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Mathias17
Mathias17
439 posts
Feb 20, 2012
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Font list disorganized

Aug 26, 2012 5:13 PM

Windows 7 x64   |   Photoshop CS6

 

I hate fonts. And they hate me. My PS CS6 font list rather random. Makes finding fonts very clumsy and time-consuming.

 

Is there way to get fonts to behave a little better here?

 

 

 

--> And why oh why isn't there an option that organizes fonts alphabetically using their screen name??? I mean come on!

 

 

 

fontlist.png

677 Views   14 Replies   Latest reply: Noel Carboni, Aug 26, 2012 8:58 PM
 
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  • Noel Carboni
    20,970 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    1. Noel Carboni,
    Aug 26, 2012 5:33 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    Hm, I hadn't paid that much attention to that little detail before, probably because mine seem to be generally in alphabetical order, but some certainly are not (shown below).  I had always assumed that people would think of the real name of the font vs. the originator (e.g., Adobe Text Pro is filed under "Text").  I don't seem to have it as bad as you do though.

     

    Could it be you have too many for the sorting algorithm to handle?  Maybe it hasn't been updated since the 1990s.

     

     

    FontsOutOfOrder.png

     

     

    They're also subdivided into different sections, which I assume are grouped by language (that assumption comes from no more than looking at the commonality between the glyphs in the sections).

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Bill Hunt
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    2. Bill Hunt,
    Aug 26, 2012 6:18 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    I am a big fan of a font management program. I use one on all machines, and it works well - Extensis Suitcase.

     

    Though I have about 19,000 fonts on my workstation, only about 350 are installed at any one time. I have "Font Sets," that can be added, or deleted, pretty much on the fly. I have some that are project-specific, style-specific and even client-specific.

     

    If I keep my "installed fonts" list slim, and then just do an install of a Font Set, per my needs, things are much better, at least for me.

     

    Now, that is not to imply that the font display/choice unit is great, but with fewer fonts, it does get "better."

     

    Hunt

     
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  • Mathias17
    439 posts
    Feb 20, 2012
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    3. Mathias17,
    Aug 26, 2012 7:00 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    @Noel   Hehe I don't know. But you're right, the font list might be one of the neglected elements of Photoshop. I don't know how it attempts to sort fonts. But it's using their screen name right there in the font list, why can't it just sort them alphabetically. Yep, I believe the fonts at the very bottom are grouped by language.

     

     

    I uninstalled my Suitcase Fusion 3 tonight and reinstalled Suitcase 11 due to a weird bug where Fusion 3 no longer gave me font previews for 98% of fonts.

    I'm currently using Suitcase 11 and this may have contributed to the extra font list disorganization.

     

     

     

    @Bill   19K fonts, Bill!? Yikes. I recently streamlined my font collection and got it down to ~2K. Trashed all fonts I figured I'd never use. Nowadays I only add new fonts if they're eother really great and I can't live without them or I find a really nice family.

    Thanks for mentioning Suitcase. But I do already have it in place in my workflow. Can't do without it. I could be better about uloading fonts not being used.

     

    here's mine:

    fonts.JPG

     
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  • Bill Hunt
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    4. Bill Hunt,
    Aug 26, 2012 7:19 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    Once, I did a lot of print design, and collected many, many fonts. Now, much of my work is with video, so I use far, far fewer. Still, there are many "headline fonts," that I still use. When one is as old, as I am, font collections tend to grow, and grow and grow. With Video, I am probably down to about 1K, that I use with any regularity, but still hold on to the rest, especially as I bought most of them over the decades, and have then added some "free fonts," that have uses, though not so often nowadays.

     

    When I was much more active, I had dozens of "client Font Sets," as designers tended to use certain font families, over and over. That is one place, where my font manager comes in handy. I get an assignment from client A, and load her fonts, knowing that much of the work will be with those. Every now and then, they throw a "curve ball," and I add some others to their Font Set.

     

    Looking back, and over the last five, or so, years, I could probably narrow things down to perhaps 2K fonts (or font families), but then I paid for most of mine, so do not want to delete them completely. A good font manager allows me to keep them all around (now I have to back up my fonts to a DL DVD!), just in case.

     

    Good luck, and I do wish that the Adobe program font display drop-down would be a bit better. Adobe used to use ATM (Adobe Type Manager), and then bought FontMinder (one of the best font management programs ever), but killed it, in favor to ATM. Too bad that FontMinder (Lite) could not have been incorporated into Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and then Titler in Premiere Pro. But hey! Who even remembers FontMinder, other than me?

     

    The best that I have ever found is to use few installed fonts, and then Font Sets, for Projects, so that the Adobe program font list is short, and much easier to view.

     

    Good luck,

     

    Hunt

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    Dec 23, 2006
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    5. Noel Carboni,
    Aug 26, 2012 7:36 PM   in reply to Bill Hunt
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    Seems to me Comic Sans can handle most jobs.

     

    <runs for cover!!>

     

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Mathias17
    439 posts
    Feb 20, 2012
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    6. Mathias17,
    Aug 26, 2012 7:51 PM   in reply to Bill Hunt
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    Very cool, Bill. Yes! I remember ATM. I used that back then (I'm 30). I guess I never got to see FontMinder. Suitcase is ok. It has it's oddities, though. Especially when it's auto-activation plugins for PS and Illy crash you haha. It's happened to me a few times. Seems random. I just chalk it up miscellaneous computer crappery one musyt deal with on occasion. Np.

     

     

     

     

    SMAQQQQQQQQ.png

     
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  • Bill Hunt
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    7. Bill Hunt,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:17 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Noel,

     

    Be very ashamed of yourself...

     

    Hunt

     
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  • Bill Hunt
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    8. Bill Hunt,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:19 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    Yes, any mention of Comic Sans, by anyone, deserves a good smacking!

     

    Hunt

     
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  • Mathias17
    439 posts
    Feb 20, 2012
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    9. Mathias17,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:21 PM   in reply to Bill Hunt
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    Unless it's a comic strip?

     
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  • Bill Hunt
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    10. Bill Hunt,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:30 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    Uh, let's not go there...

     

    Hunt

     
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  • Mathias17
    439 posts
    Feb 20, 2012
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    11. Mathias17,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:34 PM   in reply to Bill Hunt
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    Haha

     
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  • Noel Carboni
    20,970 posts
    Dec 23, 2006
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    12. Noel Carboni,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:53 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/10000/5000/100/15154/15154.strip.gif

     

    -Noel

     
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  • Mathias17
    439 posts
    Feb 20, 2012
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    13. Mathias17,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:55 PM   in reply to Noel Carboni
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    Love Dilbert. Scott Adams understands our pain.


     

    Although . . . I finally have a job where I'm the only designer, and nobody else really has a mind for design so almost everything I do is initially accepted and never revised. I have broken the infinite loop! (usually . . . )

     
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  • Noel Carboni
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    Dec 23, 2006
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    14. Noel Carboni,
    Aug 26, 2012 8:58 PM   in reply to Mathias17
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    Sorry, I edited the message and put in what I thought was a better comic given the subject.  So things don't seem too disjointed, this was the first one I had posted:

     

    http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/00000/1000/700/1752/1752.strip.gif

     

    -Noel

     
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