Using Suitcase Fusion/Advice for a Designer

Question

For the longest time, I would just add whatever fonts I could find to Fusion and the program would add them without any problem. However, now that I am doing more freelance, I need to be really careful with what fonts I use for my clients. I wouldn't want to use unlicenced fonts for a job. Consequently, I now need to think up the best workflow for using fusion for freelancing. I know I can add temporar fonts to fusion. But what if I am doing a job for a month for someone. Would you then add the fonts permanently? Then after the job is over would you remove them? What would be the best way to remove the fonts? How could you be sure you aren't removing the wrong fonts? For example, what if a client sends you a Helvetica to use, and it happens to be exact same Helvetica that you own, and is consequently already in Fusion. I imagine Fusion would not allow that other Helvetica into the database since it is already in there. My problem is, when you are done with the job and you go to delete all the fonts because you no longer need them, wouldn't you end up deleting out your own helvetica? Any advice on the best workflow would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi kpdesigns,
The main thing to remember is that your fonts are never part of Suitcase. Everything listed in the active font lists are symbolic links only. If you "remove" fonts from Suitcase, you are only deactivating them. The originals are still wherever they were originally on the hard drive.
It's a bit different if you're using Fusion's option to put activated fonts in the vault. Those are then a copy of the fonts you activated stored in Suitcase's own database. Unless, in a sudden burst of insanity, turned on the option to delete the originals after adding fonts to the vault. When you deactivate them, they remain in the vault so you can go to the Closed Fonts panel and reopen them without having the originals on hand.
There are problems with that workflow though. What if you need to open a modified copy of Helvetica? Will Suitcase allow you to override the font in the vault. Will it even let you add it since they're the same name? To me, the vault isn't very useful and so that option is always off on my Macs. It's also downright dangerous if you're silly enough to let it delete your originals when adding fonts.
Here's the workflow we used to best effect in the prepress shops I've worked at.
1) Keep your open fonts to the bare minimum on your Mac so client fonts you activate are unlikely to already be open from another font with the same name. See my article, Font Management in Mac OS X Tiger and Panther for a list of minimum fonts.
2) Keep client fonts with each job they are for. Create a folder for a job when it comes in. Within that folder, create a folder for the fonts that belong with that job. So if the job folder is called Florida Spa Flyer, name the folder within for the fonts Florida Spa Fonts to make the association easy to remember. Once you have all of the fonts for that job in the Fonts folder, drag and drop it into the Suitcase window. A new font set will be created with the same name as the folder the fonts are in, making is easy to see which fonts belong with which job.
3) Since fonts in Suitcase are only links, you can have multiple sets for all of your separate projects. Just activate whichever set matches the job you're currently on and deactivate the other sets. That way you can have multiple versions of Helvetica, Garamond or whatever in Suitcase. Since they're all separated by sets that activate only from the job folder you added them from, you'll always be using the correct fonts supplied by the client for that job.
4) When you're done with a project, simply deactivate and delete that set from Suitcase. The actual fonts will remain where they are and can be archived with the final documents so they stay together.
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