira13]

Originally Posted by Bill Schuhle The purported really cool integration involves FM automatically finding and activating fonts that are missing when, in PP, one is opening a PP document or PDF file. These fonts are then supposedly de-activated at the close of the current PP session. Problem is, the really cool function isn't working for me and nobody on the forums, including Sarah, has been able to suggest anything that has brought this "synergy" alive .

I have FM X3 and went looking for this a while ago. Apparently, the way to get that function working is to have the fonts properly categorized (i.e. using the Font Groups). I haven't gotten around to categorizing all of mine (not by a long shot!) yet, but I recently used a rarely-used font in a project and opted not to install it, but did put it into a Font Group, and that document does seem to load the font correctly.

Not without minor hiccups, though--same as with documents that use DrawPlus drawings inserted as OLE objects, I get Windows dialogs suggesting that Windows can't find things. But it works in spite of those.

By default, adding a font to a Font Group in FM X3 copies the font file to the Font Group folder (the groups turn out to be a set of folders in Windows). Somewhere there's a setting to prefer to link the fonts to the groups instead of copying them, and that's what I've done. Perhaps having the font file itself in the folder instead of a shortcut link prevents the Windows dialog.

And for what it's worth, for the person who wanted to use fonts across the network--this is my goal too, as I have several font collections on a server. This is why I want the font files *linked* rather than copied to the group folders. The odd font I used in my working document is one of the network fonts and the only drawback is that it also has to be in a group folder (not necessarily the same one!) on every computer you're going to use it from.

Here's a possible way of making it work (note, I haven't tried this myself): first, link all your fonts to Font Manager's Font Group folders. Either sort your fonts into different groups for the utility of having smaller collections to search thru at a time, or dump them all into one Font Group (and you can make your own groups within Font Manager), using the option to link them instead of copy or move them. Second, run a folder sync program that will keep all the computers' Font Group folders in sync with each other.

WAIT--even better, I just checked Font Manager's options, and you can change the root folder for Font Groups! So you can probably just point it straight to your existing network font folder(s) on each computer! You may need to have a mapped network drive to do that, but Font Manager is definitely aware of network folders, at least in its Folders view.

The upshot is that if Font Manager thinks your fonts are in Font Groups, no matter how you get there, it should automatically temp install "missing" fonts when you open a document that uses them ("missing" fonts being the ones that you only temp installed in the first place, or that someone else gave you a doc with and you have the font but it isn't installed).

Hope this helps,
Kira

[sunset]

This is exactly how I hoped it would work. I think that, for me, the program suffered from the sell by date phenomenom, i.e., after a certain amount of trying you just have to give up and attend to other things that have become more important. As soon as I have a chance I shall give it one more try, using your extremely helpful post as a guide.

[Bill Schuhle]

Originally Posted by kira13 I have FM X3 and went looking for this a while ago. Apparently, the way to get that function working is to have the fonts properly categorized (i.e. using the Font Groups). I haven't gotten around to categorizing all of mine (not by a long shot!) yet, but I recently used a rarely-used font in a project and opted not to install it, but did put it into a Font Group, and that document does seem to load the font correctly.

Kira,

Thanks for your post. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I *have* put all the fonts in my font collection (on my local computer -- I'm not on a network) into Font Groups (using the link option), but FM X3 still does not load missing fonts. I'll have a look at your suggestion of "re-rooting" FM and see if that helps.

[kira13]

Bill, I saw your other thread (which is where I originally learned about grouping them, but I know I saw it before February 2011, so the post dates really confused me) right after I responded in this one. Hadn't remembered that you were the same one in that thread.

I just started testing on my laptop by pointing Font Groups to the root of my font collection, and discovered that it takes a very long time to "think" when I click on my largest font folder (an entire CD's worth of fonts--they are currently stored in folders based on what CD they came on). Perhaps it works for me because I haven't categorized everything yet. So far, I've only categorized a relative few (couple dozen at most) that I'm likely to use, plus several that I have already used.

I don't know if search speed is a problem at all, for sure, not having my test doc on this computer yet, but I can envision 2 scenarios: 1. too many fonts per group and 2. too many fonts among all groups. But now that I've thought of this method for dealing with the network fonts, I'll be testing it.

Kira

[beegeeblueboy]

This really is a niche product and with the current spec of hardware and Windows 7 I'd it still needed?

[sunset]

I'm just idly wondering if we can categorise our fonts in the Win7 directory folder, instead? I would love to have document-safe fonts as my default folder and be able to look in other folders for the artistic stuff as and when I'm doing artistic work.

[Bill Schuhle]

Originally Posted by kira13 I don't know if search speed is a problem at all, for sure, not having my test doc on this computer yet, but I can envision 2 scenarios: 1. too many fonts per group and 2. too many fonts among all groups. But now that I've thought of this method for dealing with the network fonts, I'll be testing it.

Kira,

Thanks for the update. I haven't been doing anything with FontManager (except waiting and waiting and waiting for it to 'search' the font groups I created, never with any useful result). I think I'm going to uninstall it altogether as I don't know of any other way to cancel this useless and frustrating behavior.

(After writing the above, I decided to check into FM on more time and, looking at the Help files, was reminded of the sticking point I ran into last time: the requirement that, in order for FM to do its auto-activation thing, one must uninstall from the Windows Font Folder all of the non-system-essential fonts therein. I was loathe to do this as I wasn't sure where they would go should I uninstall them and didn't want to lose any. I'm now going to try it anyway and see what happens.)

[Bill Schuhle]

Originally Posted by beegeeblueboy This really is a niche product and with the current spec of hardware and Windows 7 I'd it still needed?

I don't know about FM in particular, but I feel a need for a font manager of some sort since I have something like 10,000 fonts in my collection and certainly wouldn't want to have them all installed at once and have to scroll through such a font menu on a regular basis even if the hardware could handle having the entire lot installed.

[Jim B.]

Originally Posted by Bill Schuhle ...looking at the Help files, was reminded of the sticking point I ran into last time: the requirement that, in order for FM to do its auto-activation thing, one must uninstall from the Windows Font Folder all of the non-system-essential fonts therein. I was loathe to do this as I wasn't sure where they would go should I uninstall them and didn't want to lose any. I'm now going to try it anyway and see what happens.)

To prevent losing/deleting any of your fonts, try this...

Create a new folder, perhaps call it "C:\Windows\Fonts from Elsewhere", then put a copy of all the non-system fonts in that folder.

Uninstall the non-system fonts from C:\Windows\Fonts

Use FontManager to look thru your "Fonts from Elsewhere" folder to manage fonts and create groups.

Also, as you acquire new/additional fonts, put them in the "Fonts from Elsewhere" folder, too. I create sub folders for my additional fonts, similar to this...

C:\Windows\Fonts from Elsewhere\PagePlus X4
C:\Windows\Fonts from Elsewhere\MEGAPack 1000 fonts
C:\Windows\Fonts from Elsewhere\Purchased from BitStream
...and so on.

[Jim B.]

Originally Posted by beegeeblueboy This really is a niche product and with the current spec of hardware and Windows 7 I'd it still needed?

IMO, the main value of a font manager is to:

1. reduce the number of installed fonts to only system fonts and those that you most often use in your work. This keeps the "font list" usably/conveniently small in your programs - it doesn't take "forever" to scroll thru the list of fonts to get from Arial to Verdana, or back.

2. create "groups" that contain those fonts used with specific projects or clients. With a click or two, you can install a group, work on that project or client's materials, then uninstall that group.

JMO. YMMV.

[sunset]

That's exactly how I want to work - I might give it another go with the help of your comments.

[Jim B.]

Some people (as I do) have a few thousand, or more, fonts installed on their computer's hard drive, and often many (all?) of those fonts are installed in Windows.

Unfortunately, many of those fonts are probably somewhat less than "quality" fonts , while others are merely copies/clones or minor variations of various fonts.

One result of having so many fonts is that chances are good that a lot of those fonts are virtually identical in appearance. Those duplicates could be deleted.

Another result is that the poorly designed (and potentially defective) fonts could cause problems when using those fonts in a desk top publishing program or an advanced word processor, like PagePlus or OpenOffice.

[Bill Schuhle]

Originally Posted by Jim B. To prevent losing/deleting any of your fonts, try this...

Thanks for the tips, Jim. I had gone ahead and deleted the non-system fonts after making a backup as well as a system restore point, re-started, then tried firing up PPX5 to see if FontManager would now behave as promised. No joy. It did not auto-activate needed fonts (my entire font collection is in various groups of which FM *should* be aware) and in fact still showed as greyed out in the font substitution dialogue (indicating that PP still is not aware that it is installed which has been the case all along), so I proceeded to uninstall it altogether. I wasn't sure if it would, but going back to the system restore point established prior to this little foray did in fact re-populate the Fonts folder with all the non-system fonts that had been there without my having to re-install from the backup folder.

[uriah]

Hmmm, what about this <gasp> non-serif FREE product; I only just came across it but it may do what you want; I shall certainly give it a whirl.

http://www.cfontpro.com/

[colin_e]

Well, as a long-term user of Proxima FontExpert, i'm fascinated to discover that Serif was, for a while at least, selling an "integrated" version of FontExpert as it's own product.

I think I can fill in some of the gaps about what FontExpert / Font Manager can do and why, although I will point out i'm still running an old copy of FontExpert (2003) so it's possible there are new features if Font Manager was based on a new version.

• Why use a font manager?
  As previous contributors have noted, install a bunch of office and graphics applications and you will end up with a LOT of fonts. Many might be of poor quality, and/or visually equivalent to other fonts you already have. You end up with a lot of junk fonts.
  
  At the very least this will make selecting a font from a linear list of maybe 1000+ font names in the average application no fun at all.
  
  Further, most applications dump all their fonts in the C:\Windows\Fonts directory, from where Windows automaticaly detects them and installs a registry entry for each registered font. In old versions of Windows (pre-XP) at somewhere between 500 and 1000 fonts this would start to slow the windows boot time and/or make the system unstable (causing crashes).
  
  Modern OS's and hardware don't suffer from this so badly, but the fact remains that once you have several hundred (mostly crappy) fonts cluttering up your font lists, you need a better way to manage them.
• Why use FontExpert (Font Manager)?
  Firstly FontExpert lets you move whole swathes of fonts out of the C:\Windows\Fonts directory. Note however- you need to be careful! Some fonts are critical to the Windows system, or to some applications, so don't just move all the fonts out of the system folder or you could break your system!
  
  The safest approach is to 'snapshot' the system font folder early on in building a clean machine, then as you add new non-Microsoft applications you can generally safely move any new fonts they add during installation out to a personal "font management" folder.
  
  As someone else mentioned, you can move the FontExpert "font groups" storage folder wherever you want, at least on a local disk. I think you may have problems if you try to do this from a network share (see below).
  
  Then Fontexpert lets you-
  • Sort fonts into categories (folders). I believe later version of FE allow you to assign tags to fonts too.
  • Preview fonts before installing them.
  • Install fonts, individually or by category, into the registry (so Windows "knows" about them) WITHOUT moving them into the Windows font folder. This means you can easily un-install them again (by having FE remove the registry entries) HOWEVER I would expect this to only work if the font files are on a local disk. As noted above, if you have your font files on a network share I would expect that you'd need to use the "copy fonts to system folder" option in FE when installing them.
  • Un-install fonts individually, or by category.
  • Generate print-style "contact sheets" of all your fonts as a catalogue (one for the real font nerds).
  • FontExpert has a bunch of other advanced font features (like looking for "broken" fonts) that i must admit I have never used.

Basically, if you only have a hundred fonts or so, and/or you are willing to weed-out the Windows font folder and keep a favourite set of core fonts you use for everything, you probably don't need FE.

On modern machines you can get away with having several hundred fonts installed permanently, it's just a pain trawling through them in an application to find what you want.

A tool like FontExpert comes into its own in situations where-

1. You have a lot of fonts (1000+) and you want to be able to find a font by category (say "script" or "decorative").
2. You do commissioned work, where some customers may specify custom font sets for their work, and you want to keep these sets separate.
3. You are just a tidy freak, and like to have things organised ;-)

[linkassoc]

I agree with Colin and Bill Schuhle. I don't like a Windows Font Folder full of the fonts that come with various software packages. At least Serif now give us the option of not installing the fonts in the Windows Folder, while others gaily dump there fonts there, whether we want them or not.

Yes, modern machines can cope with larger Font Folders, but there is the 'tidiness' aspect that Colin mentioned as well as the time it takes to wade through a long list and choose.

I have used Font Expert along with various other Font Managers over the years and was really pleased when Serif brought out their amended version to work with PP and WP. A real boon. So, I moved over, just to get the 'integration'. It's brilliant to know that any fonts used in a particular client's job will be found and loaded while the job is being worked on and then uninstalled - and even then, the physical font file needn't be installed, just a link.

It's bad news that Serif are not selling it anymore. Proxima Software provide plug-ins for Font Expert to integrate with Adobe products in a similar fashion. They are quite prepared to develop plug-ins for the Serif range of products too - providing Serif provide them with an SDK (Software Development Kit).

I, for one, really hope that Serif will cooperate and supply the SDK, because the availability of such add-ons help to make their own products more usable and also, more professional.

Until then, I will continue to use my FontManager X3 alongside FontExpert.

[indigo_wolf]

Originally Posted by linkassoc I agree with Colin and Bill Schuhle. I don't like a Windows Font Folder full of the fonts that come with various software packages. At least Serif now give us the option of not installing the fonts in the Windows Folder, while others gaily dump there fonts there, whether we want them or not.

Sadly some software vendors can't seem to grasp the concept that "their" software is a guest on "my" computer. Unilaterally installing items in the QuickLaunch bar, System Tray, AutoRun list (needed or not), and/or forcing a "C: Drive" install are other examples of this rather self-centered mentality.

ATB,
Sam