Font wake-up

[woody649]

I can't keep up. I have enough fonts to last a lifetime, and at this point I don't have any idea where many of them came from.


For a book about free software, I am working on a chapter about sources for free fonts. In the process, I discovered several sources that I didn't know about. On one of those sites I stumbled across a very nice looking font called Linux Libertine -- which was apparently developed as an open source font for Linux, so it's free for anyone to use for any purpose. It even includes small caps.

I looked up the history of the font on Wikipedia, and learned that a more recent "fork" -- offering additional glyphs -- is available called Linux Libertine G. Wouldn't you know it -- I have that font installed. I don't remember installing it and I have no idea where or how I got it. It seems to have come in with LibreOffice.

Linux Libertine and Linux Libertine G are apparently intended to be an open source analog for Times New Roman. Last night I set a sample paragraph in both for comparison -- they are very similar in appearance and in font metrics.

I confess -- I'm a font junkie. I just wish I could learn how to use a font manager, so I could put most of my seldom-used fonts into a box and keep them available but not always showing up in the font list in my word processor.

[Andrew B.]

Didn't we discuss font managers?

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Andrew B.

Didn't we discuss font managers?

We did. You folks offered several suggestions, most of which I have downloaded and tried. I have shortcuts to three font managers on my desktop -- and I haven't used any of them since shortly after that discussion. I still haven't a clue how to use any of them to do anything other than to view a graphical listing of the installed fonts -- and I can do that directly in Windows file explorer.

Supposedly a good font manager will allow me to put groups of fonts into separate collections that can be activated and deactivated as needed. So, for example, I could dump all the "Old English" ("black letter") type fonts together, and never see them unless/until I have a document or project that calls for an Old English type font.

It's probably easy, at least in some of them. But I don't have a clue how to do it.

[Andrew B.]

I'm not the expert on this, so I hope someone else jumps in now.

[woody649]

If I remember correctly, I kicked off the previous discussion by asking for ways to print out or view a graphical listing on all the installed fonts on my computer. I think that's what led to the discussion of font managers.

The current question is different. I just have too many fonts installed that I don't use -- but I am reluctant to un-install them, because sure enough if I do that I'll need one of them no later than next week.

The font manager that comes with the Megafont NOW font package I bought claims that it can let me put fonts into named groups, and activate/deactivate groups at the click of the mouse. That sounds ideal -- but there is no user manual, so I have no clue how this magic is supposed to work. The maker (SoftMaker, from Germany) has a support forum in English, but the answer I received when I asked there didn't even begin to address the question. Whoever answered just said the program can be used to install fonts.

NOT helpful.

[Andrew B.]

Assuming you are Woody 44 over there, I see they finally showed you how to create groups. Maybe you are on your way.

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Andrew B.

Assuming you are Woody 44 over there, I see they finally showed you how to create groups. Maybe you are on your way.

That was two years ago, and those instructions were useless. There's a newer thread, which I started a couple of weeks ago, in which I asked for a user manual. And the answer was (depending on how you read it) essentially either, "It's so simple you don't need a manual, Dummy" or "We don't feel like taking the time to write one, sucks to be you."

One thing I have learned (I think) is that activating and deactivating groups of fonts (if you can figure out how to get them in the groups) requires a reboot of the computer for each group you want to have change status. That's not the end of the world, but it's also a major nuisance. When I'm writing I usually have multiple windows open, and they're open for a reason. Having to close them ALL down and try to keep track of where I am in each just to activate or deactivate a font group is a severe hindrance.

Also, my font collections reside on a remote NAS drive. Apparently the Megafont NOW font manager doesn't support NAS devices. That means I would have to copy ALL the fonts I might want to use in groups onto each computer, laptop, and tablet I own. If I'm going to copy them all to all the computers, I might as well just install them. (Which is what I have done.)

[Steve Rindsberg]

>> One thing I have learned (I think) is that activating and deactivating groups of fonts (if you can figure out how to get them in the groups) requires a reboot of the computer for each group you want to have change status.

That may be the case for some font managers, but when I used Bitstream's Font Navigator (came with CorelDraw) that was never necessary. Then again, that was in an earlier version of Windows. Now that Win10/11 has made everything "easy", it may not work any more. Progress!!!

But here's something to try:

Put your fonts on the NAS, in directories based on the groups you want to create.

To install the fonts in any particular directory (aka font group) select them all, rightclick and choose Install. Windows installs the fonts. Any well-behaved app will recognize the new fonts right away, no need to reboot.

The only drawback to this vs a good font manager is UNinstalling the fonts. You get no help here other than your memory. But if you're keeping the font load down to a minimum, you *could*:

- Delete everything but a few core Windows fonts from the Windows font folder.
- Immediately install all of the core Windows fonts, copies of which you've cleverly stashed away in a CoreWindowsFonts directory on your NAS

Boom. Back to basics.

[woody649]

No fair -- you're using logic!

That's a very interesting suggestion. I like it. Thank you.

[Steve Rindsberg]

Originally Posted by woody649

No fair -- you're using logic!

That's a very interesting suggestion. I like it. Thank you.

Bad habit? Character flaw? You decide. ;-)