How do YOU manage fonts in OSX?

Question

I have not yet found the magic solution that lets me reliably manage large font libraries in OSX.
If anyone has got a solution, or is even merely coping, please pass on some tips.
Thanks,
P.

Answer 1

I have tried Font Book more than once. It is extremely slow, last shot a few days ago it sat hours without showing any signs of progress until I force quit it. This totally screwed my fonts, particularly in Safari.
This is consistent behavior for Font Book when you're trying to handle a lot of fonts. It just isn't very good at that task. Every single font you open with Font Book gets copied to the Fonts folder you chose in its preferences. Since both are considered "always on" folders by the underlying Unix system, Font Book also keeps a database of all installed fonts to determine which should be enabled and which are not. If this database gets damaged, fonts that Font Book says are enabled still don't show up in lists, causes long hangs at startup and other problems.
I did an archive and reinstall of OSX which introduced further problems, now some fonts are missing that were there before and others that aren't part of v10.5.6 seem to be installed.
You can reinstall just the fonts that came with OS X without having to resort to an Archive and Install. See my article which baltwo first linked to above. Any other fonts you've added should have remained where they were. They probably are still there, but a damaged Font Book database is likely keeping them from appearing. You can reset Font Book. Follow the steps in Undoing Font Book. Note that you will lose any font collections you have created. Doing this will also clear the font cache files for your user account. Since Font Book's database is reset, all fonts will in your Fonts folders will be active, regardless of their state beforehand.
I have also tried Suitcase (not for a while) it was also slow and somewhat unpredictable.
Versions X and X1 weren't the best, but Fusion is very stable.
Linotype Font Xchange looks nice but I can't figure out how it is interacting with fonts in Font Book and there seems to be issues with open fonts not showing up in applications.
I have to assume you mean FontExplorer X, since there is no such title as Font Xchange. Big mistake though that a lot of people make. Font Book is just another font manager. It has no special ties to the OS. If you do decide to use a different manager, delete the Font Book application from your hard drive. It's always best to have one, and ONLY one font manager on your system at a time.
Truth to tell I have never overcome the problems of font management in OSX. Is there no way of at minimum just coping with the problems of OSX fonts and at best getting back to the relatively smooth management of Mac Classic?
I find font management just as easy in OS X as OS 9 was. Well, once I learned why there were so many different folders all called Fonts, and why they are separated the way they are. Once you get that, it's a piece of cake.
I believe that is what we are supposed to have, which is the fonts linked (via a Font manager), but not open, and either opened as we need them manually or automatically as the application calls for them.
Agreed. Both Suitcase Fusion 2 and FontExplorer X work that way (actually, you need to tell FEX to use that method). While FEX is free, I still much prefer Suitcase. The biggest reason being that it ensures the same version of a font will be used the next time you open a document in an application that supports auto activation. That I know of, FEX can't do that. It has an auto activate feature, but if you use a different version of Bookman, it can't tell the difference. It sees Bookman and assumes all is okay.
Also there is no way of knowing in some apps whether you have just opened a TrueType .otf or PostScript .otf.
Almost all professional apps tell you the difference. TrueType fonts will be shown with a blue double T icon. OpenType with its green and black letter O. Type 1 PostScript with a red letter A. The only confusion comes from OpenType. Those can be created in TrueType or PostScript versions. The PostScript ones have .otf as their extension. TrueType versions have the same .ttf extensions as the original TrueType fonts of years ago. While you can of course see the difference between them by file name, programs don't differentiate them. They both get the same green/black letter O icon in font lists. There's no way to tell if it's a TrueType or PostScript OpenType font from there.
I can not do what I did in Classic which is have all the font variations in one suitcase and open and close them in one click.
Both Suitcase Fusion 2 and FontExplorer X will open complete sets in one click.
You can download FEX and play around with it as much as you want, being free. If you want it to open fonts in place, just make sure when you first launch it to choose the option "Don't manage fonts" (or something like that). It's kind of a strange way to state the option, but that's the one you want. Suitcase Fusion 2 can be downloaded and used as a fully functional demo for 30 days. It's only method is to open fonts in place. That or open in place and add the fonts to its Vault (the default). I personally see no use for the Vault and use only the open fonts in place option.