Prepressforums.com - Font Book? or Font Poop!!

Brainstrained · #1 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 07:08 PM

Hi All,
I need some feedback on an ongoing issue that has bugged us since upgrading to OSX (10.3.4) from OS9.2. I have heard conflicting views on the use of Font Book for managing fonts. The "guru's" who upgraded our system (not on all macs, thank god) told me that we could do away with using ATM or Suitcase as Font Book was the greatest thing since sliced bread! Well, needless to say that's certainly NOT the case as far as I am concerned. We have a lot more font problems than we ever had! Others I have spoken to have said that Suitcase helps solve most of the probs, and another collegue suggested converting our postcript fonts using some utility (cant remember the name). The main culprit is qwerk, IDCS doesn't usually give us any headaches at all.
Your views would be appreciated.
Cheers.

seetomtype · #2 (**permalink**) 07-13-2005, 07:34 PM

To the best of my knowledge, Font Book isn't a very powerful font
management program. I have never tried it, but I have never seen
somebody say, "It's so awesome!" That being said, if your version of
Suitcase is OS X compatable, than you should use that while investigating
other programs. I use version 10, but it requires constant maintenance,
which isn't very hard, but it is there to be considered. I have heard that
version 11 is better... A required piece of software is Font Finagler,
found here: http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/fontfinagler/

It keeps your cache clean (VERY important).

I think you will find that a slim majority in this forum will prefer Font Agent
Pro (don't let the "Pro" fool you), over Suitcase 11. Just an observation, as
my R & D consists of 99% research, and 1% no buget. I'm sure that you will
see other opinions, and there is a recent string at:

http://www.prepressforums.com/module...viewtopic&t=41

which can be sifted through and some good info gleened. The Fonts and
OS X forums have some good ones, too. Folks here are pros

:wink:

edit: depending how heavy you intend to manage your fonts, Font Book
may work for you, But if you plan on doing anything besides word
processing you will need to get a stonger font manager. You will
thank youself :wink:

edit2 :roll: : Quack 6.+ is much more problematic with fonts than IDCS+
I'm not sure why, but that's my experience. I seem to fight with
Quack 6.+ EVERY... SINGLE... TIME!!! (Quack 4.04 is no problem).

Don't convert your postscript fonts with anything unless it is an absolute
last resort. Others may not agree with me on this, but those seem to
be my most stable and predictable fonts on the Mac side.

For what it's worth...

Montoid · #3 (**permalink**) 07-14-2005, 01:33 AM

Hi, I feel your pain believe me, I've found that Suitcase is the best choice of fontmanager so far, after trying font book and font agent pro, the latter being pretty good accept for slow activation of fonts which can cause frustration. There are many sources that will suggest how to pare down your active fonts and system fonts in a variety of ways which I've also tried and found that after installing Creative Suite, Quark, Office etc. it's better to leave well alone as long as you can stand to have about a hundred fonts active before you even start activating your own. Mind you, suitcase isn't perfect but if we will all insist on having the latest software and upgrades then it's the most compatible so far!

pcmodem · #4 (**permalink**) 07-14-2005, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montoid

There are many sources that will suggest how to pare down your active fonts and system fonts in a variety of ways which I've also tried and found that after installing Creative Suite, Quark, Office etc. it's better to leave well alone as long as you can stand to have about a hundred fonts active before you even start activating your own.

But if you don't slim down your OSX fonts you will have conflicts with some of your own fonts, such as Helvetica and Times. Not to mention that you shouldn't use the OSX System fonts for design work.

David · #5 (**permalink**) 07-14-2005, 06:23 AM

In a prepress environment, FontBook doesn't cut the mustard. It works well if you don't use a ton of fonts and you don't need to activate or deactivate often.
We use Suitcase 11.0.4 with Font Doctor. For problems I use several methods.
1. Do a find and look for adobefnt files. Delete all adobefnt files (just the .lst files, not the .db files).
2. In the Quark application folder is a sub folder named Jaws. Open that up and delete the "ttfont" folder. (It will regenerate upon quark restarting).
3. Download and use fontfinagler to keep your mac clean.
4. Keep your system fonts to a minimum. Check out this thread on the Apple web site.

Hope this helps,
David

Dannigd · #6 (**permalink**) 07-14-2005, 07:39 AM

I used extensis for a long time until I upgraded to Tiger. Even with the 11.04 my computer kept crashing. So I switched to font reserve. I have had no problems since. But it is slow at activating fonts. I also run Font Doctor on all my fonts before I load them.

Montoid · #7 (**permalink**) 07-17-2005, 11:57 PM

Err, I don't as a rule use system fonts for design work, that doesn't mean to say that customers won't though (stay away from the ones named after cities). I have minimal duplicate font warnings without cutting down my fonts, works for me . . . :?

almaink · #8 (**permalink**) 07-18-2005, 05:33 AM

"In a prepress environment, Font-Book doesn't cut the mustard."

I disagree, since in prepress most of the time the fonts you use are customer supplied Font Books features can make it easy. If you set it to copy fonts for your use only, they will be placed into youruser/library/fonts folder. After you are done remove the fonts by deleting from Font Book and emptying the trash.

pcmodem · #9 (**permalink**) 07-18-2005, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by almaink

"In a prepress environment, Font-Book doesn't cut the mustard."

I disagree, since in prepress most of the time the fonts you use are customer supplied Font Books features can make it easy. If you set it to copy fonts for your use only, they will be placed into youruser/library/fonts folder. After you are done remove the fonts by deleting from Font Book and emptying the trash.

Each shop has their own way of doing things. Loading of fonts has always been one of those things different in each shop and everyone thinks they have the best way.

As long as your way gets in done correctly without problems or work arounds then there is no wrong way.

Serenak · #10 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 02:27 AM

Personally I use Suitcase 11.0.4 (only problem is that under Tiger it "unexpectedly quits" after loading as a login item - this seems to be due to the fact that Tiger appears to have fsck'd the login items in general and is nothing to do with Suitcase)

I also removed all those .dfonts (especially Times, Helvetica, Arial, etc. that cause endless conflicts) and all the ones that Adobe, Microsoft et al distribute so liberally around the Mac for you.

Barring a minimal set of system fonts Suitcase is in charge of all fonts which are stored in a central fonts library folder (NOT anywhere the system looks for fonts).

I have never used or tried Master Juggler, Font Reserve or any of the others. I've used Suitcase since the year dot and it has always worked for me...

I use mostly IDCS and have little or no problems with fonts, I use Xpress 6.5 when I have to (I hate Xpress and always have done) and hove so far not experienced any font related issues...