Font manager some may be interested in

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.

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 :thx

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

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Originally Posted by Big Frank

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

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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

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

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!

Pleasure :thx

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

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 :thx

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

I agree Frank. In fact I've use it almost everyday since Sledger first mentioned it in 2009 :) http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...212#post343212

As Tony Wicks has responded to Frank and my suggestions for an option to uninstall fonts within Font Rainbow - Here is a list of other features I have suggested to Tony,

Option to delete or move fonts to be un-installed
Move uninstalled fonts to different disc/directory.
Update all drive lists.
Open font in font editor.
Print the list of fonts.

I am sure he will welcome your responses to these and any other suggestions.

Christine

i'm looking for years for a good font manager for windows and check them all from time to time like eg the latest suitcase etc but old bitstream font navigator still remains the most stable and fast one.

you can only get it by installing the corel draw demo.

bb,

FLy

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Originally Posted by FLySOLO

...bitstream font navigator still remains the most stable and fast one.

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I am glad it works for you. I have MainType, and, unless I'm missing something and the YouTube videos showing Bitstream in action are old and outdated, it operates much differently than FontRainbow. Bitstream, MainType, and others don't quickly show you all the different fonts side-by-side. In FontRainbow I can instantly narrow my search by serif or sans, or any other attribute which has been set up, and see the results displayed graphically in a text string of my choice. (FontRainbow is unfortunately not good for displaying true Unicode fonts such as Chinese or Hebrew.) In the following screengrab I have selected only fonts I've marked as five stars - my highest rating. But I've shown you some of the other right-hand column attributes I've created and labeled some fonts with.

The fact that you can get Bitstream just by trying the demo is pretty cool, for those who want that type of functionality. Thanks for pointing it out.

Best wishes,
David

Attachment 98298

I use MT. You can also rate and filter by the stars. As well, you can place fonts in one or more categories of one's choosing and quickly display fonts that are in these categories. It displays all fonts, Unicode CJK fonts as well. You can install, uninstall, delete, etc, any and all fonts.

All in all, different strokes for different folks.

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Originally Posted by mwenz

I use MT...

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If you play with the demo version of FontRainbow I believe you will find a much more powerful way to categorize your fonts. I have MT, and, for what it is worth, like it. Even so, FontRainbow blew me away. It doesn't make you create a subdirectory (or folder, now that MT is more DB oriented) to see examples of all the fonts you are interested in. When you decide the font isn't applicable to the design you are working on, one way to eliminate it from the list is to right-click on the 'Show/Hide' column, set all to 'On', click the 'Show/Hide' attribute at the top so the current fonts are set to be shown, then click on the 'Show/Hide' box to the right of the font and it will drop off the list. Although this sounds difficult, it is very quick to do.

The ultimate gain: selection speed, because it saves you a bunch of time searching. Very few programs have made me volunteer to be a beta tester!

Sorry if this sounds like a sales speech. All I really wanted to do was let anyone who was interested know, and if MainType works for you, I'm glad it helps you be productive.

Best wishes,
David

(edit - If you rely upon full Unicode characters, or right-to-left text, FontRainbow would no longer be worth looking at.)

Frank, my website www.fontrainbow.com now contains new versions of FontRainbow (full and trial) that will allow you to uninstall from the Windows Fonts folder. It's been through a couple of revisions with my esteemed tester David O'Neil (big hat-tip to him for some valuable contributions) so I hope it should be fairly bug-free.

I should point out that uninstalling from Windows Fonts is not as simple as it might be. My rewritten tip (the last entry in the tips section of the program help) talks you through it and explains some of the pitfalls.

Regards,

Tony Wicks

Downloading now - will report back shortly :thx

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Originally Posted by Tony Wicks

I should point out that uninstalling from Windows Fonts is not as simple as it might be.

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Hmm, no it's not. It's a right pain in fact. Will have to think this through when my head isn't so full of other stuff.

Gotta be an API on MSDN for this. Every font manager I have used since time began has had this functionality. I've done it via an elevated prompt and from powershell before. If I can type in the commands, it can be written in any language, eh?

Here's a quick Google Search, the first couple hits. Rewrite or batch one or the other. Likely they work. My powershell script was different, but this looks right.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/deploymen...owershell.aspx
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=1945

The elevated prompt would be:

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del /f /s /q /a "C:\Windows\fonts\my-font.ttf"

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Good luck.

I tried this out and I liked it. However being a cheapskate I am satisfied with the two free ones I have used for a long time. Font explorer, and AMP font viewer.

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Originally Posted by mwenz

The elevated prompt would be:

>> del /f /s /q /a "C:\Windows\Fonts\my-font.ttf"

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MS seems to have taken action to make that command no longer work in Win7/64:
Attachment 98563

David

Works here on windows 8 64-bit. You have to start the command prompt as an administrator.

I did.

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Originally Posted by David O'Neil

I did.

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So did I.