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The Mac OS X font managers review [Dave Girard]

Dave Girard publishes a comparative review of Mac OS X font managers in Ars Technica. He discusses Insider FontAgent Pro 3.3.0, Linotype FontExplorer 1.1, and Extensis Suitcase Fusion 12.1.3, and dismisses Apple's Font Book right away (doesn't let you deal with fonts outside of the system's established font folders; preview only one font at a time; slow for finding new fonts; no auto-activation). For big library organization, Suitcase Fusion is the only one that does it right (FontExplorer X's centralized library is just all your fonts dropped into an alphabetical folder scheme of dubious value). For dealing with corrupt or incomplete fonts, FontExplorer X wins (the others would not handle or repair corrupt font files). For auto-activation of fonts in applications such as InDesign, or system-wide auto-activation, FontExplorer X was simply horrible. As for interface and font previewing, and searching and filtering, or extra features on the other hand, FontExplorer X wins hands down. His conclusions:

• FontAgent Pro 3.3: It is very reliable, and it's the most stable font manager in my experience. Still, the lack of accuracy for auto-activation of PostScript and OpenType fonts and the fact that it can't activate fonts off of removable media (forcing you to copy them) means it's not perfect. Still, it is a very good app and the best option for service bureaus. If its interface were improved and its searching/filtering options were more powerful, I'd say it was an easy nine or ten but these are relatively minor criticisms for this font management workhorse.
• FontExplorer X 1.1 (free): The interface of FontExplorer X is really great and, for what I think is the first time, it gives fonts an environment where they shine like the little works of art that they are. FontExplorer isn't stable or reliable enough with its auto-activation to unflinchingly recommend it for professional designers--yet. Since it lacks any server option, it's strictly aimed at single users and with the current crop of bugs in FontExplorer 1.1, it's not for everyone who deals with font management.
• Suitcase Fusion 12.1.3: I had left Suitcase X for dead a couple versions ago since it was slow, plagued with stability issues and the slow-to-come updates rarely resolved any of the major issues that the program suffered from. To stay competitive, Suitcase Fusion needs to improve speed across the board. It is inexcusable for a program at version 12 to misdiagnose fonts as corrupt.

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The Mac OS X font managers review
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