Comments on: Extensis Achieves Desktop Fusion

By: tantra4

tantra4 — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:19:36 +0000

Why on earth would anyone use the crap shoveled out to graphic designers by extensis when linotypes FontExplorer X is free? Not only is it free but its the best font management program ever made, period. I manage over 6,000 fonts and FontExplorer X has NEVER let me down, ever.

By: NO MORE HEADACHES

NO MORE HEADACHES — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 04:02:55 +0000

I had to uninstall Suitcase Fusion ASAP. It was a true nightmare. Literally hours and hours to do what Linotype FontExplorer X does in SECONDS. In other words, if you’re a masochist who enjoys perpetually reading “Application Not Responding”, you’re gonna love Suitcase Fusion.

I kid you not, it regularly took hours to respond to an activation of a group of about 20 meager fonts. The only solution Extensis offers to these ridiculous wait times in their manual is just don’t force quit the app as it can lead to serious problems. O-k-a-y.

But, this is not the end of my tale. I idiotically trusted Extensis to manage my system fonts. I noticed immediately that some of the fonts in a few of my applications (ie, Apple Mail…the number indicators by the folders) were a bit wonky. But this was heaven compared to what was just around the corner.

Long story short: “Startup disk is full” message.

After hours of panic and attempting to isolate what was caused my startup disk to fill to capacity, I found the culprit. A 10 GB ‘asl.log’ full of the same error message over and over again from another piece of software that couldn’t access the system font it needed to operate. Thanks again, Extensis!

It was at this point that I began shining up my boots to drop kick Suitcase out of my life forever. Can you say AppZapper?

Anyway, I wasted a little more time deleting the 10 GB asl.log file and disabled the app that was seeking the font that Extensis was monkeying with, then spent a full day reinstalling and reorganizing 2700 fonts — after waiting over half a day beforehand for Suitcase Fusion to allow me to even access them (can you say, “Application Not Responding”?).

Thankfully, the FREE Linotype FontExplorer X was there to help me pick up the pieces from what seemed an eternity in Suitcase Fusion Hell.

Anyway, the silver lining to this story is that I discovered that FontExplorer X is a genuine breeze to use. Quick, responsive, and pretty to look at. Did I say QUICK? Yes!

Oh wait! Not so fast. It appears that when Suitcase ‘managed my system fonts’ it altered several of them.

The original Helvitica and Times system fonts (in the /System/Library/Fonts folder):

HelveLTMM
Helvetica LT MM
Helvetica.dfont
Times LT MM
Times.dfont
TimesLTMM

… were apparently subdivided further by Extensis to include the following:

Helvetica_bold.dfont
Times_bold.dfont
Times_italic.dfont
Times_bold_italic.dfont

So, when you move your system fonts back to their PROPER place (which is, incidentally, NOT in Extensis’ file vault… apparently so secure even the system can’t access it), be sure when you’re doublechecking the relocated fonts in the ‘/System/Library/Fonts’ folder against Apple’s default installed font list, make sure that these 4 additional fonts (that Extensis has so nicely made for you) are there. (Why can’t Extensis just put the ORIGINALS back where they’re supposed to be?)

Apple’s List (notice the 4 fonts mentioned are NOT on it): http://docs.info.app...e.html?artnum=301332

Anyway, all is back to normal now (I hope). It remains to be seen whether the four mutated fonts above will introduce any further havoc. We’ll see…

By: Samuel John Klein

Samuel John Klein — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 04:58:41 +0000

You brought up a very powerful feature here. Font Vault can be backed up and saved in case something gets corrupted. If a user chooses to import all thier fonts into the Vault they it looks as though they can save thier entire font library off disk and replace it if something goes wrong with it. I was also very impressed by that.

By: CreativeGuy

CreativeGuy — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:05:16 +0000

I had been using Linotype FontExplorer X for several months without issue. Though it’s still a beta, it’s free and works VERY well. But there were a few annoying features about it that were enough to make me at least **try** Fusion.

After using Fusion for about a week now, I’ve already had one “headache.” Fusion simply refused to open. I deleted the font vault file in my Library and re-imported all my fonts again. This time I made a backup copy of the FontVault file in case it happens again.

That aside, it works pretty good. It’s fast, and most importantly for me, VERY ACCURATE when auto-activating. Also, being able to activate a single font face, rather than the entire font is a god-send – especially when trying to resolve duplicate fonts, etc..

If you’re a Suitcase or Font Reserve users, I highly recommend the upgrade.