Font management
A basic hands-on guide How to set your fonts straight!
Here we will deal with Windows font management. The way Macs use fonts is quite different; however, the basics behind managing your font collection are common, and so are the ideas about organizing your type stuff.
Contents of this article:
- Windows and fonts
- Loading/unloading fonts
- Installing/unistalling
- Classification and cataloguing
- Obtaining samples
- Font management programs
- Other utilities
Windows can handle different kinds of fonts. Some have a fixed resolution (printer fonts or screen fonts). These are seldom used to add type in the applications; they are used to display the text in the menu bars, dialog boxes and other graphic interface elements.
The fonts we will use most of the time, both on screen and to print, are scalable: their shape is unaffected by changes on size, and is independent of resolution. The main scalable formats are TrueType and Postscript Type 1 (or simply Type 1), and the comprehensive OpenType. Both kinds of fonts store the information to generate the contours or every character, with no loss of quality when we change the size. If we want to use TrueType fonts in Windows, we need nothing else than the font files: the operating system itself is able to manage them. To use Type 1 fonts, it works differently: Windows (with the exception of Win 2000) needs the help of another application that is in charge of displaying and managing the fonts: Adobe Type Manager (ATM). The basic version of ATM is a free download from Adobe.
Windows and fonts
Every Windows user knows the rudiments of type use in their applications. But it is also important to have a basic understanding of the way the system manages fonts and how you can prevent fonts from getting in your way or decreasing system performance.
First, we must know that a font needs a computer file that stores its contours. This file must be accesed by the operating system: this means it will be stored in the hard drive, a diskette, a cd-rom or even on a network. The font file in windows has a .TTF extension (for TrueType) and has two associated files (one .PFB and one .PFM) for Type 1 fonts. If you want to use Type 1 fonts, and you have Windows 9- , ME or NT, you need a helper application called ATM (see below, in Font Managers.)
It is not enough to have the font file stored in our computer disk. The programs will access its information only if the font file has been loaded into the computer memory. This can be done by two ways: loading the font files temporarily or installing permanently the font. To be more precise, besides these two alternatives, there is another option, called font embedding. When a document contains an embedded font, this will not be available to create other documents; the font information that contains is used only for that particular file. PDF documents usually contain embedded fonts, but this is something that you can do with many other programs, like MS-Word and many more.
Activating (loading) fonts
When we load a font into the computer memory it will be available for the applications running in this system, only while the font file isn't removed from memory. When we shut the system, and start it later the font will not be available if we don't reload it.
This way of temporarily activating fonts is convenient when we only want to use a font for a specific project during one session or a moment. For example, if we are using the font to create a graphic, we can unload it as soon as the text has been typed (for bitmap applications) or converted to curves (in vector programs.)
How do we load fonts? There are several ways:
- Explore the fonts using the Fonts folder from the Windows system or the Windows explorer. You just have to spot the font file, double-click it and a preview window appears (see the figure.) Now the font is loaded, as the system has read it to display it. If we now minimize this window, the font will still be loaded and we can use it as long as we don't close the preview window. We can do the same with a number of fonts, but soon our desktop can be terribly busy with preview windows!
- Use a dedicated font management program that is able to load/unload fonts, like The Font Thing, Typograf, FontXplorer... Remember that some of these work only with TrueType fonts.
Installing and uninstalling fonts
Installing a font makes it permanently accessible for any program; each time we start the computer, the list of installed fonts is read by the system and they are loaded into memory. Usually, the installed fonts dwell in a special folder within the Windows directory, called (surprise) Fonts. To install a font is straightforward:
- Open My PC > Control Panel > Fonts
- Browse to find the drive and folder that contains the fonts you want to install.
- Select the font or fonts you wish to install, and click Install. To select multiple font files, hold Shift to add consecutive fonts to your selection, and hold Control to add non-consecutive fonts to your selection.
To uninstall a font, the procedure is similar. In the Fonts folder, select the fonts you want to uninstall and select the "Uninstall" option.
Again, a good font management program will help you installing or uninstalling fonts (as we mentioned, FontLoader will do it simply right-clicking a folder or a file.)
How many fonts must we install?
There are some rules we should abide. We can be nuts for typography, but it isn't realistic to have a thousand fonts installed: we will use just a fraction of these for everyday use. To keep the system resources, it is better to have a limited number of fonts installed. As these are loaded into memory, the system gets slowed. Many hundreds of fonts can seriously bog down your system. To avoid this decrease in performance, the best solution is to select a few dozen fonts, our absolute favorites, or the ones we use more frequently, and install them. Keep the rest stored in different folders and load or install them only if we are going to use them.
With the increasing performance of today's computers, the main reason to have a limited number of installed fonts is to access the fonts quickly in the applications menu. If the list is very long, it takes more time to find the font and select it.
How do you classify your fonts?
If we must keep most of our fonts stock sleeping until activation, it is necessary to have a well organized folder system. The way you create these folders depends on your preferences and the kind of work you do ?and from your knowledge of type history, etc. I don't care much about this. Here it is the system I use, but you should customize it to your own needs:
- Dingbats and symbols.
- Illustration fonts.
- Capital letters and fontbats. Fonts that are appropiate to use as initials, with special decoration or pictures.
- Display and decorative fonts. This is a huge category that can contain different subfolders. You can create these subsets according to historical or geographical connotations, formal or informal, or whatever you want.
- Serif fonts. You will use them for copy text, but you aren't restricted to this use, they can work as display fonts, too. I include the Slabserif typefaces in this category.
- Sans serif fonts. Another category you will use in copy, titles and subtitles, captions... Here I include the Humanistic fonts (like Optima, Officina, Trebuchet...)
- Typewriter and monospaced fonts.
- Calligraphic and handwriting fonts, including copperplate scripts, formal and informal handwriting. Some shouldn't be used for long texts, but some other work very well for brochures, for a few pages.
- Screen fonts: optimized for aliased text to be read on-screen.
This classification seems to work for me. When I add a new font to the collection (and you could do it all the time just downloading them from the net) I place it to the folder it belongs. The fonts in a CD, like the 1000-font collection included with Corel Draw is another story, because they are sorted alphabetically.
Alternatively, you can place the font files wherever you want, and organize them in sets (also called font groups or collections, etc. depending on the program) using your font management software. This option lets you create folders that contain a link or shortcut to the selected fonts, rather than the fonts themselves. For example, you can create a "Art Deco" set that links to fonts stored in ten different folders on your disk, or you can prepare "font palettes" for your projects. Once you load or install that set, all the fonts are correctly installed, and you can use them as normal. You can safely move, copy or delete the references in a given set, because the fonts will be unaffected. For a designer, this ability to manage sets is full of exciting possibilities. You can be as specific as you want when you create these groups. And if you ever need to come back to the project when you've already finished it, that way it's very easy to collect all the fonts you originally used in it.
How to get font samples
If we have to find a font quickly, it is better to examine a printed specimen than a screen preview. If we have many fonts, this can be one way to "materialize" our collection. It is particullary important to have a sample of symbol or dingbat fonts, because you cannot guess which image corresponds to each character. Of course, we may already have a printed catalog from some type shop or distributor, and it will not be necessary to print samples of the fonts represented there.
When it comes to create printed samples, we can do it with almost any application. In a word processing program, just type some words or the whole alphabet at different point sizes, and we are done. We can save the document as a template and use it to print other samples, simply changing the font in the selected text. However, this method has a lot of limitations compared to the font management program approach. Most of these utilities generate quickly a variety of specimen sheets, and they do it in batch mode, for all the fonts we have selected:
- A single font in a page, with text at different sizes,
- A number of fonts per page (10, 20, 40...) with just a line or a few words of text.
- The character set of a font or the keyboard distribution (with shift/unshift positions) --a very useful option for symbol fonts.
The nonense phrases that appear in many programs, such as "pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" or "the quick red fox jumps over the lazy dog" are typographical texts that contain the whole alphabet in a single sentence. sometimes we find special words like AVATAR or hamburgevons, that help you try the letterspacing of a particular font.
Font management programs.
This kind of utility is really necessary if you have a good collection of fonts. While it is possible to manage them just with your Windows fonts folder, it is better to get some help from a dedicated program like the selection we comment below. A good management program must be able to:
- Display what a font looks like at different sizes, either if it is installed or not.
- Generate catalogs to print or save, with different options, and ideally do it in batch mode if necessary.
- Compare between two or more fonts.
- Load/unload and install/unistall fonts easily and quickly.
- Manage font sets to better catalogue, organize and use your collection.
Screenshot of Fontlister, a basic font management utility,.Font Lister is a simple but effective font manager. Its second version is freeware, the version 3 is (very cheap) shareware, and has an improved feature list. Visit his creator's site.
Some programs will not let you load/unload fonts, but they balance this shortcoming with a fast install and unistall. Most font managers have a similar interface, and they are usually small-size, memory friendly and fast programs. Get one of these programs: there is no excuse to stall, because there are several freeware alternatives, and even the commercial ones are really cheap and you will prove extremely useful if you are seriously into typography and / or design.
In this article we are showing several screenshots of these programs: The Font Thing, FontLister and Font Navigator.
For example, The Font Thing interface shows several frames. On top we have the usual menu bar and buttons, that let you perform the different tasks. The left panel lets you browse your system to find font files. The fonts found on a given folder are listed at bottom left. The frame also has a tab for the collections o sets you have prepared, and a installed fonts tab. On the right panel we have several tabs: a sample, a multiple fonts sample, the character map, detailed information about the font and notes (we can write our own comments for a font, for example: "this is the font used in the ACME logo", or "this works better at small size", or whatever.)
The Font Thing is freeware and you can get it from Sue Fisher's site.
Adobe Type Manager (ATM) from Adobe Systems, comes in two flavors: a freeware "lite" version and a powered-up DeLuxe version, with bonus fonts and full management abilities. Important note: If you use Windows 9-, NT or ME, you need ATM to use type 1 fonts in your system. Any other type manager needs ATM installed and working properly to manage Type 1 fonts.
FontLoader is a tiny freeware utility from Moon Software, that we have commented up in this page; the same company has several other type management tools, like FontXplorer . This is shareware, and has a lite version called FontXplorer lite.
Bitstream Font Navigator is a very good font manager. It comes bundled with CorelDraw 8 or later. To install/unistall is very easy in this program, because you just drag the font or the font set from the installed panel at right to the font catalog (the list of all the fonts in your system) at left. Very recommended. It is commercial, but affordable. More information at Bitstream.
The new MainType by High Logic software, commented in detail in a separate article, is a powerful font manager with excellent support for OpenType. It includes all the features you may wish from a type management program.
Typograf is regarded by many type aficionados as the best tool to boss your fonts. Full of great features, it is a shareware program. You can try it for a 30 day period and if you keep it, it has a modest registration fee. More information here.
Extensis Suitcase is a originally Mac-only app that has been ported to the Windows platform. It is a commercial application, but you can try it for a limited period from Extensis.
MacIntosh systems can use a number of font management programs. A few are Mac-specific tools, but most of them have been ported to the Windows platform, like ATM or Suitcase, the powerful Font Reserve, Font Agent or MasterJuggler.
Finally, if you want a comprehensive list of the available font managers, with comments and the urls, visit Luc Devroye's On snot and fonts, and go to the Font Managers section.
Other helpful utilities.
The Character Map from Windows is very useful to access the hidden characters from every font, and to see which key corresponds to every symbol in a pi or dingbat font. You will see the keyboard combination that will produce each of the hidden characters, like "curly" quotes, french quotes, en- and em-dashes and so on. You can copy a character o several characters to any Windows application. This useful tool deserves to be promoted to the desktop or the main level of the taskbar, rather than being buried deep in the Accesories subfolder.
- Extender Character Map is an enhanced version of the previous tool, and it is freeware. It offers larger previews of the characters and a couple of additional features. Symbol Selector is a special character map that works only with symbol fonts. Get it from www.rks-software.com
- Despite its reputation as an Empire of Evil of sorts, Microsoft has a great Typography subsite, and they offer cool fonts and utilities for free:
- Font smoother antialiases text on screen, improving its appearance, especially at larger sizes.
- Font properties extension gives full information about a font when you right-click its file icon.
- Font properties Editor lets you change different parameters in a font file. Very useful if you create fonts in a somehow limited program (for example, if you have exported the TrueType from CorelDraw.)
- Weft is a font embedding tool for web pages, that takes advantage of the CSS specification to link a font object to a common html page. This .eot font object stores the font contours and lets the browser render it like the user had the font installed in his computer. It works with a wizard interface that guides you through all the required steps to complete the embedding process for a single page or a number of them.
If you want to suggest some cool utility that you think should be listed here, do not hesitate to contact me.
