Welcome!

[wittmania]

I would like to hear some ideas on how to better manage and work with fonts. I have hundreds (?) of fonts installed and it is impossible to know what they all are. It is equally impossible to scroll through all of them in Photoshop or Fireworks to try and find the *exact* right one when working on a project.

How do people keep their fonts straight? Do you have favorites you go back to again and again? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[FrankRose]

I have few fonts sorted by types (elegant, modern, handwriting..). I'm using Font Manager (Windows) and FontExplorer (Mac). You can categorize, filter, add tags, activate or deactivate fonts, add or link fonts to font groups (sets). I think that it can be helpful for you .

[cooterbrown]

I don't think anyone has found a perfect answer. I'm on a Mac & I use fontbook. But for as good as Mac's are - the multiple ways they treat fonts can be confusing and daunting. Not to mention the numbers of fonts, by default, computers comes with (mac's international languages)...

I am interested in the responses here - because I'd try a different method if it seemed to suit me well.

Good thread!

[falkencreative]

I personally use Linotype FontExplorerX, though I use the Free version that I don't believe is offered any more. I've definitely found it important to have a font management program. I'm working my way through my fonts (some 3000+ or so) and categorizing them (serif, sans serif, script, etc) so I can find what I am looking for easily. Burdening my system by installing all of the fonts at once isn't really a good idea, so I use FontExplorerX to turn fonts on and off as I need them.

You might want to look at this for an overview of various font management programs: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09 ... -reviewed/

I'm actually considering moving to Fontcase (http://www.bohemiancoding.com/fontcase/preview.html) though it doesn't seem to have a feature that automatically enable/disable fonts. (For example, if you open a file in Photoshop, it would be convenient if Fontcase would automatically enable and fonts that are present in that file).

[mike360]

I use Suitcase Fusion by Extensis. That link is to v2, but I just have v1.

[Benjamin U]

One thing I do about fonts is that I don't install everyone I come by (bearing in mind the demand it would place on processor speed); I group them in folders according to their characteristics-e.g. "cursive", "serifs", "san serifs", "hand scripts", e.t.c.; then I proceed to create a preview list like a jpeg file since I can't remember the look of every font in my font archive.

when a project demands special or exotic fonts, I simply source for such from my font archive and install. there after, if font is not so important to me, I uninstall. Thank you for your time.

[Miro]

Take a look at Fontexpert, I think it's quite good. http://www.proximasoftware.com/fontexpert/

[gormandesignstudios]

I tried about four different managers and found MainType to be the best all around for me. You can get a free 30 day trial here
http://www.high-logic.com/maintype.html

[shareAll]

I'm an Extensis Suitcase fan. Allows you to organize into folders and view/activate fonts in many different ways/sizes:

http://www.extensis.com