Suggestions on a Font Manager

[Pablo Diablo]

So, here's a question I thought I'd throw out there-

Does anyone have a favorite Font Manager? I find that I have a LOT of fonts, and sometimes it is rough to wade through them to find the one I'm looking for (although the discovery process can be fun too).

Running Windows XP, I mainly use Photoshop, but have been using Illustrator and Vectorworks a bit as well, and dabble a little in Painter (but am not comfortable enough with it to really spend a lot of time in it).

Free is better, but I may be able to shell out a little cash, and it would be worthwhile just to hear what people think.

Thanks!
PD

[jaerdaph]

I would be interested in one of these too, as my font collection has ballooned over the years. Currently, I scroll through the font preview/selection list in MS Word, which is a bit time consuming.

[terrainmonkey]

speaking of fonts, i tend to use only one style for fonts in my maps. caslon antique. that pretty much has been my signature font for the last few years. that's the best way to do it, just pick one for every map and stick with it.

now i know that's impossible for the most die hard map maker, because of individual style of each map, but knowing three or 4 wouldn't be a bad idea. saves time going back and forth trying to find the perfect font. just use an old standby and you'll be fine...

[Midgardsormr]

Isn't there a font manager that comes bundled with Photoshop? It seems like I used one with an Adobe brand on it once.

I like Bitstream Font Navigator, but it's only available as a part of CorelDRAW. I don't know if it's still the case, but as of v.12 of DRAW, you could download the trial version of the whole program and get the Font Navigator along with it. DRAW would stop working after 30 days, but some of the ancillary software (Font Navigator included) would continue operating with no limitations.

I don't know if that's still the case, and I'm really not sure what kind of license Font Navigator comes with, so it might not be legal to use it in that fashion.

[ravells]

I would suggest checking out Printer's Apprentice.

It gives you the choice to view your fonts as sample text, character set, keyboard etc. And you can print out the fonts too. It's sharware and costs $25, but well worth the money imo. You can download an evaluation version (it's pretty good ...just a few nagging bits on it and no limitations).

Ravs

[RobA]

I used a freeware one, The Font Thing.

It worked well for TTF, but no Open Type support, as far as I know.

-Rob A>

[mathuwm]

The selection of Font management software for the PC is really poor compared to what is available out there for the Mac.

I would recommend only installing the fonts you like and archiving the rest in another folder. Having a signature set of fonts
Stylistically demonstrates a good sense of design and is les distracting than
Having 8000 fonts displayed in a document.
Having said that
I do not practice what I preach it is defiantly easer said than done.
And I personally do not have enough time to maintain my fonts in this manner

[jaerdaph]

Yeah, I pretty much have a short list of fonts I use for mapping depending on the type of map I want to create or the genre of the game the map will be used for, and that's good advice worth repeating. My need for a font manager/viewer would be for other projects both for games (e.g. player handouts) and work (blech!).

[MGCJerry]

AMP Font Viewer...
http://www.ampsoft.net/utilities/FontViewer.php

I use it all the time, and its price is right.

[RPMiller]

I have a Word doc somewhere that has a macro to generate pages of all your fonts. I'll have to see if I can scare that up again. Assuming anyone is interested of course. I'm not sure what folks want in the way of font management though.