Font Forum

I turned off Main Type while I did a major housecleaning on my font database. I wish to turn it back on and want to know I am restarting in the most efficient way. Three questions:

1. I assume I use "config" to find out the database name and simply delete it, and Main Type will then start from scratch, yes? (Many changes were made to the folder structure.)

2. With my collection now on the Cloud, it appears it will be much slower to use Main Type from my hard drive. Is it possible to re-install it directly to my Cloud drive? (Note: I purchased the Cloud drive so that I could have a stable platform for Main Type. The collections on my desktop are constantly being updated which means that Main Type is likewise constantly trying to stay caught up and not very available to me.)

3. I notice you list 650K files as a rough max for MT9. I have half again more files than that, roughly one million otf, ttf and T1 files. Do you have advice for me to use Main Type more efficiently at that scale?

chaztips wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:58 pmI notice you list 650K files as a rough max for MT9.

The Comparison Chart says that the number of fonts supported by the Professional Edition is unlimited. For the Standard Edition it is limited to 10,000 fonts.

MainType Help wrote:MainType is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 64-bit version is faster and is able to make use of more memory which is important if you have a large font library. We consider a library with over 50,000 (fifty thousand) fonts a large library, but some of our customers have over 650,000 fonts which they happily manage with MainType.

Thank you for the swift reply, Bhikkhu. For the record, I do use the 64-bit version and with a high-end graphics pack of I forget how much RAM to speed up the loading of complex fonts in Main Type. The loss of speed I am worried about is from operating desktop-to-Cloud.

That brings up the two main queries I had. Do you have guidelines for installing MT on a Cloud drive and operating it from there? Also, is there anything more to restarting MT from scratch than renaming the database file and having MT create a new one?

chaztips wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:58 pm 1. I assume I use "config" to find out the database name and simply delete it, and Main Type will then start from scratch, yes? (Many changes were made to the folder structure.)

No, you will need to fully uninstall MainType along with the font database, and then reinstall it.

chaztips wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:58 pm 2. With my collection now on the Cloud, it appears it will be much slower to use Main Type from my hard drive. Is it possible to re-install it directly to my Cloud drive? (Note: I purchased the Cloud drive so that I could have a stable platform for Main Type. The collections on my desktop are constantly being updated which means that Main Type is likewise constantly trying to stay caught up and not very available to me.)

You need to keep the font database on a drive that is available at all times, so don't use a network drive. I would also avoid cloud based storage, but feel free to give it a try.

chaztips wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:58 pm 3. I notice you list 650K files as a rough max for MT9. I have half again more files than that, roughly one million otf, ttf and T1 files. Do you have advice for me to use Main Type more efficiently at that scale?

No, that is what a customer once showed us. If you use MainType with a larger font library, then do let us know!

Thank you for the clarification, Erwin. Allow me to seek another.

I chose a Cloud drive as a way to maintain an unchanging version of my font collection and, therefore, the font database. My font collection on my computer is being added to constantly, which greatly limits the usefulness of Main Type for me as it spends the majority of time updating and unavailable to me.

Will it or will it not be possible to install a copy of Main Type on the Cloud drive so that I have the benefit of using it on a stable database? If I can, how would I go about it?

Also, I do not see an Uninstall command for Main Type nor do I find any support guidance for uninstalling. What would be the procedure?

Uninstalling is done in the usual way from Windows Control Panel, Apps. You can opt to delete the databases or leave them IIRC.

chaztips wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2020 8:55 pm Will it or will it not be possible to install a copy of Main Type on the Cloud drive so that I have the benefit of using it on a stable database? If I can, how would I go about it?

You can't share the font database, and it most likely won't work if stored in the cloud.

You can however use a folder with fonts that you share through a network or virtual drive, like drop box or one drive.

Thank you both.