Designers Guide to Mac OS X Tiger

If you work in an agency with several designers who all may have a hand in your projects, a font server can make your font-management needs easier to handle. Instead of copying fonts to each workstation, you add them to your font server. When designers need a specific font set for their current projects, they simply subscribe to the set from the server, and the fonts are automatically loaded on their workstations.

When a client gives you additional fonts, or updated versions of fonts you already use, you just add them to the server. The fonts automatically update on each designer's workstation, saving time and eliminating the possibility that someone is using the wrong version of a font. Extensis offers a server version of Suitcase, and Insider Software offers one for FontAgent Pro.

Tip

If you work in an agency that has both Mac and Windows design stations, Extensis's Suitcase Server offers a Windows client application in addition to the Mac version.

A font server is really just an application that runs on a networked Mac and babysits your agency's fonts. A Mac that is already running as a server, maybe as a common file-storage system, is a perfect candidate to double as a font server. You can learn more about both networking and servers in Chapter 6, "Networking."

Tip

Before I add fonts to my font manager, I copy them to a folder I made on my hard drive. Since all new fonts go there at least temporarily, I always know where to look if a font isn't listed in my font manager.

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