Additional application features

Font servers and font sharing

Since the license restrictions for a purchased font can vary, a way of staying legit while still reaping the benefits of copying is to share one single font across a network. Serving one library of fonts is also a good way to minimize maintenance in a classroom or print shop. While OS X 10.3 and above have the ability to network fonts built in, it's best for a font manager to be the hub of this activity so there are minimized conflicts and confusion. Of the applications tested, only FontAgent Pro has a Universal Binary of their server software available; Suitcase Server is still PPC only, and no announcement has been made about the future of Suitcase Server. If you buy a copy of FontAgent Pro Workgroup edition ($130), you can share fonts between users very intuitively via Bonjour (the strangely annoying name replacement for 'Rendezvous,' Apple's zero-configuration networking protocol).

Wireless typesetting: A Powerbook with the cheapest version of FontAgent Pro getting instant access to fonts shared from my MacBook Pro which is running the Workgroup edition of FontAgent Pro. Click for full size

Download DINEngschrift font free! - FontZone.net offering 1000's of FREE fonts to download to help the millions of designers across the globe expressing their creativity with much more diversity.

That's a really great feature and, aside from being fast, it's a nice cheap alternative to running a dedicated font server. FontExplorer X doesn't have any font server or sharing, and I think that this is going to restrict it more to single-user environments or freelance designers. This is probably Linotype's intention though, since any business that is large and set in their font ways enough to warrant a font server is probably not going to be hitting the 'purchase missing font' button a lot.

Server and sharing round (round seven if you're keeping score at home–or if you're alone): FontAgent Pro

Classic activation

If you're too broke to upgrade from your QuarkXPress 5 publishing setup, you're going to need this (and plenty of Xanax). Obviously, this will be less and less of an issue as Intel Macs replace PPC ones and Leopard drops Classic support completely, but it's still worth mentioning that FontAgent Pro is the only program of these three that supports Classic activation. It works flawlessly in my experience, if you can say such a thing about Classic.

FontExplorer X's Font Detector

Another nice, if slightly flawed feature of FontExplorer X is the ability to drag documents right onto the program and have it detect and activate fonts within the file, without needing to launch the document's host app.

I say it's flawed though because it doesn't work with XPress, Illustrator, Word or PSD files and tends to need the host app anyway since it shows way more fonts than are actually in use by the document:

Left: a bajillion faces detected in the document but when it's opened in InDesign,
only four faces are actually used in it. Click for full size.

The Font Detector has the potential to be a time-saver but since you have to manually activate each font in the Font Detector and 9/1203rd of those are actually used, it's currently of limited use. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later that Linotype can work out these kinks.

System font management/cache cleaning

Fonts are, in my experience, the source of about 80 percent of any problems I'll experience with OS X. Firefox address bar font went bold? Font cache. Safari crashing? Fonts. There are third-party utilities for dealing with system and app cache issues but it's definitely nice if this is an added feature. In my experience, it's the first thing I do when I am getting app stability issues and in the course of writing this article, I had to run FontExplorer's system font cache cleaner for this problem:

I ran FontExplorer X's sytem cache cleaner and after a reboot, the text appears fine:

The Linotype FontExplorer Store

Since it's the major thing that separates the three programs feature-wise, and it's the reason why FontExplorer X is a free product, I think it's worth covering this feature. As you would expect from the overall iTunes-esque interface and the similar business model in general (free app, make money on selling the content), the look of the site and intro page are pretty blatantly ripped from iTunes:

They even have optional links next to file name in the app:

Once you get over the iTunes store *cough* similarity *cough*, it is really enjoyable to explore and like with tracks, you can browse by artist/font designer and by style. Free my little pony downloads. What really starts to jump out at you when on the store is the love for type and the detailed information about the faces. It's like a typographical history lesson:

What terrible sci-fi title would be complete without Serif Gothic? Click for full size

Really, who isn't gay for Toshiro Mifune? The info section for the middle font says
'This style of Japanese script came to prominence during the Edo period (1603-1867)'

It's a small thing, but it really makes the store more fun to navigate. Otherwise, it's just what you'd expect from an online store and contains many staple fonts. Hopefully it does well enough to keep this application free for the foreseeable future (three weeks, if this Canadian winter is as bad as I think it's going to be).

Symptoms

After you install a font into the Fonts folder in the operating system and start Microsoft Word for Mac, the font unexpectedly is not available in the Font dialog box, in the drop-down list, or in the Formatting Palette.

Cause

Third-party fonts are not directly supported in Microsoft Office for Mac applications. Some third-party fonts may work in one application and not in another. Other third-party fonts are installed in a 'family'. A family usually consists of the third-party font itself together with some or all of its variations (bold, italic, and so forth). Sometimes, a font may be displayed in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft Entourage, but you may be unable to use one of its variations, such as italic.

Office does not support custom fonts. This includes any fonts that were manipulated by a font or typography program.

Note

Microsoft Office for Mac technical support does not provide support for installing or configuring third-party fonts.

Basic font troubleshooting

If the following methods don't resolve your font issue, contact the font manufacturer or the website from which you purchased the fonts.

First, restart your computer, and then test the font again. Some installations are not complete until the computer is restarted. This also makes sure that all applications are restarted after the installation.

Method 1

1. Clear the font caches. To do this, quit all Microsoft Office applications. On the Home menu, click **Go **> Applications, and then click Apple’s Font Book.

2. On the Edit menu, click Select Duplicated Fonts.

3. On the Edit menu, click Resolve Duplicates.

4. To remove all the fonts from the computer that Font Book just disabled, follow these steps:

   1. After the duplicates have been resolved, select each disabled font, click File > Reveal in Finder, and then drag it to the trash.
   2. You may notice that Font Book sometimes turns off the newer copy of the font instead of the older one. If you prefer the newer copy, drag the older one to the trash, and then re-enable the new one.

5. Restart the computer. Apple OS X will rebuild its font cache, and Word will rebuild its font cache from that.

6. For best performance in Word, try to run with all your fonts enabled all the time. Each time that Word starts, it compares its font cache with the system font cache. If the two don't match, Word will regenerate its own font cache, which can take a few seconds. If you have dynamically enabled fonts, the system font cache will appear different nearly every time that Word runs this comparison.

7. You must do this every time you install an update, because the Microsoft installer tries to restore the disabled fonts each time.

Method 2

Restart the computer in Safe mode. Then, restart the computer normally. For more information about how to restart your computer in Safe mode, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

2398596 How to use a 'clean startup' to determine whether background programs are interfering with Office for Mac

Method 3

Create a new user account to determine whether the problem is associated with an existing user account.

The font is damaged, or the system is not reading the font

If the font is not a custom font and does not appear in your Office program, the font may be damaged. To reinstall the font, see Mac OS X: Font locations and their purposes.

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.