I've always been slightly frustrated with my inability to organize my fonts. With most other elements, the use of tags has replaced the cumbersome use of folders.
I'm not entirely on top of what's out there for font management, nor am I in a position to purchase a more robust program, so I decided to get better acquainted with what I do have-- Font Explorer Pro.
Today I've been getting to know Smart Sets, which are quickly becoming my new bff. They're not perfect or completely amazing by any means, however they are certainly light years faster than scouring my nearly 4,000 fonts and organizing them individually.
Smart sets allow the user to group fonts by keywords. Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of the font's creator (whether they were thorough, including every possible field of information, or lazy). You can group them by their name, vendor, manufacturer, designer, etc.
Information is entered in a fashion similar to your "Rules" in whatever mail management app you use. The more you explore your fonts and the info they contain, the more accurate you will be able to make your sets (ie. discovering that particular creator's place their type foundry name under "Copyright" instead of "Manufacturer"). You will also discover more adjectives that might yield more results (ie. my smart set containing sketchy fonts includes anything with the words "sketch, scribble, and scratch").
Smart sets are not perfect, but they are your friend and the more time you get to know them, the better friends they become.
See page 35 of the Font Explorer Pro PDF manual for more information on Smart Sets.
1 comments:
Sweet article and perfect timing for me, thanks!
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