Font manager some may be interested in

[David O'Neil]

Those of you interested in font management programs may like to know that FontRainbow has a new version available.

Several years ago Simon recommended the program, and it impressed me enough that I contacted the author and offered some free bug feedback if he worked on a new version. A year later he took me up on the offer, and it ended up being so much work he eventually paid a token fee for each bug I found, so I'm not a totally uninvolved party, but that (and the free copy of the final version he sent me) is the extent of my involvement - I'm not making money from sales. I just hope he succeeds in helping others find their fonts.

He has finally finished his improvements for this go-around, and for designers who would like to see all the fonts on their system (except old raster fonts, and possibly a couple esoteric ones), his program is unlike anything else I've come across. It is VERY handy for giving you a quick idea of the best font for your design. You can rate and sort your fonts almost any way you desire using his interface, and once you've categorized your fonts, picking them out becomes a breeze.

I won't say everything about the program is the best thing to ever appear in a font manager program, because I am not a salesman, and there are limitations I don't like - for instance, if you want to use the database it creates on another computer, the other computer's font subdirectories have to be laid out exactly like the one on your current computer, and keeping track of what fonts went with what projects can become a bit burdensome^* - but for those who enjoy cool utilities I believe you will benefit from his work. A trial version is available at http://www.fontrainbow.com/. (I'm not a fan of his buying registration scheme either, but the author has indicated he will improve that in the future.)

Best wishes,
David

* - If you have many projects, and find that the attributes and user text approaches FontRainbow gives you become cumbersome after many projects, you may also copy each project's fonts to a subdirectory via the 'Manage fonts' button. I.E., "...\ProjectFonts\ProjectX", "...ProjectFonts\ProjectY", etc.

[Big Frank]

Looks VERY interesting. I'm downloading the trial now and will certainly buy it if I find it as useful as I think it will be.

Thanks for the heads up

[Big Frank]

I've just been through it and it really is a remarkable and unorthodox program

[David O'Neil]

I've just been through it and it really is a remarkable and unorthodox program

I'm glad to have been of assistance! He also has a file manager built with the same principle, and has made it a freebie at http://www.everclearsystems.com/FileRainbow.htm. It is a bit of a memory hog the way he currently has it set up (I've given him pointers on reducing usage for the next iteration), but has worked as smooth as butter on my system. I didn't initially think it would be useful, but I've found myself turning to it several times to more quickly find files lost in my subdirectory hell. Because of the memory issue, I do close it when not in use.

(The 'hell' isn't due to bad names and habits. When you get over 500,000 files on your drive, even the best naming scheme can result in multiple possible locations for one file. That makes searching for them a bit of a challenge. Those 500,000 files also make the setup scan take over ten minutes with FileRainbow, since my drive is a 5400 RPM unit. But in spite of that time it is still useful - subsequent searches are almost instantaneous. Just run the scan while you are doing other non-drive intensive processes, or cooking supper.)

David

[Big Frank]

If you're just looking for something that finds files I've never, ever found anything faster than Everything.

[David O'Neil]

Thank you for that. It is Exactly what the doctor ordered!!! When some money comes in there will be a donation - after only a minute playing I consider it to be an essential utility which everyone should have! And there is no problem keeping it open in the background! Some freaky phenomenal programming behind that code!