OS X Font Managment:
Somebody was telling me that the OS X font panel can provide dynamic font activation, similar to what ATM Deluxe does in OS 9. Can anyone comment on this?
Any ideas on why Adobe decided NOT to write an OS X version of ATM Deluxe?
Does anyone use Suitcase X? Feedback? I hated it in OS 9, and I loath having to use it in X...
Any ideas on why Adobe decided NOT to write an OS X version of ATM Deluxe?
Does anyone use Suitcase X? Feedback? I hated it in OS 9, and I loath having to use it in X...
Comments
Since Adobe decided not to make it for OS X, we have moved to suitcase.
Once we got the 10.1.2 update everything has worked very smoothly (10.1 didn't work with localised versions of OS X). Font activation works in both native and classic, which is key as we use Adobe FrameMaker a great deal, and thus classic.
You do have to keep Suitcase running at all times, but I don't really notice a speed decrease. I just hide it and it sits in the dock doing its stuff.
Other options are a little slim on the ground. You've got Font Reserve which I have not tried.
You can't do dynamic font activation in with the inbuilt Font tool in OS X. You have to physically add the fonts into the font folder (and thus physically remove them...)
It would take a little work in PB, but I think you could also easily make a GUI front end to the scripts such that it would be a push-button operation....
Obviously not a pro solution, but definately a do-able poor-mans method!
Suitcase is really brain-dead in that respect.
What is the limit on the number of active fonts in OS X? Will it change in Jagwire? I hope it isn't 128, because that's silly.
Lamers.
(just in case someone misses it: heh.)
<strong>ATM Deluxe is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. I have over 2000 fonts, granted, but come on. With NO other extensions enabled it crashed so much and slowed things down so much it was useless.</strong><hr></blockquote>
huh. i use atm deluxe and have never had any problems. granted, i only have a little over 900 fonts, but still.
<strong>Font Reserve is much better than Suitcase, and as the process runs as a daemon you don't have to keep the UI running all the time.
Suitcase is really brain-dead in that respect.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I hate having to keep Suitcase running in the background all the time, so Font Reserve sounds better in that respect.
The problem for us is that Font Reserve doesn't allow/understand OpenType fonts which we use. Suitcase does (not in classic), and as we have now moved to native apps (InDesign 2, Illustrator 10, PS 7) we are OK.
We just boot back into 9 when we need to use FrameMaker with OpenType fonts.
-with the apps the fonts came.
-since almost 20 years we have to use third party apps (atm deluxe/suitcase/etc) to work with fonts.
most font-management-apps are ok but... could be done better.
when is apple gonna give us a built-in font-management-app (with all those little cool things apple does so well)?
<strong>-the macintosh made its way into the computermarket with graphic apps.
-with the apps the fonts came.
-since almost 20 years we have to use third party apps (atm deluxe/suitcase/etc) to work with fonts.
most font-management-apps are ok but... could be done better.
when is apple gonna give us a built-in font-management-app (with all those little cool things apple does so well)?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think Apple might eventually do that, but ...
I always thought that OS X would load unlimited amounts of font files. So the only problem would be the scroll down menu length! Is there any other problems I am not aware off? I am starting to purchase a lot of fonts and maybe I would benefit from such a third party application if it solves a problem other than the one I mentioned.
Anyone aware of other problems?
I have someone here who says that the screen fonts are not showing up. I dont know much about X font management, so Im not sure what to say. I told her to boot into OS9 then go back to X when she is done working.
OSX does NOT have built in support for Adobe Multiple Master fonts. Place MM fonts in the Adobe application support fonts folder and they will be accessible to Adobe apps.
<strong>To be honest, I always thought that MacOS X, being a dynamic OS, would alleviate the need for font management software by loading the fonts only when needed. I find it difficult to believe that they can find a way to tunnel Quartz through OpenGL yet are unable to provide dynamic font loading. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>
This isn't a fault of the OS, but due to applications dealing with fonts in different ways.
How comes Suitcase 10.1 and Illustrator 10 don't work together out of the box? To have font activation you need the extra Illustrator plug-in. Amazing! <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />
The for classic apps you need a Quark xtension etc etc.
So as much as we would like Apple to build it in, if the software uses different (and their own) font routines is there any hope?
(forgive me I only use 9 still)
And are they any problems besides slowness with thousands of fonts?
is there a font limit to OS X?