FontExplorer X Pro for Mac

4.0 stars

"They've listened"

February 3, 2010  |   By rjc70

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.5

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I was pleasantly surprised to find there's a new updateâ?¦ and that they added some features that FEX was sorely lackingâ?¦ and that they implemented them fairly well.

In my review of the previous version I said I was going to try out the other font management programs, and that I did. I spent a good long month or so each with both Font Agent Pro and Font Suitcase. Each had its strong areas and each gave me headaches as well. In the end I decided to just go back to FEX, partially because I didn't want to invest in a new program, but mostly since upgrading to Snow Leopard fixed some big crashing problems I was having with FEX.

I haven't used 2.5 enough to comment on stability yet, but here's what I see so far:

New features:

One of my chief complaints with FEX before was the lack of printing. They've finally added it â?? and then some! Now there's a great simple layout editor, where you can pick & choose what you want to print, customizing it like no other program can. You can save these templates as well. Seriously blows away the competition in printing options now. Thank you!

Also missing was a classification feature that the others had. Now FEX has it, and you can make your own categories. In fact, there are three areas: Usages (Comic, Newspaper, etc.), Themes (Business, Casual, etc.), and Categories (Serif, Script, etc.). You can't remove the choices FEX comes with, but you can add and delete your own custom ones. There's also an auto-classifying feature, but that appears not to be working properly at the moment (it uses an online database of Linotype's). Of course the classification info can be viewed in a column in the main font window and can be used to make smart sets.

The third big addition is the transparent window. It's not a relatively inconspicuous small window you can move anywhere on the screen like Suitcase's, but it could still be helpful. Not only can you make the font preview background invisible to show a window underneath, but you can make the detailed preview transparent as well, so you can see what large quantities of text (any text you like, with custom tracking, etc.) look like superimposed on your layout.

Overall there is still some functionality I'm missing and the program is still slow (with my large database it can take up to 50 seconds for the first font activation/deactivation of a session â?? subsequent actions are usually under 5 seconds), but the new features allow me to recommend FEX. If you're a casual user, maybe the other programs are a tad simpler to use and look more sleek, but I really want to dig into the fonts â?? see all glyphs (and I mean all), view all the information contained in a font, customize everything, print nice samples â?? and neither FAP or SF allow me to do that like FEX can.

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3.0 stars

"Buggy but indispensable"

September 17, 2009  |   By rjc70

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.2

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Being a graphic designer, having some sort of font management tool is a must for me. I started using FEX back in the free days, and bought it when it went Pro, mainly because I didn't want to start over from scratch, and because I wanted to thank the developers for keeping it free for so long. I was expecting that the program would then grow and get better. I was wrong.

Unfortunately, I've had issues with crashing when trying to delete or remove fonts (it happens about 90% of the time), none of which have been resolved by communicating with the developers. I'm stubborn, so I just relaunch and keep trying until I wipe them out.
Other issues: painstakingly slow to activate/deactivate fonts when you have many in the library (and I have a monstrous load of them), no printing options, doesn't recognize duplicates unless certain information is exactly the same, occasionally all fonts (except system fonts) are deactivated after a crash, and so on. I've also run into some problems using the InDesign plug-in, which I just leave off now.

On the plus side, auto-activation is nice (aside from InDesign issues), it's easy to browse through a preview of all your fonts, and you can view all the font characters and font information.

I've tried so hard to like this for so long, but I'm thinking it will be time to try out other options soon.

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5.0 stars

"Best font management Program for the Mac"

June 2, 2009  |   By darylalt

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.2

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I have installed FontExplorer X Pro on all of our 50 some production computers and it has been running great. No Licensing issues, and full support for CS4. After having several major issues with Suitcase, FontExplorer X Pro has been a much more effective program. The only thing that I wish it could have done is import our old font sets from Fusion.

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3.0 stars

"be careful: lost all my sets"

February 18, 2009  |   By garbanzito-real

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
i downloaded the trial, prepared to pay for the application if it appeared to be well supported, stable, and to have worthwhile new functionality; so far not so good, but this will be a good test of the "well supported" aspect

for now, i do not recommend this software; here's my bug report to Linotype; i will add a comment with the reply:

the promised upward compatibility seems to have failed; is there any way to recover from this?

i am on Mac OS X 10.4.11 on an MacBook Pro Core2Duo

i have been using FontExplorerX (1.2.3) for some time, and had quite a few sets defined

i installed the trial of Font ExplorerX Pro by copying the application to my hard drive, quitting all other apps, quitting FontExplorerX (1.2.3), and launching FontExplorerX Pro

at this point, i was pleased to see that all my sets and activation statuses were preserved

next i removed FontExplorerX items from System Prefs/Account/Login Items (assuming these were for version 1.2.3) and opened the prefs for FontExplorerX Pro; i noted that the preference was already set to launch at startup; i had to toggle this preference off and back on to get the FontExplorerX Pro item to appear in my Login Items

then i restarted my computer; when restart was complete, i looked in FontExplorerX Pro and observed that all of my sets were completely gone; the "SETS" item in the left pane has a disclosure triangle to its left, however toggling it does not disclose anything; this is a very big problem for me

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5.0 stars

"Font Goodness"

January 8, 2009  |   By Nikachu

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I've been using the free FontExplorer since it was released (on both PC and Mac) and have been hugely impressed. This paid for version seems to be even faster, and is handling my 3000+ font collection without any issues (previews are virtually instant).

The option to backup is going to be a lifesaver at some point, so I'm glad it's there. CS4 plug-ins are all working seemlessly as well.

It doesn't seem to have many changes from the free version but the interface feels like a 100% Mac app now. Not sure it's worth the full price, but it's 50% cheaper for early adopters - and having had years of use with the freebie, I thought I'd give the programmers some cash for work well done!

Having tinkered with Fusion2, this won out for speed (although Fusion2 had some interesting features).

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5.0 stars

"Works well - no problems."

January 7, 2009  |   By macaholic

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
All version 1.2.3 settings, font sets, etc. updated without any problems.
This new version has plugins for the latest Adobe CS4 and Quark apps.

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5.0 stars

"Happy Customer"

January 6, 2009  |   By michael-fuchs

Version: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0

Summary

This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
After various disasters with other font management software, Linotype's free FontExplorer has served me well over the past years, so I didn't really think twice about buying the new commercial version. Some nice additions (and CS4 compatibility for the auto-activation plugins!) and the warm happy feeling of having a reliable font database built on solid ground...

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