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Dave Crosby
Typographer
Typographer
Posts: 793
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:13 pm
Location: Enoch, Utah

Hello MainType!

Post by Dave Crosby »

MainType

is a complex, versatile, but amazingly straightforward application. It opens huge file folders! This one has nearly 21,000 fonts!
You can close, push, pull, or move the panes to magnify any bit of information that interests you.

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When you find a combination you REALLY like, Select Layout, and save it as custom layout 1 or 2.

:arrow:Active Tab: On StartUp, the first thing you notice is the spinning arrows and message “Loading.”
Maintype is reading your Windows Font Folder. On My computer it found 340 fonts.
Challenge! Test MainType against any other Font Manager you may have. MainType finds more fonts than any of them!

Question: Why the fraction 321/340?
Answer: Only Three Groups of fonts are checked in the Font Filter in the initial Startup.

Select the Filter (Funnel) button and play around with this. Turn off all but the Raster fonts. Then all but the Vector fonts. Check them all and you will have 340/340 ... if you also have that many installed fonts.

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:arrow:Browse Tab: This is for your fonts that are not installed. You need to make a lot of important decisions.
First,
How large of a collection do you want?
Second, Are you going to repair any of them?
Are you going to keep your originals as backup? If so, where will you keep the altered fonts?

Where will you keep your Main File Collection? Will you file them by Font Designer, Vendor, or Alphabetically?
Are you going to keep them in separate collections or one giant pile?

Subfolders containing more than 2,000 fonts become clumsy.
A good solution is to have alphabetical subfolders that can easily be expanded (A-B, C-D, or A, B, or Aa, Ab)as your collection grows.

Remember, moving the originals later on will lose the loading and shortcut locations you may use, so try to get it right the first time.

A BIG problem with large collections is duplicates.
A terrible loss is to accidentally replace a good font with a bad one that was given the same name.
Columns is helpful in locating dupes and preventing this problem. Press the Columns button and rearrange them as you wish.

For this job I prefer File Name and Size at the head of the Columns List. You may find dupes you didn’t even know you had because someone altered the file or Family Name on one of them.

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:arrow:Groups Tab: This is for all those fonts you can’t make up your mind where to keep. Put them in both places, or all 5!
Use Tools, Options, Groups to locate Your Main Groups Folder wherever you desire.

Name the Groups folders and sub folders and sub-sub folders anything you wish. Seasonal, Font Designer, Emotions ...
With Shortcuts, you only need one actual location for each font. If you ever decide to make internal changes to a font, you only need do it once, and that is reflected at all locations the shortcuts may lead to.

Groups is a great place to keep special collections for Projects! Use Groups to find that Project folder, select and Load them all.
On completion of the project, just turn off your computer and they are all unloaded automatically. Need them again? No Problem!

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PANOSE is another very useful sorting tool.
viewtopic.php?t=941

:arrow:Printing Options: If all you want are the names of all the fonts in a large file, open Tools, Export Font Information, and select the All Fonts button and the Export to Clipboard (Plain) button. Then you can paste the font list into your word processor and make as many columns per page as you wish.

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Or select Print, Print Preview for lots of other options.
Aut nunc aut nunquam
Dave Crosby
Typographer
Typographer
Posts: 793
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:13 pm
Location: Enoch, Utah

MainType 2.1

Post by Dave Crosby »

Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 5:12 pm Post subject: MainType v2.1 is officially released!

Today we have released MainType 2.1, a powerful but easy to use font manager and font viewer for Windows, that takes the frustration out of managing your fonts. MainType is packed with tons of intuitive features that makes it simple to find, preview, organize, install, and print your fonts.

Because this new version is free for all existing customers of MainType, we encourage all users to download this new release! Download the latest version from our download page:
http://www.high-logic.com/download.html

Among several minor enhancements and a couple of bug fixes, the new features are:

Type preview text into Font pane drop-down list
Character zoom popup window
More predefined font variables
Use ALT-<character code> to insert characters into the Sample pane
Improved appearance (colors in samples and zoom pane, row striping in the list of fonts)
After the trial period MainType will continue to run, but in restricted mode



For more information about this new release go to the MainType product page.

We are very curious about your opinion, so please post your findings in the corresponding forums (the announcements forum is read-only).
_________________
Erwin Denissen
Of all the new features, the one I like best is the ability to change the colors of the font and/or background in Samples.
This gives helpful insight on the finished product BEFORE beginning a major project.

The Best Just keeps getting Better. Thanks Erwin!

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Aut nunc aut nunquam
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9869
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I like the new Zoom Popup window, which saves some precious screen space.
Zoom Popup.png
Zoom Popup.png (16.89 KiB) Viewed 20647 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
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