Font management software

Font management software is utility software that computer users use to browse and preview fonts and typically to install and uninstall fonts. In addition, depending on the individual font management program's capabilities, users can also:

• activate and deactivate fonts (users can do this manually; sometimes programs will do this in conjunction with specific software, such as Adobe's InDesign)
• protect fonts that are required by the system by preventing them from being uninstalled
• organize fonts by groups and libraries
• find and uninstall corrupt fonts
• rename font files
• view fonts that are not currently installed
• print font samples or font books illustrating some or all of the fonts on the system
• sort fonts according to different criteria
• search for fonts meeting specific criteria

Uses

Fonts - and therefore font-management programs - support people in a variety of professions: graphic designers, publishers (such as book publishers and news and periodical publishers), web-site designers, interface designers, illustrators, packaging designers, typeface designers, letterpress printers (using plates made from page layout programs), motion-graphic and film-title designers, advertising agencies, signage and wayfinding (environmental graphic design studios), industrial designers, and architectural firms that have in-house 2D design-staff who work with signs and typography.

These people require fonts as a basic part of their job. They purchase their fonts and typefaces either directly from type foundries large and small, such as Adobe Systems, Monotype Corporation, Carter & Cone, FontBureau, Font Shop, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, Linotype, Paratype, P22, Stone Type Foundry; or from websites specializing in selling fonts. Eventually, they may end up with tens or even hundreds of thousands of fonts; hence the need to manage those fonts. Effective, reliable, and easy-to-use font management can help.

Objectives

Most operating systems come with basic font management abilities, limited to installing or uninstalling; however, people who use many typefaces need font management software with more capabilities.

Ease of Finding and Evaluating Fonts

When there are hundreds or even thousands of fonts on a system, font management software makes it easier to find, organize, and evaluate specific fonts. Using font management software, people can organize their fonts in ways that suit their needs. They can also view specific fonts in a variety of ways, such as by character or size, to better evaluate a font's suitability for a specific purpose.

Once a font is found, a person can view the individual glyphs (letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and other components of a font), and can visually compare two or more fonts with each other.

Font management software often provides details on fonts such as how many glyphs are in the font, whether the font can be embedded (such as in PDFs), and the person or foundry that created the font.

System Stability

One of the valuable uses of font management software is to improve system performance. Keeping thousands of fonts active can slow down many systems. In taking advantage of a font manager's ability to activate fonts when they are needed (either individually or in groups, such as a group of fonts for a specific project), users can reduce the system's font load.

This capability is especially important on older versions of the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems, as with those systems, fonts are normally always active and available to all programs that use or display text. However, these operating systems have internal limits on active fonts; beyond that point, you may experience system problems.

Some font management programs can activate one font, several fonts, or a specific group of fonts when a specific application (such as Adobe's Creative Suite series) or document is launched. When the application or document is closed, the font management software can deactivate those same fonts. That way, fonts that are needed only for specific applications or projects can be made available on the fly, then put away when not needed, thereby reducing the load on the operating system.

Linux-based operating systems generally do not pre-load fonts on a system-wide basis. Instead, each application loads them as it needs them, leaving no need for a font management program. However, current Linux desktop environments (such as KDE and Gnome) manage fonts for applications using their internal framework library calls for font display, thus allowing management of fonts centrally and comfortably via the GUI.

Many Linux distributions supply a font server program (such as X Font Server) for distributing fonts over a network.

List of font management software

Note: Surprisingly, information on supported fonts is not readily available from many manufacturers. However, at a minimum most of the major commercial programs support OpenType and TrueType fonts.

Name	Operating system	License	Author	Publisher	Supported fonts	Notes
Adobe Type Manager Light (ATM Light)	Mac OS 8.6 through 9.1, Mac OS X Classic; Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4	Free		Adobe Systems		ATM Deluxe was discontinued in the mid-2000s
Advanced Font Viewer	Windows	Proprietary		Styopkin Software
AMP Font Viewer	Windows	Free		AMPsoft	OpenType, PostScript Type 1, TrueType
BDF Font Viewer	Windows	Freeware	Komeil Bahmanpour	Chortkeh
California Fonts	Windows	Free		The Scone Company, LLC	OpenType, Postscript Type 1, TrueType
DiskFonts	Mac OS X (10.5+), Windows (XP, Vista, 7)	Proprietary		Anastasiy	Bitmap, OpenType, Postscript Type 1, TrueType	Font manager panel for Adobe Creative Suite (CS3, CS4, CS5), supports FontExpert groups
Elara Online Font Manager	Linux, BSDs, OS X, Windows, and others	Proprietary		Everything Fonts	TrueType, OpenType, PostScript Type 1, Woff and many other formats	Works directly from the browser. No local install necessary.
FontAgent Pro 6.3	Mac, Windows	Proprietary		Insider Software	OpenType, PostScript Type 1, TrueType	Supports Adobe Creative Cloud 2015 and Quark 2015, Mac Windows Linx
Font Card	Mac OS 10.4 (but not Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard)	Proprietary		Unsanity	OpenType, PostScript, TrueType	Modifies the Font menu and the font panel in Carbon and Cocoa applications. Supports FontAgent Pro, FontExplorer X, and Suitcase Fusion font sets.
Fontcase	Mac OS X	Proprietary		Bohemian Coding		Fontcase was discontinued in November 2013
FontExpert	Windows	Proprietary		Proxima Software	OpenType, TrueType, TrueType Collections, PostScript Type 1, Bitmap and vector (*.fon)	With plug-ins for Adobe Creative Suite products (Missing Fonts Loader plug-in, Font Info plug-in, etc.)
Font Explorer X Pro	Mac, Windows	Proprietary		Linotype/Monotype
Font Fitting Room Deluxe	Windows	Proprietary		Qweas	Microsoft Windows (*.fnt, *.fon), OpenType (*.ttf, *.ttc, *.otf), PostScript Type 1 (*.pfm, *.pfb), TrueType (*.ttf, *.ttc)
Font Frenzy	Windows	Free	Timothy Williams (computer programmer)	SDSoftware
Font Manager	Windows	Proprietary		Styopkin Software
Font-Manager	Linux, BSDs	GNU General Public License	Jerry Casiano	font-manager project		Last update: 2014-05-01, programmed in Vala, depends on GTK+ 3
Fontmatrix	Linux, BSDs, OS X, Windows	GNU General Public License	Pierre Marchand	Fontmatrix.be	OpenType, TrueType	Last update: 2011-09-30, programmed in C++, depends on Qt
Font Pilot	OS X	Proprietary		Qweas
FontRainbow	Windows	Proprietary	Tony Wicks	Everclear Systems	MS TrueType / TT Collections, MS OpenType, Adobe Type 1, Adobe OpenType	The first program to use Everclear System's "Rainbow Interface"
Font Safari	Mac OS 9+	Proprietary		Dreystone Software		Last updated in 2006
Font Wrangler	Windows	Shareware/bookware		Alchemy Mindworks	TrueType
Font Xplorer	Windows	Free	Ahto Tanner	Moon Software	TrueType, OpenType (only those with TrueType outlines)	Does not support Adobe Type 1 fonts or OpenType fonts with PostScript outlines.
Font Xplorer	Windows	Proprietary		Qweas	TrueType (*.ttf, *.ttc)
Free & Easy Font Viewer	Windows	Free		Styopkin Software		Only views characters A-I, a-i, 0-9 and basic punctuation of installed fonts. See Advanced Font Viewer for improved features.
gnome-specimen	Linux, BSDs	GNU General Public License		gnome-specimen	OpenType, PostScript Type 1, raster, TrueType, vector
MainType	Windows	Proprietary		High-Logic	OpenType, PostScript Type 1, raster, TrueType, vector
MasterJuggler	OS X	Proprietary		AlSoft	Outline, OpenType, PostScript, printer, screen, TrueType
NexusFont	Windows	Free	Noh JungHoon	Xiles	OpenType, TrueType, Type 1	Last update: 09.2010. Provides: Libraries and Sets, Tags, Find of duplicates.
Opcion Font Viewer	Java	Free	P. Chiu	Opcion		Last update: 08.2007. Windows .exe installer may not work with current versions of Java (above 1.5.9).
Printer's Apprentice	Windows	Proprietary	Bryan T. Kinkel	Lose Your Mind Development	OpenType, PostScript, TrueType	Last update, 2/8/2013
RightFont	Mac OS X	Proprietary		Markly Team		RightFont is a brand new font manager app for Mac OS X, helping designers to preview, sync, install and manage fonts on your Mac or Dropbox/Google Drive. RightFont also added font organization functionality for Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, etc, and provides auto font activation feature for Adobe Photoshop & Sketch documents.
Suitcase Fusion	OS X, Windows	Proprietary		Extensis		Was merged with Font Reserve
The Font Thing	Windows	Free	Sue Fisher	Sue Fisher	TrueType	A legacy font management program; has not been updated since 1999, though apparently is still popular among some users
Typograf	Windows	Proprietary	Alex Neuber	Neuber Software GmbH	Truetype, OpenType, PostScript Type 1, printer, raster, vector
X-Fonter	Windows	Proprietary		Blacksun Software	Truetype, OpenType, PostScript Type 1, raster, vector