[Macworld]

Post your comments for Font management with Suitcase Fusion 2 here

[MorrisTheCat]

Wow, Extensis FINALLY got around to making it so the app doesn't need to be running to manage fonts, eh? Only took them how many years? I gave up on Suitcase years ago partly because of that stupid limitation and went with FontAgent Pro.
From the review, it sounds like Suitcase is again a serious competitor to FontAgent Pro. I particularly like the option to auto activate an entire font family, not just the one used in a document. Wish FAP had that feature.
FWIW, FAP also allows system font management (at least in vers 3) but it was always a gamble that it wouldn't bork your system. I agree with the writer that not allowing this is a good thing. I've found its less headache to just leave the system level fonts as is and live with them.

[flybynight]

I'm using Fusion (1?) right now and for the most part I like it, but I do find it annoying that rather than putting out new plug-ins for CS4 and Quark 8, you have to upgrade to Fusion 2. At least it looks like the upgrade has enough other goodies that it will be worth it.
Wether you use Suitcase or FAP, I would suggest looking at the Leopard font best practices document that is linked in the article. It details how to permanently get rid of Helvetica.dfont and Helvetica Neue.dfont - it works as long as your font manager is always activating another version (say, PostScript) of those fonts. Life has been much better since I followed that. Follow what it says, though - there are some fonts that you cannot remove without serious system wonkiness occurring.

[mortlieb]

Linotype has created the iTunes of font management, FontExplorer X, for free: http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
$100 for font management is just silly.

[jpmhughes]

mortlieb said:

Linotype has created the iTunes of font management, FontExplorer X, for free: http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX

$100 for font management is just silly.

I agree, FontExplorer is a remarkably useful font management application.
I am a little wary of Suitcase. I gave up on it not only because of the fact that you had to leave it open all the time but also because it crashed a lot due to corrupt preferences.

I don't like auto-activation anyway so that is not a major selling point for me.
I like to be in total control of my fonts and which ones get activated.

Unless Suitcase makes a font management tool that is leaps and bounds beyond FontExplorer I'll be staying with Linotype.
Jim

[alansky]

I've been a Suitcase user for many years. Despite Suitcase Fusion's shortcomings, for me it has been the best, most stable version so far and I have been eagerly awaiting this upgrade. However, after playing with Fusion 2 for a few days and watching an hour-long webcast on Fusion 2's new features, I am not impressed. The new version does have a few new features that will make life a little easier for pros who work with fonts in a production environment all day long; but for people like me who work alone and without deadlines, these features mean very little. On the other hand, moving the preview pane to the bottom of the main window actually makes the layout of the new version less useful than the old one. And the font used by the program for font lists has been reduced to an almost absurdly small size, with no option to make it larger.
I do like auto-activation without running the program, although a Photoshop plugin would certainly be appreciated by those of us who use Photoshop for just about everything. I also like the iTunes-like "Reveal in Finder" command, although it seems to be grayed out most of the time. Finally, Fusion 2 finally adds support for OpenType dingbat fonts.
All in all, I'd call Fusion 2 a long overdue and disappointing upgrade that invites the discerning font user to take another test drive of FontAgent Pro and FontExplorer X before giving Extensis another fifty bucks.

[sfrothie]

Since Font Explorer is not going to charge for new versions, I'm going to stick with Suitcase Fusion. The most recent version is really stable, and if I'm going to have to pay for it, I'd prefer to stick with what I know.

Plus, every time I've had to call them for help, Extensis has been great.

[edstate]

Mini-review:

I really don't think MacWorld put this new product through it's paces... unfortunately.

Don't get me wrong, this is the best font manager out there, imho, and I've taken a LOT of time to give all the major ones ALL a good test. I have a bunch of fonts, and a TON of versions of those fonts. And ESF2, with FontDoctor, is simply the best at checking, and auto-activating those fonts.

What it's not the best at is the MANAGEMENT of fonts.

First of all, the folders don't work like normal folder structures, in every other program on earth. You can't do simple things like make another library for, say, "Clients" because if you do, and you drag fonts into it, ESF2 actually COPIES those fonts into it ?for some odd, odd reason? creating dupes, bloating your vault size and slowing everything down. Also, while you can make "smart sets" (like most any program) you can't store them in any of your folders! Which makes your 1st level folders very untidy. There's other, weird, very UNintuitive organization decisions that were made too, that are simply maddening. For instance, it also creates an automatic set when you import fonts. Thanks? And I get this error message when I try and delete some of them: "Suitcase Fusion error 285216786". It won't let me delete the set, even though I deleted the font. So, in addition to all these smart sets littering up my root level, i now have these zombie sets I can't delete.

They released a new version recently, with some updates and fixes, but when I (and everyone else) upgraded... YOU HAVE TO RE-CREATE YOUR FONT VAULT! And for someone who has taken a LOT of time to sift, and organize a fairly large collection, this is unacceptable. Period. This should be software design 101, right? Well,I actually had to use Time Machine to arduously go back to 13.02.

This stuff such a shame because this program is SO CLOSE to being hands-down the only choice for font management. And, honestly, I still recommend this above all the others. I just wish it was more intuitive and stable. And pubs like MacWorld really need to dig a little deeper before giving such glowing reviews.