Font Design

LINOTYPE GMBH – The Linotype company has announced a new online Guided Tour video of its font management application, FontExplorer X Pro available here: http://www.fontexplorerx.com/macguidedtour/. The video shows the Macintosh version of the software.

FontExplorer X Pro in Detail

The Guided Tour video explains most of the features of the program in detail. FontExplorer X Pro allows you to organize your fonts – just like media files – in a Library, Sets and Smart Sets and use them in a typical workflow.

FontExplorer X Pro is organized in a concise, easy to follow interface. The main window is dived into 4 main areas:

• The Source View
• The List View
• The Info Area
• The Preview Area

The Working Areas are covered in detail:

The Source View

The Source View provides an overview of the number of fonts on your system.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Source View and List View

It has an integrated shopping solution that lets you browse fonts and experiment with fonts as if they were installed on your computer. You can find lots of fonts and foundries. Once you have found the typeface of your choice, you can purchase and download it with just a few clicks. It will be installed directly onto your system.

Font Sets

Font Sets allow you to organize your fonts. Easily create sets for customers, projects or whatever suits your daily work best. The System Set shows the fonts that are stored in different locations on your computer and installed on your system.

The List View

The List View allows you to activate or deactivate fonts and sort or group them in different ways. You can even have a “What You See Is What You Get” preview of all the fonts in the list and adjust its size. You can keep full control over the content of this view with a right-click on the header (Control + click with the Macintosh mouse).

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - List View

The Info Area

You can also find this information in the small info area in the bottom left. Resize it and with a right-click you can configure the content of this window to suit your needs.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Info Area

The Preview Area

In addition to the “What You See Is What You Get” function in the List View, you can take a closer look at selected fonts in the Preview Area. Inspect the typographical details, including ligatures or kerning. If you need a printable preview of your selected font, just click and drag the text lines from the Preview Window to your desktop. This will generate an output document in the format of your choice. Options include JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and PDF formats.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Preview Area

Smart Sets

FontExplorer X Pro supports Smart Sets. Smart Sets let you define the criteria for the fonts in the set. For example, you can setup a Smart Set to include fonts by a certain vendor, or every italic font or every font used for a particular customer.

Application Sets

Application Sets allow certain fonts to be activated by certain applications – for example, Adobe Illustrator. An Application Set can contain regular font sets. So, for example, you may have organized several sets used for different Illustrator projects. You can create an Autoactivate Application Set for Illustrator and place all your Illustrator font sets into this Application Set, so that as soon as you start Illustrator, all your Illustrator fonts will be auto-activated.

To optimize your system performance, you can define which fonts you want activated at all times or activated only when FontExplorer X Pro is running.

Font Information

By double-clicking a font, FontExplorer X Pro opens the Information Window. In the Summary Overview, you’ll find all the information about this font.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Summary Overview

The Character Window shows all the characters of the selected font. In the sidebar you can see the codes, IDs, and various unicode options.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Character Window

You can also compare different font sizes and a full set of display options and settings in the Detailed Preview.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Detailed Preview

Finally, there is a Kerning Window where you will find specific information about the kerning of selected character pairs.

FontExplorer X Pro for Macintosh - Kerning Window

Font Management

Linotype states that with FontExplorer X Pro you can focus on your work instead of font management. It provides you with features and tools for professional font management including:

• Backup and save functionality
• Global and plug-in based auto activation
• Multiple export settings
• Handling of font conflicts
• Multiple settings and preferences