Question question about Font organazation

[B13 Signs]

Hello All,
Had a question I just wanted to see what people thought.

So I have a billion Fonts loaded on my computer and sometimes when I am looking for a nice font on illustrator or on flexi I need to scroll though all my fonts in order to find the one I want.... SO the question is... what is the best program to use to navigate your fonts, maybe break them down into .. ie. Script, bold, serif.... for easy navigation...

or do I need to start memorizing all the fonts and/or print a font book for myself?

I have never found an program that worked very well so if anyone has a suggestion or incite on how they solve this problem it would be greatly appreciated.

thank you for any help.

 

[Jay Grooms]

Don't have an answer for you, have the same issue. 1,000's of fonts and a bad memory.

 

[Jburns]

I like this tiny program called fontview OK- it wont organize them, but you can view them and its free.

I'll see if I can upload it - its 152K or send a message if you want it. Some sites that have it have a bunch of ads.

 

[bannertime]

Recently started using Nexusfont on windows. I went through and manually created/managed categories for my most used fonts.

Some times I'll go into Illustrator or Adobe Font and use it's font tool to find certain ones because it has an option to sort by weight, shape, type, etc.

 

[De.signs Nanaimo]

I have about 40,000 fonts, I just use the Bitsream Font Navigator that comes free with Corel, it's not brilliant but the price was right! A good font program is worth it though, they temporarily load the fonts until you restart your computer, this helps as installing too many fonts in your system will slow things down a bit. No matter what dealing with fonts is time consuming, for 90% of my designs I use a pool of about 40 fonts, just simple classic fonts that will still look good in 10 years.

 

[GB2]

In addition to simply finding a font for yourself, the additional problem is a multistation, network problem. When someone uses a font on one computer in the network and then someone else tries to access that file, there is always a font missing problem. A good program for viewing, organizing, sharing fonts over a network would be life changing!

 

[TechnoLett]

I use Main Type version 9 awesome program, I have thousands of fonts and this software helps to manage easily, also FONT FITTING room deluxe is another awesome one to search through fonts!

 

[jimbug72]

Was using Nexus Font. Quit using it because I had to manually set up libraries to catalog the fonts by style, etc. Got frustrated with it because there was no viable way to transfer the libraries from one CPU to the next, so every time I upgraded a computer I had to spend what felt like a million hours making new libraries.

Switched to Suitcase Fusion and haven't looked back. It will allow you to search by style which works okay depending on the font, but more importantly it allows me to backup/transfer my libraries. It also allows me to manage Adobe Typekit fonts as well as Google fonts.

What type of platform you are using (Windows/Mac/Other) will dictate which font management programs are available. Extensis Suitcase Fusion is available for both Mac & Windows. I'm not trying to sell you on that program, I've just found it to be the best program I've found for the price for my needs.

 

[shoresigns]

Every OS sucks at managing fonts, as do most 3rd party font managers. I've never found one that isn't sluggish once you load a large library of fonts into it, and even the built-in 1st party tools like Font Book for MacOS crash all the time.

My solution is in three parts:

1. I just go through my installed fonts every once in a while and clean out the ones I know I don't use regularly.
2. We use Adobe Fonts and the Monotype subscription for 99% of the fonts we need, which makes it easy to sync and unsync fonts as needed.
3. When I need to temporarily install a font for one job, I put it in %appdata%\Roaming\Adobe\Fonts, which instantly loads it into all Adobe apps without actually installing it on my system. It's much better than installing via the OS, where often you have to restart your apps or your computer for the new fonts to appear.

 

[Mascitti Bro]

All great ideas, here. I created separate files to get a quicker "visual" of the style font i'm wanting to choose. example- I made a file that has all my script fonts-all typed out in the particular font names, etc. I then immediately try the word/name in a font that's right there in front of me. It keeps me from having to remember so many font names. (I do one as well for "hand-written/hand-painted style" fonts as well, and am working on one now for vintage-style fonts.)

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

I clean out fonts I don't use regularly. If I'm looking for inspiration/don't know what I want but need to browse through what I have, I'll use http://wordmark.it

 

[WildWestDesigns]

A good program for viewing, organizing, sharing fonts over a network would be life changing!

I agree that would be awesome, but I don't think it would happen, especially with how some DRM is in fonts.

I have a few programs that allow "you" to use fonts that aren't actually installed in the system and can pull them from whatever folder they are stored on (even on mapped NAS shares), so that does come in handy. Don't have to have it installed on the system. It's kinda like #3 that shoresigns mentioned, except without having to move it.

 

[bannertime]

I agree that would be awesome, but I don't think it would happen, especially with how some DRM is in fonts.

I have a few programs that allow "you" to use fonts that aren't actually installed in the system and can pull them from whatever folder they are stored on (even on mapped NAS shares), so that does come in handy. Don't have to have it installed on the system. It's kinda like #3 that shoresigns mentioned, except without having to move it.

Seems like this program from that Suitecase Fusion company does this. https://www.extensis.com/universal-type-server/

 

[Todd Jelle]

Uhg, the font library...i hate that place, even more so the customer who has a logo (JPG) but has no idea what fonts were used or where it came from, likely the previous owner never passed any information along as to where it came from. Font research, oh yeah...so much fun. & the customer has no idea why you charged them $300 to find the fonts, to recreate the logo. Sometimes you may never find it, until you don't need it 2 weeks later. Originally, back in the day I used ATM adobe type manager. ( that went away) & until recently Bitstream was my favorite, until corel bought them out & made me re-learn something that was simple & worked. Bitstream was originally an independent that was provided with corel draw. Oh by the way I used to love corel, not so much anymore. to many changes & upgrades $$ to keep up anymore.
Yes, I'm old & don't like change, I just want to go to work, do my job & go home. I hate technology anymore & I used to love it.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

I store my fonts by foundry or collection, and use Suitcase Fusion to manage them. I have a file for customer supplied fonts and others I do not have a license for, and do not use those fonts for Collins Design projects.

I only keep a hundred or so fonts activated, and typically use only a few dozen in my regular work. The mix changes over time, but I find that I only need a small assortment of standard fonts. I have some modern fonts that I use a lot, surprisingly they are boring as hell but are part of my signature style. Letterhead Fonts is a good source, and some of my favorites are Garner, Versatile, Egyptian, Workhorse, Thick & Thin. Among my other go-to fonts are Helvetica, Futura, Times Roman, Garamond, and Impact. Scripts and Casuals are often done by hand, but I will use some oddball fonts once in a while. Marker gets some play, as do the House Industries Latino fonts. I also like Comic Book Commando.

Adobe Fonts and a Monotype Type Library subscription pretty much covers most of my needs, and allows me to use licensed fonts without worry. Like most of you, I have thousands of fonts saved from every source you can imagine, but I seldom use those and only occasionally dive into them (many of them are un-licensed, and most are just junk).

With the type subscriptions, managing fonts has become a breeze. "What the Font" is a good resource for identifying fonts (the forum is especially useful). When customers send me vector files with text that is not outlined (usually pdf files), rather than identify the fonts or request "outlined" fonts, I convert them to outlines using the "flatten transparency" command in InDesign or Illustrator, which requires no explanation and makes life easier. Clients are informed that licensing is their responsibility when they send me artwork.