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Goodbye FontExplorer, Hello Typeface

Published by C. S. Wyatt, MFA/Ph.D. on June 24, 2023

Managing typefaces on computers has always been difficult.

This month, support for the font management tool I have used for many years, FontExplorer X, was discontinued by Monotype. I needed to find another font manager, one that was “good enough” for my needs, if not as complete as FontExplorer X.

I considered several possible replacements for FontExplorer:

Replacing FontExplorer X

FontExplorer X was the best font manager I’ve used. Though many recent reviews described the interface as complex and dated, critiques also leveled against FontAgent, I like spreadsheet-like columnar lists. (I prefer the old iTunes multi-pane list view, too.) I configured FontExplorer to list type foundries, file formats, version numbers, and automatic classifications. I also spent hours applying tags to the typefaces and organizing font sets.

My first impulse was to replace FontExplorer X with a similar application. Of the existing choices, FontAgent from Insider Software most resembles the FEX experience. FontAgent (https://www.insidersoftware.com) has been around for years, and I came close to choosing FontAgent Pro 3 over Suitcase Fusion about fifteen years ago. FontAgent actually dates back to the “classic” Mac operating systems.

Why didn’t I choose FontAgent 10? Honestly, the $99 price was one sticking point. I might still choose FontAgent in a year or two, depending on how well Typeface 3 meets my need. Typeface (https://typefaceapp.com) costs $37, a great price, for most of the features I need, if not all the features I want.

RightFont (https://rightfontapp.com) costs $59 and is popular among Mac users. It falls somewhere between the slick and easy interface of Typeface and the complexity of FontAgent. I found the RightFont and Typeface interfaces so similar that telling one from the other takes more than a quick glance.

Though FontBase (https://fontba.se) was mentioned in many online reviews and discussions of font managers, I found it slow and awkward. FontBase supports macOS, Windows, and Linux, which is impressive. It also offers annual ($29) and lifetime licenses ($180). As an “Awesome Subscriber,” you unlock features found in the other font managers: automatic activation, tagging, and better previewing of the glyphs within a typeface.

Some Background on Fonts

Even in the pre-Windows and pre-Macintosh era, when Commodore, Atari, and Apple were battling it out for the home computing market, there were font packs for various programs such as PrintShop. Also, the more expensive printers support font cartridges. If you used an HP LaserJet, you had to make sure to match the font cartridge in the printer to the fonts used in your word processor (usually WordPerfect).

Back in those days, a font on a computer was similar to a font in a printer’s case: it was a typeface at a specific size, weight, and style. The old HP LaserJet cartridges let you add TmsRmn (Times Roman), Helv (Helvetica) to the printer. The PostScript cartridge for the LaserJet III offered an impressive seven faces and two symbol sets.

Along came the Apple Macintosh and, eventually, Windows 3.1. The common-use definition of “font” changed from a typeface at a specific size, weight, and style. Now, a “font” was a scalable typeface. Most people also used “font” to refer to the variations, such as italics.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, a computer might have a mix of Adobe’s Type 1, TrueType, and other font file formats.

On my current MacBook Pro, more than 18,000 typefaces are stored in several font file formats: OpenType (variations exist, with “OpenType” a container specification for PostScript and TrueType data formats), Type 1, TrueType, TrueType Collections, Suitcases, dfont (Data Fork Font), and more.

If you’re wondering how anyone might have 10,000 typefaces, consider that before installing any non-Apple software on my MacBook Pro, there were 700 typefaces listed in Apple’s Font Book utility. Many of these typefaces are for languages I won’t use and others contain symbol sets.

Once I installed Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, and other applications I use for media creation, the number of typefaces increased dramatically. There was a time when a selling point for CorelDRAW was the number of typefaces included.

I do not want to scroll through 1000 or more names to locate a typeface. Instead, I want to “deactivate” the faces I’m not using and “activate” the few dozen faces I’m likely to need at any time. Font managers are specialized applications that make activating and deactivating typefaces easier than whatever limited tools are provided by Windows, macOS, or Linux.

When choosing a font manager, I want a tool that lets me group typefaces by project, classification, or specific traits. I also like to create sets based on themes, such as a “Silent Film” set or a “Wild West” set. The font manager should let me see samples of the typeface in use. It should also indicate which features a typeface includes, such as ligatures or alternate letter sets.

I don’t understand why FEX was discontinued, joining a list of abandoned font management tools designers loved to hate. No matter which font manager a designer adopted, it was sure to be missing some desired feature. And, no matter how many hours a designer spent organizing and tagging typefaces, that careful curation would someday be lost.

Over the years, I’ve used numerous font management tools (in this order):

  • Bitstream FaceLift
  • Adobe Type Manager
  • Suitcase and Suitcase Fusion
  • Font Reserve
  • FontExplorer X
  • Corel Font Manager (on Windows)
  • Apple Font Book
  • Typeface

There have also been specialized tools for font repair, cataloging, and matching:

Printer’s Apprentice was, and is, the best font catalog utility ever released. It’s for Windows, though, and my primary system hasn’t been a Windows computer since 2002. PA can double as a simple font manager, but I have never used it to manage my typefaces.

 

 

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