Aug 10, 2015 Need to compare fonts? Use these tools to find your best font Tiff. WHY: Use it to compare two fonts sideways. Tiff is a free browser-based tool that helps you identify the differences between the two fonts. All you have to do is choose two fonts and the tool will compare fonts side by side. To see the results choose either overlay or sideways.
It doesn’t matter who you are — a designer, web developer, Desk Top Publishing expert or just an enthusiast. Having a lot of fonts is an awesome thing for sure. The organization, however, becomes a pain in the ass when you have thousands of fonts installed. It’s not practical to memorize all the font names (damn, I can’t even remember my favorite ones).
This is where a font manager comes in. In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the best font managers for Mac. We’ve picked the right ones based on aspects like multi-platform support, how it organizes your fonts and of course the User Interface. Shall we start?
2.6GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 2.3GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9. Compared to the abovementioned apps, FontExplorer X Pro is a different kind of font manager app for Mac. It focuses more on the metadata of a font, rather than previewing a lot of versions. If you are that kind of a designer who chooses fonts based on common opinion, FontExplorer X Pro is for you.
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Best Font Manager for Mac1. FontBase — Mac Font Manager for Designers
FontBase is one of the completely free font managers for Mac. It’s built primarily for designers, but everyone would love this basic tool. The features inside FontBase have been designed in such a way to help designers pick the right font for the right time. Most people love this free tool for the offering of standard features and an easy way to organize fonts.
The User Interface of FontBase is extremely simple. On the right side, you can see the list of fonts along with respective previews. On the left, FontBase shows you the available options for accessing categories, folders, and other filters. Clicking on a single font would show you styles as well as individual glyphs. There isn’t much room for customization, but FontBase is pretty intuitive.
Best Free Fonts For Mac
It has multiple methods to organize and access fonts in your Mac. For instance, you can create collections where you store multiple fonts of the same purpose. You can also activate all these fonts at once in a single click. Did we say that you can import Google Fonts to FontBase? Another thing I like about Font Base is Nested folders support.
FontBase is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, but it doesn’t offer content sync. It’s completely free to use, but there is an Awesome upgrade that brings features like Multiple Font View and Auto Activation. If you ask us, the free version is enough for most people.
Cons
Who Is It For
We believe FontBase is the best choice for beginners among designers. It offers an intuitive interface and an amazing set of features, including Google Fonts support. It’s surely the best free font manager for Mac.
2. RightFont 5 — the Professional Font Manager for Mac
If you are a professional designer, RightFont 5 is one of the best font managers for macOS. Used by designer teams at companies like Google, it has been the favorite choice for some time. It should also be noted that RightFont 5 is the latest version and it comes with an interface overhaul. It offers a bunch of features like an enhanced set of integration
This is where we love the developers of RightFont 5. They have managed to keep the design simple in spite of the awesome features. Light mode mac certain apps. Chrome apps gmail mac remove. The right-side pane offers a vivid overview of selected fonts while the sidebar has been dedicated for the organization. You can get the Grid View to compare two different fonts at once, side by side.
Apart from standard features, RightFont 5 offers a seamless font management experience. It lets you create Font Libraries, which can be shared with your team via Dropbox, Google Drive or other services. However, it lacks automated categorization features for that matter. RightFont 5 also checks the box for superb features like auto-activation of fonts.
RightFont 5 is a macOS-only font manager in town. It’s available for a per-device price of $35 but there is a 15-day free trial as well. However, RightFont 5 team says that the Windows app is coming soon and you can pre-register for it.
Pros
Cons
Who Is It For
RightFont 5 is the best choice for designer teams, spread across or outside the office. It packs a simple UI as well as awesome features in the single package. Compared to other tools, RightFont 5 can be integrated with common solutions like Photoshop and Illustrator. Free outlook web app.
#3 FontExplorer X Pro — Best Font Manager for Enterprise Needs
There are times when you need an enterprise-level font manager for your Mac(s). FontExplorer X Pro is one of the most popular options in the market, offering both Desktop and Server versions. We found this tool as something sweet-spot between basic font managers and professional ones. It prioritizes seamless organizing of fonts over fancy features.
The User Interface of FontExplorer X Pro has been designed to enable seamless management of fonts you’ve installed. Being an enterprise-level software, most features deal with easy sharing and synchronization. As you can see in the screenshots, the UI is rather rudimentary but gets the job done. One thing we loved about the UI is that it integrates very well with macOS.
FontExplorer X Pro offers a few more options when it comes to font management. Of course, you can enable or disable fonts in a single click, but that’s not all. This font manager offers support for multiple cloud sources such as SkyFonts. Compared to other tools we have covered, FontExplorer X Pro offers better metadata for each of the fonts.
FontExplorer X Pro is available for devices running macOS. Priced at 89 Euros, it’s not the most affordable so to speak. However, if you think you need some cool security features, you can consider getting a few copies of this tool.
Pros
Cons
Who Is It For
If you are looking for an enterprise-level font manager for Mac, FontExplorer X Pro is the best option. It lacks an interesting UI per se, but it gets the job done. As we said, you are also getting enhanced security and stuff with the package.
#4 Suitcase Fusion — Best Mac Font Manager for Advanced Professionals
We already covered RightFont 5 as the professional Mac font manager, but Suitcase Fusion is definitely an upgrade. If you ask us, most of the features in Suitcase Fusion are working underground. It means you will feel an overall upgrade to the designing process. For instance, enhanced integration with the likes of Adobe Photoshop is one of the top features.
Suitcase Fusion comes with a clean interface, which is easy to get started with. You can select a single font to see all the characters. From the installation to seamlessly accessing stored fonts, however, everything has been kept as simple as it can get. We’d say Suitcase Fusion has one of the best designs a professional designer can expect.
The real deal of Suitcase Fusion is the bunch of font management options. You can create Smart Libraries of fonts, based on the characteristics and the tool also has Smart Search. This would help you quickly access a bunch of commonly used fonts among others. Similarly, Cloud Sync means that you don’t have to copy the fonts to every device you use.
Best free mac drawing software. Suitcase Fusion is available for both macOS and Windows. You can check out the free trial for 15 days but it actually costs $119.95. One of the best features about Suitcase Fusion is that it syncs your fonts over cloud, making them accessible across devices.
Pros
Cons
Fonts Apps Free
Who Is It For
Suitcase Fusion is the best font manager for the truly professional designer or developer. It does not make any compromises over the quality or features. At the end of the day, you will save a lot of time when it comes to bringing fonts to your projects. It’s a bit expensive for newbies, though.
#5 Typeface — The Overall Best Font Manager for Mac
Above, we have seen a wide variety of font managers, made for different needs. Typeface is an exception as it’s suitable for everyone. From A to Z, this simple font manager has perfected almost everything. It packs a lot of features we haven’t seen in other programs as well. Typeface is also our personal favorite when we’d like to get the best out of font collection.
The User Interface of Typeface is elegant, to start with. On the right side, you can see a live preview of fonts you have selected. By default, Typeface lists all the fonts, but you can always filter the results. Clicking on a single font would also show you details and the individual characters. We also loved the fact that Typeface has an extremely clean arrangement of elements.
Typeface has one of the best features ever: Smart Categories. Depending on the style, Typeface categorizes the fonts into folders like New, Modern, Fixed Width, Fun etc. Of course, you can create categories on your own as well. Typeface also offers a Quick View function, which is useful for comparing two fonts. It even lets you place one font on top of the other and compare them.
Typeface comes with an incredible price tag of $19.99. It’s currently available for macOS only and you can’t expect many syncing-based features. Still, we cannot ignore how awesome the features of organizations are. Without question, it’s the best deal too.
Pros
Cons
Who Is It For
As we said, Typeface is for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginner or a pro, you would love the features and design of Typeface for Mac. It would soon become the only place you would go for accessing your fonts.
Which is the best font manager for Mac?
Well, these are the best Font Managers for Mac you can find today. As we’ve said earlier, Typeface would be the go-to choice. It’s rich with features and an elegant UI. On the other hand, if you need something more professional-looking, RightFont and Suitcase Fusion are two great choices. And, for those who are looking for an enterprise-level font manager, we’d recommend FontExplorer X Pro too. We hope this guide helps you find the best font manager for your needs.
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Moreover, typefaces could substantially differ in their quality. A lot of popular free Mac fonts that you have by default, such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Courier, were optimized for the screens back in the 90s and never updated since. Now that we have ubiquitous Retina and HD resolutions, they show their age more than ever before.
So what do you do? The quick answer is find and add fonts to Mac that are original, haven’t been dampened by overexposure, and have been designed for the modern times.
How To Add Fonts To Mac
We’ve come a long way from the 80s and 90s when only a handful of typefaces were designed or redrawn for the screen. Now we have hundreds of thousands. Not all of them are good, which is why you have to research and try out different options.
There are generally four places where you can get new fonts:
Where to install fonts you liked
If you’re a designer working on a project, it’s a good practice to give that project a somewhat unique font rather than use one of the pre-installed ones. It will elevate your designs and help the product or service stand out in the already crowded marketplace.
Truth is to work with fonts you don’t even have to be a designer. Developers, for example, could make their work much more enjoyable by switching the default font in Terminal and their text editor of choice to a professionally designed monospaced option. Likewise, marketers could take advantage of a professionally designed typeface to make their reports and presentations a much more pleasant read.
So what do you do after you’ve scavenged the web for something you like? How to download fonts on Mac and then how to use downloaded fonts on Mac after that?
First of all, whether you’ve bought or found a typeface on the web, make sure to locate the file you can download. There are a variety of font formats, and some of them are incompatible with Macs. What you should be looking for is either .ttf (TrueType developed by Apple and Microsoft) or .otf (OpenType developed by Microsoft and Adobe). Sometimes you’ll see the new .woff or .woff2 format that has been specifically compressed for the web. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a widespread support yet, so save it just in case, but keep in mind .otf and .ttf are going to be your go-tos.
Once you’ve downloaded what you like, installing fonts on Mac is a no-brainer due to the handy app that you already have pre-installed: Font Book, which you can find in your Applications folder.
Mac os el capitan 10.11.1 download. To install the font you want with Font Book:
Compare Fonts For Mac Apps 2017
There’s also another way of installing fonts on Mac using Font Book:
Manage Mac fonts effectively
With time, your collection of fonts will grow. Naturally, Font Book makes it easy to keep track and manage all your typefaces.
When you open the app, all the default typefaces can be found in the Computer tab, and everything you’ve downloaded since in the User tab. In addition, you can combine various fonts together in collections (for a specific project, for example, or based on style). To do that, just click on the plus sign in the bottom-left corner, name your collection, and drag the appropriate fonts right in there.
For previewing fonts, you have three options you can choose from in the top bar: Sample, Repertoire, and Custom. Try it out and see whether you like text more or just the given font alphabet. Additionally, you can adjust the size of the preview font in the top-right corner.
Best Font Apps
However, if you want more flexibility and features, Font Book is not the best choice. Instead, try using a professional font manager like Typeface.
Typeface repeats all the functionality of Font Book but also adds a lot of flexibility on top. For example, the app lets you choose your own text for previews, so you can see exactly how your headline or text will look in a given font. You can also turn on Night Mode and see the font in white on black background.
If you’re working on the project destined for print, simply print out all the type specimens with File ➙ Print. Similarly, to see how exactly two fonts differ, right-click on one and choose Compare.
Add colors for complete workflow
Installing fonts on Mac will significantly expand your creative possibilities and make your projects much more approachable. But to push your creativity even further, why not do the same with colors?
Aquarelo is by far the most intuitive and advanced color manager around. The app allows you to pick two colors and create any number of gradations between them. Then export any swatch you liked, either as a .jpg or CSS or any programming language, so you can use it in your projects right away.
To bolster your creative expression, Aquarelo even allows you to import images and pick the colors out of them. To do that, just press ⌘ + I, choose an image, and pick two colors to create a series of tones. Use plus and minus signs at the top to increase or decrease the number of mid-tones as you see fit.
Now you that know where to get and how to add fonts to Mac, explore the web and actually support independent type foundries by buying and using their fonts. And then compare and manage them all in Typeface.
Besides, always keep an extensive library of colors you like on hand to inspire you. Play and discover new color combinations and save them all through Aquarelo. Why hand-write all your code when an app can do it for you.
Best of all, both Typeface and Aquarelo are available to you on a free trial through Setapp, a platform of over 150 design-focused apps created to make your creative life easier. Now that you have the perfect toolkit, let’s get working!
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