Font management software reviewed

FontAgent Pro 3.1

FontAgent Pro works in a slightly unusual way. It will scan your system (or any individual folder that you specify) for fonts and then copies them into alphabetically categorized folders – as opposed to Suitcase, which works with your fonts wherever they are. This is a slightly cumbersome way of doing things, but not overly so.

However, whilst organizing your fonts, FontAgent Pro will scan font families for corruption, duplicates and other problems. If any problem fonts are discovered they are moved into separate folders where they can be dealt with later. In this regard the function is similar to FontDoctor, from Extensis - although without the detailed detailed diagnostic reports.

Font Agent Pro features automatic font activation and offers plugins for QuarkXpress, InDesign, Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop (the latter being a feature missing from Suitcase).

The interface of FontAgent Pro is probably not as well developed as Suitcase. It is generally hard to visually tell the difference between the various different display panes. In this regard, Suitcase's longer term in the industry shines through. It would also be useful if FontAgent Pro were able to automatically separate fonts by their foundry, although this is a feature that would be desirable in all the font utilities.

FontAgent Pro is relatively bug free. We did have some minor issues initially with some fonts being incorrectly identified, but once these were removed it behaved very well.

FontAgent Pro is a Mac OS X product only, so Windows designers will need to look elsewhere. Is also comes in a server edition, with font syncing features, and also a workgroup version that allows font sharing over a network without the need for a server.

FontAgent Pro is published by Insider Software Inc.

Choosing a font manager > Suitcase > MasterJuggler > FontAgent Pro

4 March 2006

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