Font Managers - Do you use one? Which?
Hi all ... my fonts are getting completely out of control and I need more. I'm pretty sure I need to buy a font manager (I've looked at free ones and they don't seem to fit the bill), but I have no idea which is the best. Do you use one? Which? What do you like about it?
Thanks!
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
I don't use any. I find that organizing them by myself just as efficient, or not, as any manager. The fonts that your computer uses are in the windows/fonts folder but I made a separate folder, called fonts, on my drive and I keep all of mine there divided into subfolders like calligraphic, handwritten, techy, gothic, old west, grunge, dingbats, etc. Depending on your computer you can only have so many "loaded" into the windows/fonts folder at one time. Older pcs have around 1,500 max and newer pcs 3,000 plus (mine maxes at 3,500) but, if you're like me and have way more than that, you have to keep them somewhere else. What's more important is a good font viewer that can load from a directory other than windows/fonts. I'm using Main Type and Font Creator both from High Logic but I used to use a free one but I can't remember what it was called. The AMP free viewer looks very similar to what I'm using.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
I'm previewing MainType right now, as a matter of fact. Do you like Font Creator too? I'm pretty pleased with their Scanahand product, even though its use is limited.
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
I haven't used it for quite a while and I didn't really know what I was doing when I did use it so I can't really say.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
I'm still using AMP font viewer http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php since The Font thing seems horrible unsupported.
Free but adequate for my needs.
-Rob A>
My tutorials: Using GIMP to Create an Artistic Regional Map ~ All My Tutorials
My GIMP Scripts: Rotating Brush ~ Gradient from Image ~ Mosaic Tile Helper ~ Random Density Map ~ Subterranean Map Prettier ~ Tapered Stroke Path ~ Random Rotate Floating Layer ~ Batch Image to Pattern ~ Better Seamless Tiles ~ Tile Shuffle ~ Scale Pattern ~ Grid of Guides ~ Fractalize path ~ Label Points
My Maps: Finished Maps ~ Challenge Entries ~ My Portfolio: www.cartocopia.com
Amp comes highly recommended by myself.
I tend to not to keep a lot of fonts loaded. Amp allows me to load the fonts I need as I need to use them. I did find it's convenient to keep copies of the font files in the maps I use them on so I can find them easily. That way when Photoshop complains "the fonts aren't loaded, you can't edit them as vector" I can load up Amp, tell it to temporarily install the fonts in the map folder, and off I go.
I dunno, maybe fonts are managed easier now, I come from a time when the more fonts you had loaded in active memory, the slower things ran, so i developed this workflow.
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
I use nexus font. Supports groups/categories and easy loading/unloading with a mouseclick.
I'm using Advanced Font Viewer and paid circa $20 for the full version. Bit of a mistake as it doesn't do the one thing I want it to, and that is to organise my fonts into families of my choosing with the font manager so I can find what I'm looking for quickly. I've downloaded nexus font from DJ's recommendation and it does exactly what I want it to do (and it's free!) Thanks DJ!!
Gidde, I'm using Font Creator at the moment, and I love it. The interface is really intuitive and easy to use and it hasn't crashed yet. From what I've read on the webs it's an 'enthusiast level' font creator, but then it's much cheaper than the pro font apps and so far it (apart from a couple of minor niggles, like not having a preview screen which is anti-aliased) it does everything I want it to do. I'd highly recommend you give the demo a whirl.
Thanks for the input so far, everyone. I'm not sure if it's where my slowness was coming from but after i started my clearing crusade last night i found i was down to 350 (i must have been around 600). I'd like to get below 100 if windows will let me. will check out Amp and FontNexus tonight. And Ravs --- thanks for the info on FontCreator. I tried that TypeLight but wow the learning curve. I'll check it out.
Last edited by Gidde; 01-25-2011 at 08:53 AM.
Gidde's just zis girl, you know?
My finished maps | My deviantART gallery
My tutorials: Textured forests in GIMP, Hand-Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged
Im using Font Glancer
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
