Font-management program

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Font-management programs are a class of computer utility software that allows the user to activate or deactivate fonts on a computer.

The operating systems of Windows PC and Macintosh computers manage fonts, which are always active and available to all programs that use or display text.

Graphic designers and others may install numerous fonts on their computers. Keeping thousands of fonts active at once can slow down the computer's performance and potentially cause other problems, such as font corruption. A corrupt font can cause a variety of operating problems on a computer.

Font management programs allow users to activate only the fonts they need for any particular project. Users can also create and activate sets of fonts for specific projects. Most programs can automatically activate fonts when a particular project is opened in the program used to create it. If the user has more than one font of the same name, the Suitcase font manager uses a technology called FontSense to determine which font was actually used in the document. Many foundries have issued fonts of the same name, such as Baskerville or Garamond. FontSense uses additional font data, including kerning and metrics to determine the correct font.

Some programs like Morrison SoftDesign FontDoctor can also check font collections for damaged or corrupted fonts and diagnose other font problems. Many can show previews of fonts and print out font samples, or allow the user to purchase and download fonts they don't have.

Examples of commercial font management programs on the Apple Macintosh platform include Extensis Suitcase, Linotype FontExplorer X, Adobe Type Manager Deluxe, Alsoft MasterJuggler, and FontAgent Pro. Examples of font managers on the Windows platform include High-Logic MainType, Typograf, Font Xplorer and X-Fonter.


 This article related to a type of software is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.