In a digital age we can't do without computer fonts. We type an email, read a blog, etc. These tasks all use font files. Yet most of us don't think about the hidden little buggers until they stop working properly (myself included). I like to call that highly annoying font problem a font headache.
Over the past month, I've been battling fonts. I'm not average, in that I have well over 900 fonts. I know, it's a bit excessive, but you never know when you might need that one font you found last year. Some of the fonts may be poorly designed, but who doesn't want the Simpsons font (Akbar) or the Yahoo font? They come in quite handy when Sally comes and asks for such and such a look for the new brochure.
Consequently, I need to go through and do some font purging every once in awhile to take unnecessary font files out of my everyday font collection. My font library was breeching 800 and needed some cleansing (not to mention my computer was trying to activate them all. Thanks but no thanks, Font Book.).
I ended up getting a font manager called Linotype FontExplorer X. This program is 1) a free download, 2) available to both Mac and PC, and 3) relatively easy to use. The program gives me more control over my font collection. FontExplorer shows the font file location, the type of file, and other helpful information. These features become extremely crucial when getting a font headache. (I must also add that my favorite part of the program is the listing of the type designer.)
Most of my fonts live on my external harddrive, while a mire 500 live on my computer for such a time as when they are used. I narrowed down my activated essential font library down to 390. These include both system, web, and essential design fonts. It saddens me to realize that I can't delete some of my least favorite fonts (Comic Sans, Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Trebuchet...). We, the general public, use these fonts too often and therefore my computer leads a sad existence of being dependant upon some of these fonts in order to operate.
My most recent grype is with the font Symbol. It's a relatively common font, which means there is more than one version. Macs come with a system version that isn't so great. MathType uses a different version, which further complicates the whole process. InDesign doesn't know which one to choose when I go to print a document. The last couple days have been quite miserable as I try to sort out this latest font headache. And just when it starts to work, the font comes back like a disgruntled employee. Woe is me and may I solve it soon...