To all you graphic designers out there, can I get some feedback on your font handling techniques? I understand all the different font programs out there, and I try not to keep too many fonts in my Windows Font folder... but my dilemma is, I am not a master typographer... when I need to design a new web site or logo etc., I know what theme and feel the font should have, but I cant equate that to a specific font in my head. So basically what I have been doing is using AMP or Font Xplorer to basically look through all 7000 fonts if this is an important aspect to the design. So unless it is one of the 10-15 fonts I know, I have to spend 10-20 excruciating minutes looking through all my fonts with the text I need.


There is no way every designer who doesnt have 7000+ fonts memorized do this every day for a new project. And even if you can group them in folders, are you supposed to suck it up and spend one day grouping all these fonts yourself? And even when you do, there will be a ton of fonts that can be categorized as 2, 3 or 5 different types... so then you put them in every one of the applicable folders?


I guess I just need a general tutorial on how to pick a font from thousands when you know the feel but not the name of the font.


Thanks!

All my fonts are zipped and categorized, such as script, Halloween, Dings, etc., when I am done using the font I delete it because I already have the font saved as a zipped file. Plus these are all saved on an external hard drive as well.

Sometimes I have several fonts in one category, but I am able to open the zipped file up without unzipping to see if that's the one I want. Hope this helps....

Originally Posted by Giselle

All my fonts are zipped and categorized, such as script, Halloween, Dings, etc., when I am done using the font I delete it because I already have the font saved as a zipped file. Plus these are all saved on an external hard drive as well.

Sometimes I have several fonts in one category, but I am able to open the zipped file up without unzipping to see if that's the one I want. Hope this helps....

So basically you have them categorized so at any given time, if you need, say, a "classy old school" font, you have a folder for those correct? Then my biggest point is, did you spend that much time putting each of your thousands of fonts in these folders one day or throughout the years you obtained more fonts?

My problem is, I have so many, and I never organized anything because I wasnt heavy into typography until more recent design work. So now I am finding it too frustrating searching through all these, let alone I have like 2000 in my windows font folder because I cant decide which to take out, because that will also take a huge chunk of time.

So is there any easy way to do this, ie, "All fonts that start with 'Helvet' will be a classy font" or something where I can get a clue of what a font is like just from their name, etc?

Thanks!

I started running into a problem such as you have, these fonts have been collected over the years, always in a zipped file individually, but still in all I had no idea what I had, they were all jumbled together.

Slowly I started going through them one by one, but I didn't take this on all at once, maybe 15 minutes here and there until I had them all categorized, it was over time. I sub categorized the Xmas folder into Fonts and Dings, etc., I can't think of any easier way, except slowly when you have spare time to start working with the fonts. It's quite a task, that I will grant you.

Ah well... no magic potion eh? Man I wish fonts had some relevant file name prefix or suffix... well I guess thats what I will start doing, sucks balls...

Another thing, how did you do it? Meaning when I use say Font Xplorer, so I see all the fonts in whatever text I want, but thats not a file browser... is there any font explorer out there that doubles as a windows explorer window as well so I can simply move around the fonts as I see them? I know I can move back and forth from the Xplorer to my Windows Explorer, but for so many, it will just go twice as fast if I have one window to work from.

It is seriously impractical to have large quantities fo fonts installed on any system. Many programs, including the operating system, have to read installed fonts upon launch. This slows the system down a lot. Having 1000's of fonts installed also increases the liklihood of corrupted fonts adversely effecting system stability.

I'm of the opinion that if a designer needs 1000's of fonts, they don't know what they want. As you develop your style of design, you cut down on the number of fonts that you like to use and should eliminate/archive the ones you don't. New fonts are introduced to the collection upon demand, not for the sake of it.

Previously, I used Adobe ATM to manage fonts. I would have top level classifications such as serif, sans serif, monotype, cursive, symbols etc. Then sub group names describing style; caligraphy, hand writing, novelty, GFX, entertainmant, professional, etc. Selections for a project were simply activated and deactivated after the project was finished.

Unfortunately ATM isn't compatible with my current system so I can't use it directly. I'll pick my font list from my previous workstation (XP Pro), zip and t-fer to my new system on a per project basis. After the project is finished, I uninstall the fonts. This keeps my primary production system uncluttered and responsive.

So the bottom line for my advice is, buy a good font management system. I'll be dumping ATM as soon as I come across a good substitute that's compatibile with Win7 (and finances permit).

Well yes I know about not having thousands of fonts active, thats not the issue... I dont have all 7000 in the Font folder. The issue is there some kind of shortcut to group or categorize fonts without viewing and moving every separate one of the 7000 at this point. I understand your grouping of serif, cursive, etc., but I'd like to be a bit more specific bec I am not exactly a font guru and I may miss some that I may like, so I rather group them like Handwriting-Scripts, Fun, Headline, Conservative Business, etc....

But I am having a feeling more and more now that I just have to suck it up sometime and go through these one by one and move them to appropriate folders I create.

Do a search for The Font Thing. It's a free program. I can categorize, view, install and uninstall fonts straight from it without having to use Windows' maddening way of sorting things. You can even create font groups without having to change the file location. I've sworn by it for years.

tim

Originally Posted by serandfae

Do a search for The Font Thing. It's a free program. I can categorize, view, install and uninstall fonts straight from it without having to use Windows' maddening way of sorting things. You can even create font groups without having to change the file location. I've sworn by it for years.

Sweet, I think this is exactly what I am looking for, thanks! Now are you SURE there isnt a magical way to have these organized for me???????

If there were, would you really use it? Personally, I hate stuff that's too helpful; it never does it quite the way I want and I end up doing it myself anyway.

tim

Actually there is one, i think something like Advanced Font Manager for like $40... it groups like scripts and serifs or whatever.... but I am sure it wont do the job that I would like, but then again, I have come across some super tools in the past that kinda surprised me in their effectiveness, like Illustrator's Live Trace... I had my doubts and not perfect but much better than taking an hour doing it yourself.

Either way I have pretty much decided to suck it up and do it as soon as I am done with these few projects where they all had to be done "yesterday" if u know what I mean, ugh....

I have a font viewer myself which I rarely use, it does come in handy once in awhile. This way you can use the font viewer to see what you really want and categorize which best suits your needs.

Good luck to you!

I have just started using The Font Thing, and its actually decent, I can move to a different folder after multiple CTRL+click selections, and then uninstall right after... down to 1400 now in my Font folder, and the other 600+ now neatly organized in my other inactive font folder... I guess I'll try to dwindle down to about a few hundred in the Font folder and get the rest organized. Glad its a nice free program!

Thanks guys!

P.S. Btw, as far as forums go, you guys are hands down overall the best bunch in participation, friendliness, good info and relating to the problem on hand with absolutely no signs of arrogance or ulterior motives... that is a real rare combo these days (esp on forums) unfortunately... Please keep up the good work and I hope I can run into you guys again in the future! (I'm sure I will)

P.P.S. Any of you guys Illustrator experts? I just started using it... I am about a B+/A- with PS so using the pen is second nature to me, which helps in AI, but there are still a few things that are bugging the baggeezuz out of me as a PS user.

I have categorised my fonts on the basis of light, medium and dark versions...this way I am able to get the desired font easily for the work I do....

Light meaning like cursives and heavy like Impact? I am down to about 800 using The Font Thing, but it seems thats only TT... there is a bunch of Adobe fonts in my folder that I cant delete, sucks... prob corrupted and XP is doing a grand job of handling it. Ideas?

I suggest you shoul categorized your fonts in whatever way you want.

WOW.thanks for sharing.
Nice to know about this.

You can categorize, view, install and uninstall fonts quickly and conveniently. You can even create font groups without the need to change the file location.

The problem I face mostly is that , after installing thousands of fonts ( I usually work in illustrator cs2) I have to apply every font to check , I just want to have view of them , so that I can pick the right one, but I don't know how to do that. Can any one please help??

First of all, I only keep fonts that I really, really like and I don't find it too difficult to throw away fonts because many of them are frankly terrible with awful kerning, etc. A program like The Font Thing really helps but mostly I find that simple, well designed fonts give me the best effect in whatever I'm designing. The key is readability. If your fonts aren't easy to read in whatever layout that your working on then I suggest that you ditch them. Narrow your font collection down to a few hundred really excellent fonts and then group them from there. There's no point in having thousands installed because you'll find that you really only rely on a few good ones again and again anyway.