PC operating question

[Dottonedan]

I am running a PC and it's pretty decent in Op speed and I have plenty of HD space and RAM. I even have a 2TB external to back up to.  I am wondering how much it will effect performance to have ALL of my fonts installed. Will it slow my programs down?

So far, I do not see an efficient way to use fonts on here.  I loaded about 200 today and have probably a thousand or more that I could load.  Pierre looked for a PC font program a while back but don't think he had any luck.  Anyone know if it's ok to install ALL of your fonts?  Does it slow it down noticeably?

[blue moon]

if you are going to stay with few hundred it will not make much of a difference. For a few thousand I would look into the software. The Suitcase Fusion 3 is very nice and has some pretty cool features. It is struggling with 50K fonts I have on the drive (not installed).

Back at the graphics of america somebody gave me a list of programs that should handle large numbers of fonts, I'll post it when I find it.

[ebscreen]

Programs that catalog your fonts (Illustrator specifically) load noticeably slower with that
many fonts installed. There are a few good management programs, though I can't recall
the names of them.

[Frog]

I don't know how far into the "Dark Side" you have crossed, but CorelDRAW includes the usable Font Navigator which helps organize but not install all of your fonts.

There are a few others available as mentioned. Other will chime in, I'm sure.

[screenxpress]

I've heard stories of locking up after loading too many (installing that is).  You would be much better off using a font manager and move them in as you need them.

This will answer most of your questions -

http://www.dafont.com/faq.php

They seem to think 1000 is the advisable number limit.

[squeezee]

Font manager is the way to go, otherwise it will slow you down.

[Denis Kolar]

Why so many fonts, you will hate it when trying to choose!!!!
Believe me, I tried and had to delete "some".

[Dottonedan]

Why so many fonts, you will hate it when trying to choose!!!!
Believe me, I tried and had to delete "some".

I don't have a font book (showing examples of styles/alphabet) to choose from yet. It would be time consuming to create one.IN the mean time, it's easy in photoshop to select your live type, then hide selection...then highlight your type font style--and while highlighted and selected, you can use the arrow key to toggle up or down in your list, changing the preview of the selected active font.  I can click down the list until I find one. It's faster then looking in the font folder and clicking on each one to get a preview (outside of photoshop).

[dlac]

That many fonts work for young intelligent people like DTD but when you get old and forgetfull my biggest issue is I do some art, covert the font, don't keep track of what it was (I recognize arial) and then I have to scroll through 500 fonts to find the one I used... lowers my hourly rate to a negative when I am charging a customer by the job....
dlac

[Denis Kolar]

I don't have a font book (showing examples of styles/alphabet) to choose from yet. It would be time consuming to create one.IN the mean time, it's easy in photoshop to select your live type, then hide selection...then highlight your type font style--and while highlighted and selected, you can use the arrow key to toggle up or down in your list, changing the preview of the selected active font.  I can click down the list until I find one. It's faster then looking in the font folder and clicking on each one to get a preview (outside of photoshop).

I know the drill. You can do it in InDesign too, but not in Illustrator.

Believe me, you'll get tired of looking for a font. Choose a few hundred favorites fonts and stick to those.
I had 1500 loaded and I hated choosing a font from that many. You find something nice.............. or, they might be something better............lets look some more.

You'll hate it.

[Dottonedan]

That many fonts work for young intelligent people like DTD but when you get old and forgetfull my biggest issue is I do some art, covert the font, don't keep track of what it was (I recognize arial) and then I have to scroll through 500 fonts to find the one I used... lowers my hourly rate to a negative when I am charging a customer by the job....
dlac

Dlac,
What you should do, is keep a live copy so that when you open the file again and that font is not installed any longer, it will pop up the message to tell you that the font is not installed and it will substitute a font. Do not substitute. It tells you the name of the missing font so just close it down, then install that font and re-open.

Dk,

On my Mac, I did use font managers. Various ones and know full well the benefits. I will eventually get one here for the PC. Currently, I am only keeping about 300 or so open. I have plenty more and often feel I''m missing that "special one".

[Artelf2xs]

I just recently upgraded to font fusion 3. I really like the way you can load librays into Illustrator on the fly via an Illy menu.

I also like the way it shows you similar families as you search, However on my intel mac & not the power PC one it keeps crashing the FM core. I have to totally unistall and re-install, Iv'e see several people complaining of this on PC in the online forums..
Just FYI

[blue moon]

I just recently upgraded to font fusion 3. I really like the way you can load librays into Illustrator on the fly via an Illy menu.

I also like the way it shows you similar families as you search, However on my intel mac & not the power PC one it keeps crashing the FM core. I have to totally unistall and re-install, Iv'e see several people complaining of this on PC in the online forums..
Just FYI

had the same problem for a while, now it is not crashing but font activation is somewhat buggy. It does work in the end. It is seriously struggling with about 50k fonts I have though even though only about 500 are installed.

[Shanarchy]

Dan (a little off topic),

Why did you go from Mac to PC?

Which would you recommend for the screen printer?

[Frog]

I bet it's not "instead of" but "as well as".