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While there are other third-party font management utilities for OS X like FontAgent and Suitcase, they cost $100 or more.
Font families, folders holding fonts, sets, collections, font groups, and Smart Sets can all be viewed independently. FontExplorer checks which fonts are active and only turns ones that weren’t before, just like.
I'm not a heavy user of fonts, and pretty much all I really need a font manager for is to keep the fonts I don't use (that would be most of them) deactivated to speed up application launch times and keep font menus short. Apple of course bundles its Font Book utility with OS X but FontExplorer is much nicer, quicker, and more convenient to use, with most everything accessible in the main window, and when you disable a font with Font Explorer, it stays disabled when after you restart.
You decide where to store your font files, and when FontExplorer X should take over their management. Whether you want to use a folder structure, a Set, a Smart Set, or integrate with Apple’s Font Collections.
Whether you want to add a font folder or just a single font file, drag & drop is always available, allowing fonts to be imported with just one mouse click.
You can export font previews, or the fonts themselves, zipped or in a disk image.
FontExplorer X can supply you with a lot of information about your fonts, but won't bombard you with what you don't want to know it. You can view all of the information that interests you at your option. You can examine the complete character set, find out the legal stuff or just see a few sample paragraphs to view what a font looks like in real-world context.
When you first launch FontExplorer X, the program will run through a series of Setup Assistant panes, analyzing your font libraries and allowing you to configure the program to suit your requirements.
There are a variety of ways to activate or deactivate fonts with FontExplorer: Click on a checkbox, a button, right click on it to bring up a contextual menu or use a keyboard shortcut. FontExplorer X also supports Auto-Activation. letting you decide which applications may request fonts, and which may not.
Plugins for DTP apps like Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator and Quark XPress are also supported..
Besides the functions for organizing your fonts in FontExplorer X found in the user interface, additional functions are available from the "File" and "Tools" menus, such as scanning documents for contained fonts or cleaning the font caches.
FontExplorer X also features an integrated store which allows you to find, preview, purchase and download fonts directly from Linotype. You can examine and compare fonts inside FontExplorer X’s online store as if they were installed on your system.
All fonts and formats are recognized automatically and can be managed the way you prefer. You decide whether FontExplorer X should take control over the folder structure, or if you want to leave it untouched
The Font Explorer interface supports a variety of preview and filter/search options and settings, plus system and application font cache cleaning
The Source List
The Source list is located in the upper-left corner of FontExplorer X's main window. It lists all sources that the available fonts are grouped in and is used for navigation through the various font sources, as well as to add your own custom sources.
The following different sources can be found in the Source list:
• The Library is a special Set, which contains all fonts that are loaded in Linotype FontExplorer X.
• The Linotype Font Store is used to find, preview, purchase and download fonts quickly and easily.
• The Favorites contain fonts from the store you like and might buy sometime.
• The Shopping Cart contains all fonts you'll buy.
• The Order History contains all fonts you bought and lets you download them.
• Conflicts is used for identifying and solving existing font conflicts.
• System Sets are Sets that contain the fonts of the system font folders.
• Collections are part of Apple's FontBook collections, which appear in every Cocoa Application. They can be modified exactly like a normal Set.
• Last imported contains the fonts from the last font import.
• Folders are custom objects for grouping and managing Sets and Folders.
• Sets are custom objects for grouping and managing fonts according to your needs.
• Smart Sets are dynamic sets of fonts that search and group the available fonts by certain criteria.
You can also customize the appearance of the source list:
To show/hide the Collections, choose View > Show Collections.
This procedure applies to Conflicts and Last imported, too.
To show/hide the System Sets, choose View > Show System Fonts > In Sources.
The Font List
The font list displays all fonts that are included in the currently selected item in the Source list.
The following different items can be found in the font list:
• TrueType or PostScript fonts
• TrueType or PostScript fonts located in /
• TrueType or PostScript fonts located in /System/Library/Fonts
• OpenType fonts
• OpenType fonts located in /
• OpenType fonts located in /System/Library/Fonts
• Suitcases
• Suitcases located in /
• Suitcases located in /System/Library/Fonts
• OpenType group
• OpenType group located in /
• OpenType group located in /System/Library/Fonts
• Font families
To see which Sets/Smart Sets contain a selected font, hold the option (?) key. The appropriate Sets will be highlighted.
The Information Area
The information area displays detailed information fonts, suitcases, Sets, Smart Sets and the store.
The Font Preview
The font preview shows examples of the fonts that are selected in the font list. Double-click on a preview or press return in order to display a more detailed preview in the information window.
Key features of FontExplorer X:
Help Functions
Setup Assistant
Auto Updater
Comprehensive Application Help
Online FAQ Archive
Font Management
Enable/Disable Fonts
Clear Font Caches
Clear Application (Adobe®, Microsoft®, Quark®) Font Caches
Enable/Disable Sets
Smart Sets
Support for Apple´s Font Collections
Typeface family view
OpenType style linking view
Font Information
Customizable Preview
Detailed Preview
Character View
Font Information
Export as image/zip/disk image
Character information
System Integration
Spotlight Support
Works on 10.3.9 and 10.4
Missing-Font Handling
Systemwide auto-activation of fonts
Adobe InDesign CS1/CS2 Support
Adobe Illustrator CS1/CS2 Support
QuarkXPress 6.5 Support
Supported languages are currently English and German.
Miscellaneous
Integrated Font Store
Conflict Handling
Document font scanner
Growl support
Free download
FontExplorer X Change History
FontExplorer X Version 1.2.2 (build 435)
Release date: August 23, 2007
The update of Linotype FontExplorer X to version 1.2.2 delivers important bug fixes and is recommended for all users.
Updated features:
Complete redesign of the integrated Linotype Font Store
Lots of new fonts and Value Packs available in the integrated Linotype Font Store
Updated QuarkXPress 6.5/7.x Plug-Ins
Bug fixes (1.2.2):
Fixed a bug when checking for updates
Fixed a bug when creating a Smart Set
Fixed a bug when removing font request rules
Fixed a bug where “Import date” wasn’t localized
Fixed a bug where Application Font Cache Cleaning didn’t recognize QuarkXPress when running Mac OS X 10.3.9
Fixed a bug where creating a new Set from selection didn’t update the information area
Fixed a bug where FontExplorer X would crash when cleaning Application Font Caches
Fixed a bug where not all characters of an OpenType font were displayed in the information window
Fixed a bug where Reveal in Finder didn’t work
Fixed a bug where the import date wasn’t updated after importing a font again
Fixed a bug where the keyboard shortcut wasn’t updated when changing the keyboard layout
Fixed a bug where you couldn’t clean Application Font Caches although an application was selected
Fixed a bug which could crash FontExplorer X at startup
Fixed a bug which didn’t update the information area when moving Sets
Fixed some interface and text issues with the German localization
FontExplorer X is available for download free of charge. No license fee, no shareware, or nag screens, and no functionality limits. FontExplorer X is free.
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
For more information, visit:
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
Charles W. Moore
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