workflow and how to manage 900 fonts

mbuckingham · Post by **mbuckingham** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:48 am

The program looks beautiful. I installed it after installing one of Extensis' demos, which didn't seem to work.

I'm trying to figure out how to use the software. I see how to load/unload...uninstall/install, I'm just having a difficult time figuring out workflow.

Do I just uninstall all the fonts I don't use regularly and then pop in and install them when I want to use them?

Do I need to load/unload everytime I restart?

Help me know the best way to manage my fonts. I have too many to handle, and I think this is probably the answer and am hoping it is and can purchase this.

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:25 am

I organise my fonts into subdirectories of C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\My Documents\My Fonts\

Then in MainType each subfolder is a group. I can install or uninstall groups very easily. I keep a bare minimum of fonts installed.

Do be careful not to remove any Windows System fonts, e.g. Arial, Courier new, Franklin Gothic, MS Sans, Fixdsys, Marlet, MT Extra, Lucida Console, Lucida Sans Unicode, Code 2000, Symbol, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Tahoma, Verdana, to name the most important.

If you install/uninstall fonts — that is permanent. (But MainType backs up your uninstalled fonts)

If you load/unload fonts — that is temporary. Loading a font or fonts is useful to print a document with missing fonts. It is not really necessary to unload the fonts after printing (or publishing a PDF file), as they will be gone when you next reboot anyway.

How you organise your fonts is personal to how you work. MainType can help you organise them by using the various filter options. E.g. show only fonts including "BT" in the name to quickly find Bitstream fonts.

mbuckingham · Post by **mbuckingham** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:18 pm

So you start with most of your fonts uninstalled and just install them when you need them? And then I assume when you are done just uninstall them again?

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:05 pm

I don't use many fonts. I use some of the Windows default fonts — Times, Verdana, Comic Sans, and a few dozen of the one's I created myself.

I have over 2,300 fonts from WordPerfect and Serif products, a small number of which I use occasionally. All told I have 128 fonts installed. I use MainType to install others when I need them, then I have a clear out when my Fonts folder starts to get bloated again. If I need to reinstall a font, then the chances are I will need it again soon, so I leave it installed.

mbuckingham · Post by **mbuckingham** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:23 pm

So you have 2,000 fonts uninstalled?

So you have 128 fonts installed, but you're doing something and find a font (I'm assuming from your backup folder) that would work well for the project. You then reinstall it and keep it installed? Periodically you go in an uninstall some of those again?

Is that right? Doesn't the program automatically load in the fonts a document uses?

Guess I'll have to work with it to see if it really is beneficial, seems like extra steps that I just don't know are worth it.

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:01 pm

I rarely have to install other fonts because the 128 includes all of the fonts that I use regularly. Most often, I need to do a clear out after reinstalling software, which in the case of PagePlus can install hundreds of fonts that I never use.

There is no point scrolling through a long list of fonts, most of which you would never choose, so why not uninstall them?

MainType cannot know when other programs cannot find a font, even if it is running, let alone if it is not running. In theory, other programs could be programmed to call MainType if a font is missing. The latest version of PagePlus can call FontManager 2 from within PagePlus, if you load a document with missing fonts. However, FontManager2 is £40 instead of $40 and is not as good as MainType. It will only work automatically with PagePlus X2, not with any other programs.

The main benefit of a font manager is quickly finding and installing missing fonts by organising them into groups. The brute force approach is to keep all the fonts that you have always installed — then you don't really need a Font Manager, just a font viewer.