Managing Fonts

[crizon]

I think I'm not the only person here who slowly grew a larger collection of fonts. Now I know that i rarely use some, but i always think "Well it might come in handy if i must do xxx at some point".

Now is there any good program / extension to manage fonts especially for the use in photoshop and illustrator?
Now I'm sadly stuck with Windows XP here. I already tried to find a suitable Tool a while ago but during my google research i read that windows has a bad system when it comes to fonts and that there are no good tools to handle fonts on a windows machine.

Is that still true or did something change meanwhile?

Now i would be absolutely fine with some very basic functionality, like sorting fonts to some criteria.. really nothing fancy.
The only real requirement i have is that it doesn't break or slow down my system.

So is there anything for me out there?
How do you guys manage your fonts?

[hewligan]

No, it's basically true. Windows font managers are largely terrible.

Maybe one day Linotype will finally get around to releasing the Wndows version of FontExplorerX (http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX). Until then, Suitcase for Windows (http://www.extensis.com/en/products/font_management/product_information.jsp?locale=en_US&id=1055) is about the best option. And I don't much like it.

:(

[Silence04]

Actually, corel had a really nice font manager back when i was using windows.

I think it's called FontNav. A nice feature it had was the ability to automatically sort fonts by there type (Serif, Sans Serif, Script, etc.).

I don't know if they still make it or not, but i can remember having trouble finding a Mac font manager that topped it (until someone introduced me to FontExporer)

[hewligan]

Yeah, it came with the Corel Draw suite, as I recall. I just had a look, and there still seems to be a font manager packaged with Corel Draw (though I haven't used it in years). Can't seem to find a way to buy it seperately, and I doubt I'd buy the whole Corel Draw package just to get a font manager.

[Highway Seven]

I'm definitely a font pack rat. I can't seem to delete even the ones I've never used in the years I've had them.

[Pointyhat]

No, it's basically true. Windows font managers are largely terrible.

Maybe one day Linotype will finally get around to releasing the Wndows version of FontExplorerX (http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX). Until then, Suitcase for Windows (http://www.extensis.com/en/products/font_management/product_information.jsp?locale=en_US&id=1055) is about the best option. And I don't much like it.

:(
Bill Gates hates fonts. That's why Comic Sans and Papyrus are viable fonts.

[holycow77]

Suitcase for Windows is the best I've come across - by far.