Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
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Type Management
FontAgent Pro
www.insidersoftware.com/FA_pro_osx.php
This app, which calls itself
the world’s smartest font
manager,” does in fact have
some pretty smart features, the
smartest of which is the ability
to sift through type by slant,
proportion, and weight attributes
all automatically detected by the
software. Looking for an extra-
compressed font to fi t that narrow
column? Sort by proportion to
fi nd the most condensed faces.
Equally useful for font fi lter-
ing is the font classifi er, which
lets users browse and assign cat-
egories and styles such as Text
Serif: Old Style preprogrammed
into FontAgent. For additional
organization options, Font Agent
provides the standard set and
smart set capabilities found in
other management packages, but
also allows for nested sets within
sets. This is useful for grouping
specifi c fonts, say s () disco
fonts, within broader ones, for
example, period fonts, or for cre-
ating a poster project set within
a larger branding project set.
Another unique perk is the
Font Player. This component can
“play” through a select set of fonts,
allowing the user to mark those
suitable for the project at hand.
A fi nal distinctive feature is Font-
Agent Pro’s ability to quickly
print out a sheet comparing a
selection of several fonts—a great
plus because comparing fonts
on a screen can sometimes be
deceiving. And, as in other pack-
ages, FontAgent Pro allows users
to share fonts over a local network
and search for fonts to purchase.
Simpler Sorting
Alphabetically listing fonts helps
designers who know the fonts by name,
but sorting through a never-ending list
can prove daunting. Just one of these
fonts is serif. The rest are sans serif. Do
you know which is the serif?
Baghdad
Bank Gothic
Barnhard Condensed
Baskerville
Baskerville Old Face
Batang
Bauhaus
Bell Centennial
Bell Gothic Std
Bell MT
Bembo
Big Caslon
Birth Std
Blackmoor
Blackoak Std
Blair
Bodoni
Book Antiqua
Bookman Old Style
Bookshelf
Bordeaux Roman
Bradley Hand
Sort fonts by slant, proportion, and weight
attributes with FontAgent Pro
To fi nd the handwritten font from the
preceding list, users would need to sort
through every font that comes before
’s Bradley Hand. Only then would
they see the handwritten font for which
they were looking—and this all pre-
supposes that they were using software
that previews what the font looks like.
“
Text
Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
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Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
Page: 342
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Typography, Referenced
Type, the newest font manager on
the block, has debuted with a number of
cutting-edge tools. Most compelling are
its aut omated matching and fi ltering
capabilities based in “sophisticated
character analysis” technology. Here’s
how it works: Select any font and Type
fi nds other similar options and others that
harmonize. The latter function gives the
user the ability to fi nd compatible type
by contrasting style within the given font
family or for headline or body purposes.
Users also can activate SmartChoice,
which compiles a list of headline, body,
or mixed type from which to choose.
Similarly interesting are the app’s attri-
bute fi ltering features that allow for font
viewing by degrees of weight, width,
slant, or optical size. Further, Type
can fi lter fonts by serif or sans serif.
By combining an automatic selec-
tor with one of the aforementioned
fi lters, users can browse through large
libraries quickly and powerfully. The
software’s “card view” is useful for
instantly comparing how large bodies
of text would look rendering through
diff erent typefaces. The ability to go
backward and forward through browsing
history further enhances the brows-
ing experience. Finally, Type has
plug-ins for Adobe software, which can
interact directly with text layout.
Type
www.typedna.com
Using Type’s sophisticated character analysis allows a user
to harmonize headline type with Bembo regular body text.
Filtering fonts by “very heavy” and “very wide” attributes with Type
Type integrates with Adobe software as an extension.
Text
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Job:03171 Title:Typography Referenced (Rockport)
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Type Management
FontClustr
Customarily, computers display
fonts through drop-down and
fl y-out menus built into software
add-ons. External applications
exist to help designers sort,
enable, and disable fonts, but
do not run on top of the program
in which designers ultimately
select, size, change, and edit
the typography. Designer Ian
Katz addressed that problem
when he created the Font-
Clustr sorting tool, which allows
software to display fonts by
formal properties instead of
their alphabetical name.
FontClustr not only saves
time with sorting and display-
ing, but it also aids designers by
letting them see the visual style
and group fonts into categories
based on user preference instead
of the standard—and often frus-
trating—alphabetical listing.
Katz designed this tool to solve
that exact problem: “FontClustr
should be incorporated into font-
selection tools to save time. It’s
customary to fi nd fonts by name,
but font names are meaning-
less. For example, serif fonts have
names from A to Z—requiring
you to cover the entire alphabet
to decide which one you want
even though only a fraction in my
type library have serifs.
When we search for fonts, we
are looking for shapes, and a good
tool should allow us to drill down
on the visual style we’re after, not
the name.”
Viewing fonts by line weight
Various uncategorized styles
Viewing fonts by serifs
Text
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