MainType slows system down massively

[ToMo]

Hi all,

I'm new here to the forum and introduce myself with an annoying issue I'm experiencing with MT recently.

As soon as I go to "Browse" tab in the folder where I store all of my fonts (ca. 1,300; not Windows' font folder!), MT quickly processes the fonts up to ca. 370 and then hangs. It can be felt throughout the system, as other programs' windows slow down awfully as well. The Windows Taskmanager shows the process "csrss.exe" (a Windows subsystem handling graphical output to the screen as I have learned) with a CPU load of about 25%. Once I close MT to the tray, the system runs normally again. If I wait several minutes or so with MT open, in the end it works (you have to be very patient though) and it feels as if it took bloody ages to handle the font folder mentioned above. The problem can be reproduced with MT 2.1 and my new MT 3.0. As soon as I change the folder in the "Browse" tab and I go back to the folder mentioned above, the problem begins anew.
To make matters worse, the problem is not present on a second machine (a Notebook which is definitely less powerful than my Desktop machine experiencing the problem). Here I had no issues with the above mentioned folder (1,300 fonts), and MT handled them in a reasonable and normal amount of time.

I already tried to disbale my real-time antivirus protection and a background CPU process (BOINC) to no avail.

I'm running Windows XP Professional SP3 with the latest patches. The system drive is a SSD. Here I stored the folder mentioned above to speed up access and now experience a massive slowdown. I already tried to store the font folder on my regular mass storage HD with no change in the behaviour described above.

Thanks
Thomas

[Erwin Denissen]

I expect at least one of the fonts is terribly complex, and Windows takes ages for it to render. You can locate the font by divide and conquer. E.g. split the 1600 fonts into two folders, and see which folder takes ages to process through MainType's browse feature. Then if you identified the folder with the slow font, do start the same process so you end up with 400 fonts in two folders. In the end you end up with a folder with a dozen of fonts that will allow you to identity the slow font. I understand this is not a true solution, but I'm sure this will help.

Do let us know your results.

[ToMo]

I expect at least one of the fonts is terribly complex, and Windows takes ages for it to render. You can locate the font by divide and conquer.

Thank you. I'll try that. It still does not explain why the folder with the same content (I copied it 1:1 from one system to another) works well with the same MT version on one machine (even the slower one) and fails miserably on the other (the presumably more powerful).

Thanks
Thomas

[ToMo]

OK, I have tracked the problem down to a single font. Strangely though it is one I have - and use - for several years now. Until recently it did not cause any issues! It's a symbolic font indeed. You can find it here. I already downloaded it anew in case it became damaged on my system, but to no avail (same result as with my "old" version). When I put it in a separate folder and browse the folder with the remaining fonts, the speed is according to my previous experience with MT. Concerning the "special" font, storing it away is no real solution since I need it from time to time (e.g. now). I already tried another font manager and it "felt" much quicker overall in displaying fonts. It also showed absolute no problems with the one stopping MT dead in its tracks.

By now, I'm at a loss, but hopefully I'll find a solution that way or another. Thanks anyway for your hints.

Best
Thomas

[Erwin Denissen]

Good news you located the font!

It is a very, very, very complex but cool font (it was made with our font editor ). One glyph contains over 16000 points and another one has over 2000 contours. Most printers won't be able to print such complex font, and as you noticed Windows also has a hard time rasterizing it. On my system it is especially slow when the font is displayed with ClearType output. I did change the display setting in MainType to Antialiased, and it was instant again. I hope this works on your system as well.

Well do give it a try:
From the main menu, select Tools -> Options, and then change the Font Output to Antialiased.

[ToMo]

Good news you located the font!
Well do give it a try:
From the main menu, select Tools -> Options, and then change the Font Output to Antialiased.

That did it! Thanks for your great and quick support
Out of interest: I did only find this display option in MT 3.0. Since it already worked in MT 2.1 in the past (and still now on the Notebook I checked it with), is there a similar display option in MT 2.1 which was/is activated and I'm not being aware of it?

Best
Thomas

[Erwin Denissen]

That did it! Thanks for your great and quick support

Excellent!

Out of interest: I did only find this display option in MT 3.0. Since it already worked in MT 2.1 in the past (and still now on the Notebook I checked it with), is there a similar display option in MT 2.1 which was/is activated and I'm not being aware of it?

if I remember it correctly MainType 2.1 uses Windows default display setting.