CreativePro.Com Font Asset Mgmt./Workflow

What's That Web Font?

Editor in Chief — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:56:43 -0700

Chengyin Liu, an undergrad in Computer Science at the University of Illinois, has developed a handy web browser add-on for people who want to identify webfonts in a jiffy. The add-on, called WhatFont, is compatible with Firefox 3.6 and later; Chrome 9 and later; Safari 4 and later; Internet Explorer 9; and, to a lesser extent, Internet Explorer 8.

Use Webfonts in Photoshop for Free

Editor in Chief — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 02:32:08 -0600

Webfonts liberate us from the "web-safe" quintet we're all sick of: Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, and Verdana. But because webfonts are relatively new, there are still some bumps in the workflow. For example, purchasing rights to use a typeface on the Web doesn't necessarily come with rights to employ that typeface in other media. That's a problem when you want to use it on your desktop for site mockups created in Photoshop. Who wants to pay twice to license a font, especially when it may not make the final cut?

Download Second Dot-Font Book for Free

Editor in Chief — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:01:17 -0600

From digital to print to digital again—that's the path John D. Berry's "dot-font" articles have taken.

Updates to Font Explorer X Pro

Editor in Chief — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:18:30 -0600

Monotype Imaging has updated its font manager for the desktop and servers. The new versions are FontExplorer X Pro 3.1 for Macintosh, 2.3 for Windows and FontExplorer X Server 1.6.

FontExplorer X Pro 3.1 can now run in Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). The update also includes support for a full-screen mode and introduces a plug-in for Adobe InCopy CS5.5, and new Mac plug-ins for Adobe InDesign, llustrator, and Photoshop.

Fire Up FontDropper 1000 and Test WebINK Typefaces Online

Editor in Chief — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:00:47 -0600

WebINK, the webfonts arm of Extensis, has released a cool new toy. Called FontDropper 1000, it's a Web browser bookmarklet that lets you see what the many WebINK fonts would look like when in place on almost all websites. That means no more guessing—you can preview the webfonts as easily as you'd try different typefaces in InDesign or QuarkXPress.

There's no need to be a current WebINK customer, and the bookmarklet is free. Here's how it works:

Extensis Font Managers Support Latest OS, Creative Software

Editor in Chief — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:27:58 -0600

Are you an early adopter? Extensis has you covered. If you've installed Suitcase Fusion 3, use its Check for Updates feature to download an update that works with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5. Extensis has also released a QuarkXPress 9 XTension for Universal Type Client.

Extensis' font-management applications now have auto-activation plug-ins for the following:

InDesign CS3, CS4, CS5, and CS5.5
Illustrator CS3, CS4, CS5, CS5.1 (shipping with CS5.5)
Photoshop CS4, CS5, CS5.1 (shipping with CS5.5)

FontAgent Pro Updates for Creative Suite 5.5, QuarkXPress 9, and Lion

Editor in Chief — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 02:20:33 -0600

FontAgent Pro, a font manager from Insider Software, runs on both Windows and Macintosh. But version 4.2, released yesterday, is a Mac-only update that coincides with the new Mac OS X 10.7 (commonly known as "Lion"). FontAgent Pro 4.2 supports Lion and also comes with auto-activation plug-ins for Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 and 5.5.1, and for QuarkXPress 9. The company expects that the Windows version of FontAgent Pro will support CS5.5 and QuarkXPress 9 later this year.

Google Improves Its Web Fonts Interface

Editor in Chief — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:33:19 -0600

A little over a year ago, Google threw its hat in the Web fonts ring. Since then, the company has increased its font library ten-fold, from the original 18 typefaces to today's 180. But the interface you had to use to choose the fonts and implement them on your site had not enjoyed the same rapid evolution.

Control Font Usage Across Companies with Universal Type Server 3

Editor in Chief — Wed, 25 May 2011 02:31:56 -0600

Designers have long been bedeviled by fonts. Without font management software, a large font library is difficult to sort through and may slow your computer's performance. Fonts can become corrupted, and you can end up with confusing duplicates. This is all a pain, I grant you, but compared to the trouble fonts can cause corporations, individual users have it easy. If companies don't toe the line by properly licensing fonts, type foundry lawyers may sue those companies.

TypeDNA Now on Windows

Editor in Chief — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:19:35 -0600

There are many options for managing fonts, so an app that wants creative pros users has to stand out from the crowd. TypeDNA does so by stressing its unique tools, such as Font Harmony, which suggests fonts that go well with any typeface you select. You can even run TypeDNA alongside another font manager, thus cobbling together your own custom set of tools.

A Windows version of TypeDNA recently shipped. Like the Mac version, it costs $49. In addition to being a standalone app, you can also run TypeDNA inside the CS5 versions of Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.

Major Update to Mac Font Manager

Editor in Chief — Thu, 05 May 2011 08:52:35 -0600

You're a Mac user wanting to organize and preview fonts, and Apple's FontBook just isn't enough anymore. Maybe Bohemian Coding's Fontcase 2.0 will fit the bill.

This $29.99 software lets you preview your fonts in many different ways. As is standard on font managers, you can type in your own sample text for a preview, but you can also use that text to compare your fonts side-by-side, making it easier to choose the best face.

Snow Leopard Update Squashes OpenType Bug

Editor in Chief — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 02:07:53 -0600

When version 10.6.7 of Mac OS X came out on March 2011, some people who installed it began having printing, display, and PDF troubles with some documents that contained OpenType PostScript fonts. Note the qualifying "some": In a FontFeed blog post, Kurt Lang noted that "programs like Adobe InDesign are safe" from the bug, which "only affects Mac applications that rely on Mac OS X’s mechanism for rendering fonts". Still, the problem was vexing for those who were affected.

TypeTalk: Which Flavor of OpenType Is Best?

IleneStrizver99 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:51:37 -0600

TypeTalk is a regular blog on typography. Post your questions and comments by clicking on the Comments icon above.

Q. What's the difference between the TTF and CFF OpenType formats?

A. OpenType fonts come in two flavors with two different extensions: CFF, which usually has the extension .otf (often referred to as PostScript Type1); and TTF with the extension .ttf (usually referred to as TrueType). The format depends on the kind of outline data it contains: PostScript or TrueType.

Smasher 2 Ensures Better Font Performance

Editor in Chief — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 02:28:39 -0600

Press Release

Insider Software announced Smasher2, the world's only product that offers Macintosh users automatic preventive font maintenance, previewing and font integrity verification. Smasher works unattended to eliminate corruption of font caches and temporary files, the number-one cause of font-related problems and workflow interruptions - so fonts always appear and print correctly.

Eliminate Rendering and Printing Problems Automatically

Customize Historical Photo-Lettering Online

Editor in Chief — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 02:02:52 -0600

Photo-Lettering (or PLINC, as it was known to the people who counted on its products) was a typesetting house that supplied headlines to much of the advertising and graphic-design business. Even if you didn't begin to design until the computer age, you may have come across Photo-Lettering's brochures and catalogs at flea markets.