Fonts can express a feeling, influence readers, set a tone and demand attention. Above all, they can help publishers communicate. Unfortunately, when fonts go missing, print wrong or become corrupt, they can quickly become a user's worst nightmare.

Publishers can prevent many problems by practicing good font hygiene. One step is to prune excess fonts by minimizing the number of active typefaces open on a workstation. Having a large number of active fonts can hamper computing performance, cause applications to crash and slow everything down. Also, long font menus in desktop publishing applications can be unwieldy if not outright annoying.

Fonts can be corrupted in a number of ways, including during application and system crashes. Corrupt fonts can cause severe problems, including making a computer inoperable (until the font is removed). While most font management utility packages offer diagnostic and font repair functions, the best practice is to replace damaged fonts with fresh copies from the downloaded file or disk.

Martin Stein, senior product manager for font solutions at Extensis Inc., said legacy fonts could also cause problems. Noting that fonts are pieces of software, Stein said publishers should consider contacting their foundries and replacing fonts (such as antiquated harmonized fonts) older than 13 years old with updated versions.

As for organizing a legion of typefaces, a font management utility comes in very handy. These applications differ in features and function, but all perform the basic tasks of activating, deactivating and organizing fonts. Workgroup versions offer font sharing across local area networks.

Extensis Suitcase

Extensis is the big dog of the professional font management world, claiming 98 percent of the pro market. A division of Celartem Inc., Extensis offers two different font management utilities.

First developed by Fifth Generation systems in 1987, Suitcase ($99.95) was a pioneer font management application on the Mac. Eventually acquired by Symantec Corp., Suitcase basically languished after one update under its ownership until acquired by Extensis in 1999.

Currently packaged with font diagnostic and repair tool FontDoctor (developed by Morrison SoftDesign Inc.), Suitcase is available in a 30-day trial version and is available for both Mac and Windows. The Suitcase Server X1 ($1,199.95) and Client ($129.95) let users share fonts across a workgroup.

Extensis Font Reserve

When Extensis acquired DiamondSoft Inc. in June 2003, it gained Font Reserve. Available for both the Mac and Windows, Font Reserve ($99.95) has more robust features for Windows users than Suitcase (such as auto-activation).

Extensis has not updated Font Reserve since the acquisition but has released a free update to its Font Reserve Server ($1,200). While Extensis lists Font Reserve as OS X 10.4 and Adobe CS 2 compatible, it does note minor user interface glitches, and posts on the corporate site that a new version will be "available shortly."

FontLab licenses the Fontographer line from Macromedia. Click here to read more.

Stein reiterated previous company statements that Extensis intends to marry both Font Reserve and Suitcase "together in a next-generation font manager." When pressed, Stein said this successor product will be available in less than a year, but stressed both Font Reserve and Suitcase are great font management solutions available right now.

"DiamondSoft's Font Sense technology is key," Stein said. "It spares end users the struggle of identifying the fonts used in a document and avoids the perils of inadvertently using the incorrect version of a font with a document."

Stein said the use of plug-ins gives his company's two font management utilities an edge. "Font managers who give up that feature give up a lot of functionality and just rely on general auto-activation, and we think that's not good enough for the publishing professionals out there. You have to have really specific auto-activation mechanisms for InDesign and XPress."

Stein said Extensis is also busy working on the client application for Font Reserve Server and Suitcase and Font Reserve plug-ins for Adobe CS2. He said they should all be available within a couple of weeks.

Next Page: Looking at other options for font management.