Improving Your Server
Suitcase 10 provides a number of other features for streamlining your workgroup font-management troubles. For instance, you can automatically create a font set by dragging a folder into the Job Font folder, one of several sub-folders included in the SuitcaseFonts folder. The Job Fonts folder lets you create sets without having to run the Server Administrator folder. What's more, by sharing this folder, you can allow other users to create sets without ever having to run any additional software.

Sets created in the Job Fonts folder do not appear in the Suitcase Administrator folder, but are immediately visible to any clients that connect to the server.

Managing fonts in a cross-platform environment can be especially tedious, but Extensis has found a simple solution. Separate Windows and Mac folders within the SuitcaseFonts folder let you store distinct Mac and Windows fonts. Both flavors of fonts can be added to a font set, but the server software knows to offer only the compatible type of font to any particular client.

For example, if you want to include Helvetica Condensed in a set that will be used by both Mac and Windows users, you simply put the Mac version into the Mac folder and load the Windows version into the Windows folder. The fonts don't even have to be the same format: The Mac version could be PostScript, for example, while the Windows version could be TrueType. Suitcase will automatically download the appropriate version to each subscriber, while skipping fonts intended for the other platform. To create such cross-platform sets, you must use the Server Administrator app. You can't create them from the Job Fonts folder.

Finally, the Always Download folder lets you specify fonts that will automatically be downloaded to any client that connects to the server.

Double-Fault
Suitcase Server is a very simple, elegant application that provides a streamlined-yet-powerful approach to network font management. Nevertheless, there are a few things we'd like to see improved.

First, we were not able to place an alias of a font into Suitcase Server's font folder. Without alias support, you actually have to copy all fonts to your server's drive. If you have a font library on CD, it is possible to automatically serve the entire CD by replacing the SuitcaseFonts folder with an alias to your font CD (you'll have to rename the alias to SuitcaseFonts). However, there is no way to serve the entire CD alongside fonts from your drive.

Though Suitcase Server provides complete IP support, we did encounter some troubles with its network support. When we tried to run the server on a Mac running IP NetRouter, the Server could not identify its IP address and was unable to serve. If you're running a network with fixed IPs or a hardware router, then you shouldn't have any trouble. If you're running any network address translation or IP masquerading software, however, you may not be able to run Suitcase Server.

Finally, Suitcase provides only one level of user access, in the form of a single password. If you want to create different levels of access, then you'll have to run separate servers on different IP addresses.

It's Got Game
Extensis has done a great job of providing a very simple, easy-to-use solution to a complex problem. Though Suitcase 10 Server may not be as flexible as we'd like in some respects, it provides enough power to ease the minds of many a network administrator. If you've got an office full of designers working on multiple projects, it's well worth your time to take a closer look at Suitcase Server.

Read more by Ben Long.

Editor's Note: The Extensis Products Group and creativepro.com are owned by the same company, ImageX.com.