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!

[Big Frank]

Pleasure

[Boy]

Wow, that is a nice find, Frank! Very fast.

[Big Frank]

I've recommended it a couple of times on here. I am constantly stuuned at its speed and, as David says, that's some funky db programming they have going on there!

And back on topic, I am more and more impressed with Font Rainbow, my only gripe (and it's not Font Rainbow's fault) is that it cannot uninstall fonts from the Windows/Fonts directory. I have 13000 fonts according to FR and that's one hellof a lot of fonts to uninstall and then install elsewhere. I have afeeling FR has a mechanism that helps out a great deal in that particular operation, and I intend to explore it. I'm currently using AMP Font Viewer, but Font Rainbow is really getting my attention now

[Tony Wicks]

Frank, hi. Tony Wicks here. Not sure what the etiquette is around this, but I thought I’d register with the site so I need lurk no longer. (You made me go all hot with your nice comments there – thanks!)

Now, since your complaint about uninstalling from the Windows Fonts folder is now the second I’ve had from your community, I guess I’ll just have to do something about it. It won’t be very elegant but I have come up with something that should work. (I spent absolutely ages trying to make that work. Windows would always stick the font back in the damn folder, because the font has been used to render the text that FontRainbow displays).

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll put in two new options under the Help button. The first will say “Create uninstall font list”. That will take all the fonts currently being listed, and save their file names. (I’ll put in a review option so you can see what they are). The second option will say “Uninstall listed Windows Fonts folder files”. Or something. (Feel free to improve on this if you like!) That will go through the list and uninstall everything. Because they won’t have been used – and you would need to do this early in a FR session, and probably restart Windows in between – Windows should allow the uninstall. So, to get your list, you’d create an attribute called “For WF uninstall” or something, and tag all required fonts with it. And then filter on that attribute.

That’ll take me a few days – I’ll post something up when it’s ready. (I’ll email Christine – the other complainant - to let her know I’m doing this).

Regards,

Tony Wicks