Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 and InDesign CS4
Extensis apparently will not be offering a free upgrade to Suitcase Fusion users who have upgraded to CS4. Unfortunately, if you’d like to continue using auto font activation with InDesign CS4, then you must pay for the Suitcase Fusion 2 upgrade ($49.98).
I’ve been using the previous version of Suitcase Fusion, and it appears as though you can still use it to manually activate fonts on your system and then access them from the font menu in InDesign CS4. However, you will not be able to use auto activation, which allows Suitcase to automatically locate any fonts present in your InDesign documents and activate them for you.
Suitcase Fusion’s auto activation feature relies on a plug-in that must be installed in your InDesign application Plug-ins folder. If you’re not using auto activation, then you’re ultimately responsible for making sure you turn on the correct version of Helvetica next time you open a font-filled InDesign file.
So this brings up a popular argument here at IDS. Is font auto activation really necessary? Is it worth the $49.98 upgrade to Fusion 2? David would probably say no, but I disagree.
I think it depends on what type of work you’re doing in InDesign. If you deal with a lot of fonts on a daily basis, especially if you’re constantly opening ID files from outside sources, or from other members of a design team, then I think auto activation is absolutely essential. If you’re a designer who rarely opens files from outside sources, and who is perfectly content with using the fonts that are installed with the Creative Suite and your system software, then auto activation and font managers in general might be an unnecessary added expense.
Having worked predominantly in print design for mostly newsstand and business-to-business trade publications, I’ve been forced to deal with a lot of fonts. Not only do I own a huge collection of fonts that I’ve assembled over the years and use often in my own creative work, but I’ve also acquired fonts from outside sources, such as advertisers and other designers who have provided native InDesign documents (as well as Illustrator and Quark docs) for me to output. I have so many versions of Helvetica and Times that it’s embarrassing, really. If you’re working with this many fonts, it’s not healthy for your OS to keep them active all the time. A font manager (my favorite being Suitcase Fusion), helps me avoid slowing down my system and resolves duplicate font issues. Font auto activation with Fusion has always worked well for me and I’ve never had a problem with it. There also other features unique to Fusion, such as the ability to add fonts temporarily, which I find very useful.
Note that both versions of Suitcase Fusion are only available for ID users on the Mac OS X platform. Extensis did release a Windows compatible version of Suitcase, titled Suitcase for Windows (not “Fusion”), which contains less features, but does include auto activation, which is very rare in Windows font managers, (and yes, it works well). As of this posting, Extensis has not yet released a CS4 upgrade for Suitcase for Windows. Having not tested Suitcase for Windows with InDesign CS4, I am not sure if an upgrade is even necessary.
Don’t forget about the FREE Linotype Font Explorer X.
It can auto-activate fonts in CS3, and they should put out a CS4 update in the next few months.
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
Just switch to FEX. (Although I don’t think FEX is CS4 compatible, at least it’s free.) Mind you, if you start having more than one version of the same font in your library at once there’s no way you should be tinkering with autoactivation any longer imho. I much prefer to use exactly the job fonts provided by the client rather than having the font activator choose a random duplicate from the library that may or may not be a perfect match.
At any rate, if you set FEX prefs to:
- Not manage fonts (Advanced prefs)
- Not intercept font requests (Font Requests)
- Remove and reimport fonts on the same path (Import)
- Add same fonts on different path as duplicates (Import)
you’ve pretty much got it behaving exactly like Suitcase where it can manage multiple variants of the same font and doesn’t get in your way with autoactivation. As long as you throw them into job sets as you go, you should be able to easily remove them from FEX’s library when you’re done using them too.
There’s a feature in FEX called “Deactivate all fonts which have been activated during the current session at quit” that might be something akin to Suitcase’s temporary fonts–haven’t tried it.
Linotype’s Font Explorer is becoming increasingly popular. After all, FREE is FREE, right?
However, one thing users should be aware of is that FEX is beta software and there are known issues. If you use it, please be sure to check for updates often and refer to the Change History at the FEX site. Currently there is a conflict with FontBook’s auto activation preference, which you must disable before using auto activation with FEX. You must also update to OS X 10.5.2, because FEX auto activation will not work in 10.5.0. or 10.5.1.
Also, FEX for Windows has been disabled for quite a while now. There is no information at the FEX site as to when it will become available again.
Ted knows me well: I don’t trust auto-activation and I think it causes more problems for people than it solves.
If someone sends me a file with a bunch of fonts, I just make an alias of their fonts folder in my ID Fonts folder and open it. Works great.
I think Suitcase Fusion is very good, and I encourage virtually everyone to use some kind of font manager. I just don’t like the activation thing.
The alias/ID fonts folder is a good quick fix solution for InDesign, but what if you need to use the fonts in Illustrator?
Auto activation is indeed a preference and you don’t have to use it. However, I’ve never experienced any problems with it and see no reason not to trust it.
FontSense in Suitcase actually recognizes and fingerprints each version of a font so that auto activation is as accurate as possible. It categorizes each font using multiple criteria such as foundry and version number. It’s the most accurate auto activation system out there, which is why I prefer Suitcase to FEX and other font managers. I think it’s worthy of your trust.
I do agree with David though that, auto activation or not, you should definitely be using a font manager. What you don’t want to do is dump fonts into the various font folders in OS X, or the Control Panel Fonts folder in Windows. That’s asking for trouble.
I’ve been using Fusion 2 with InDesign & Illustrator CS4 for about a week now and haven’t had any issues at all. Not having to have the Suitcase application open all the time is great, and auto activation has worked flawlessly – and VERY fast (when compared with previous versions and Font ExplorerX).
I’ve been using Fusion 2 at work for a while and it seems pretty good to me.
In looking at Font Explorer, I noticed that it’s no longer free. So, right now I’m thinking that I’ll just stick with what I use at work for my contract work at home.
I hope to upgrade to CS4 soon too. And since I’m not as cynical as David about auto-activation, I’ll use the plug-ins. It would be nice to have a Photoshop plug-in, but since I’m mostly an InDesign user, this works for me.
I’m not yet using CS4, but I did upgrade Suitcase Fusion (first gen) to version 2. I’ve been a Suitcase user since my first Mac back in the ’90s, and have grown up with its quirks. The newest version appears to be just about everything I’d want, except for one thing.
Over the years, I’ve defined many sets in Suitcase. In version 12, I used the “alias” feature extensively to develop sets of client and project fonts. Much to my dismay, when I converted the SF1 fontvault to the latest version, none of my “alias” sets were properly converted, leaving giant holes in the font sets I had so carefully built. Furthermore, the new structure does not appear to be designed to comfortably handle more than about 150 defined sets. By “comfortably” I mean quickly, as in speedily. Any time I either modify an existing set or define a new set, the amount of wait time grew from about 2 seconds (at around 200 sets) to well over 15 seconds (with the approx 800+ sets defined in my library). This delay is simply unacceptable.
I brought this matter to the attention of Extensis tech support, and they question the use of so many sets because, as they point out, one can search on so many criteria, as you can in Google. That may be fine for some folks, but I like to see sets without having to reinvent my needs every time I use the product. So, for the time being, SF2 is unused — and will remain so unless a dramatic improvement in speed can be introduced via some hoped-for future update. I’ve gone back to SF1 for now, and am seriously considering the new FontExplorer (having also used the free version for a while on my laptop).
So, font activation is nice; it’s handy; but whether you can live without it depends on how many clients you have, how many different versions of the same font you may have, and whether you use a large number of font sets in Suitcase Fusion.
Please note that the time delay I’m speaking of does not appear to affect activation/deactivation time but rather the amount of time it takes when one is setting up or revising sets — you’ll see the spinning beach ball a lot if you have well over 150 sets.
We released an update today that allows users who still work with Mac OS X 10.4 to install and use Suitcase Fusion 2.
This is a FREE update that also includes improvements for Leopard users.
Download a FREE 30-day demo, as well as the update from the Extensis website:
http://www.extensis.com/suitcasefusion
Jim Kidwell
Extensis
I have always used Suitcase on my Mac since the beginning. I am upgrading my computers from Mac Panther 3.9 to OSX Leopard. Also changing from Quark 4.1 to CS4 InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator, DreamWeaver etc. Many of my fonts are older post script fonts and some truetype. I noticed the installed Adobe fonts are the new “open face”. I do graphic design for a living and need to manage and use the same fonts in all programs… and have them show up in all programs. They need to print properly on press.
1. Does Font Book work like Suitecase?
2. Where do I install the fonts so they show up in all CS4 applications for all users?
3. Should I consider buying basic sets of the newer open face types and ditch the post script and/or TT fonts?
I will be converting some Quark files (with the old fonts) to InDesign for a while. Thanks, Bev
1. Font Book does not work like Suitcase. It is a bare-bones manager, not at all suitable for someone who does design work and uses (or has) many fonts. Suitcase, FontExplorer Pro and any other serious font management application is what you want to use.
2. I’m not familiar with having multiple users (I assume you have employees who each use a stand-alone computer); however, in general, you should have Suitcase (or the font manager of your choice — but not Font Book) manage your fonts, using any supplied activation modules that come with the manager. If you have a network, look into the network versions of these managers. As to CS4 apps, I’m still in CS3, and have no problems with either Suitcase or FontExplorer activating the fonts and having them show up in the CSx applications’ font menus.
Before jumping into the newest Suitcase Fusion 2, get the trial version and test it with your font library, converting your existing Suitcase database. If you have many, many sets defined, you may find that maintaining those sets, defining new sets, changing existing sets in the new Suitcase is EXTREMELY slow — I have well over 500 sets defined, and have given up on Suitcase, as it takes anywhere from 15 to 25 seconds to make changes to sets (including waiting for a new folder or set to appear). I’ve switched to FEX Pro.
3. Nothing wrong with the Postscript versions of your files — you can continue to use them. If you happen to have corresponding OpenType versions of some PS fonts, you can use those side-by-side and slowly convert your existing files from one to the other over time. I’ve tried to avoid TT fonts for serious design work, and have no advice on what to do with those fonts.
George
Now that it’s 2010, this article needs an update. There is a suitcase fusion 2 for windows. It works well, after you install .NET Framework into your windows computer.
We used the trial version here at work and we are purchasing the program soon. I actually want to purchase the program for home too. I’d also like to convince my boss to not only buy the program for me, but also for some people at our downtown location.
It makes life easier. I love the auto activation! I works wonderfully. The fonts are ready to go when I open up the document. We too have a huge amount of fonts and reloading fonts back and forth was a daunting and frustrating task.
I can’t wait until we have the full version, I hear there are even more features than the trial.
This is perfect for those in the design field that just can’t afford a mac (there are a few of us out there). This gives your windows computer a few of the same mac functions well at least with fonts.
Thanks!
Melissa
Glad that you’re liking the trial version of Suitcase Fusion 2.
I have some extra good news for you too. If you purchase SF2 after July 1, 2010 you’ll receive a free upgrade to the next version, Suitcase Fusion 3 when it comes out later this summer.
Jim Kidwell
Extensis