Extensis released Suitcase Fusion a couple of weeks ago. Suitcase Fusion has become the long expected hybrid between Font Reserve and Suitcase XI. The interface is the one of Suitcase XI, but much of the new power comes from Font Reserve, including the font vault, FontSense and the ability manage fonts just as if they were photographs, images, or other digital assets.
In fact, Suitcase Fusion applies the Digital Asset Management paradigm completely with its capabilities in terms of associating meta data with fonts much like the meta data you can associate with images in Portfolio or Aperture. Our first encounter with Suitcase Fusion was not very successful. This in-depth analysis shows we were wrong in most of our conclusions.
Suitcase Fusion initially was a disappointment because it did not live up to expectations. We installed the application twice, once on a system that had FontAgent Pro running and once on what we thought to be a clean system. The first experience was downright terrible. InDesign crashed, Suitcase would hang, and the machine seemed stuck for hours on end.
The second installation improved things just a little. At least, the computer wasn’t stuck anymore. But Suitcase still did bad things to our system. For this in-depth analysis, we cleaned up the complete system. Cleaning in this case means getting rid of everything related to other font management applications. We removed all daemons, reporters, and databases from all libraries. All preferences were thrown away, after which we restarted the system.
Only then did we install Suitcase Fusion. And lo and behold, all our previous problems were gone. The first lesson we would like to pass on therefore is: don’t install Suitcase Fusion unless you are absolutely certain everything reminding of another (non-Extensis) font manager has been removed. This will ensure trouble-free working with Suitcase Fusion.
Managing System fonts
You start using Suitcase Fusion by importing fonts. If you have a previous version of Font Reserve’s Vault, or a Suitcase XI database, you can import the fonts in there. We tested the ordinary import capabilities by lack of such versions capable of running trouble-free on Tiger systems. Font import is fast. It’s actually not the only thing in Suitcase Fusion that has been sped up. The whole program is faster than previous versions.
Import can be done using the menu item, but also by dragging folders onto the Suitcase Fusion application window. All fonts will be kept in the Vault if you so desire. You can also opt to have references to your fonts only. Our advice is to have Suitcase Fusion copy them to its Vault. That’s safer, especially if you deselect to delete the fonts from their original location.
When all our 1200 fonts were imported, we set up an initial font set that would have to keep fonts available at all times. Font sets can be created by drag-and-drop within the program. Dragging a collection of fonts from the library panel to the sets panel will automatically create an Untitled set for you. Activation is done by clicking an Activation button. To keep a set “on” at all times, you Option-click, unless that is your default setting, in which case temporary activation requires the Option key to be held.
Despite having selected several Arial fonts that were already sitting in one of the system’s Library folders, Suitcase Fusion let me activate the set and only activated those fonts that were not already activated—none of the Arials were included as a result. Suitcase Fusion determines whether a font is identical to another by using FontSense. FontSense is patented technology that looks beyond font names to determine whether fonts are identical or not.
In most cases FontSense works wonders. Sometimes it may give you results that you don’t particularly like, but that has more to do with how you set up your font sets than with FontSense by itself.
Suitcase Fusion allows you to manage system fonts, but it really isn’t necessary. Unless you want all your fonts under the control of one program, Suitcase Fusion is perfectly capable of avoiding font conflicts altogether.
Suitcase Fusion goes an extra step with font management. It allows you to associate “Attributes” to fonts. Such attributes can be the font classification, the foundry, keywords, etc. The Attributes act as meta data, enabling you to find fonts fast and to manage them more efficiently. You can add attributes in the program and expand the already available sets of attributes.
Unique Features
The concept of Digital Asset Management applied to font management is pretty unique by itself, but Suitcase Fusion has more unique features that set it apart from the crowd.
For example, font managers always come with InDesign, QuarkXpress and perhaps Illustrator and Photoshop plug-ins to auto-activate fonts in those programs. Suitcase does a bit better. It comes with the capability to create Application sets.
An application set’s fonts will activate when the application runs, thus making fonts available on a per-application basis without the need for plug-ins for each program. For example, OCR A and OCR B are fonts you will only use with a barcode program. In Suitcase Fusion, you will create a set for your barcode program, drag the OCR fonts inside and forget about them, until you start the barcode program.
No
The fonts will then automatically be activated. This works well, although it takes a few seconds before the fonts are visible in the list, at least with some programs. And what we found less attractive is that Suitcase Fusion leaves those fonts activated even when the application has quit. It would be best if fonts were de-activated again when the application quits. Otherwise you risk having lots of fonts open, slowing down your system without any real need.
Suitcase Fusion has a feature called “Collect for Output”. This is more or less what Insider Software’s Font Agent tries to achieve with offering different libraries next to different sets. Insider claims their concept works both ways: if you want to collect fonts, you can create a new library specifically for the job, and when a client sends you fonts, you can also create a library specifically for that client.
In Suitcase Fusion, you have but one library, but you can drag folders with fonts to the application and turn them in sets automatically. Better still, fonts will be checked for errors and corruption before you add them to Suitcase if you have that set in the preferences, automatically. Font suitcases and folders holding together font families will also automatically be split up in font faces before Suitcase collects them in the Vault.
This foregoes the need for a separate program like Insider Software’s Smasher, which basically does the same.
Conclusion
After running Suitcase Fusion for some time now, we must conclude the program has done what we hoped for: taking the best from Font Reserve and Suitcase and combining these features into one robust program.
Suitcase Fusion is fast and has many appealing features that will make font management more efficient and easier. Suitcase Fusion has one disadvantage: when it has been used and fonts are open, it takes a long time to close these when you just quit the program. In fact, Suitcase will then hang or at least seem to hang. If you close any open sets before quitting the program, however, this takes only a few seconds, after which the program is quite happy to quit.
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Suitcase Fusion Review Update
Extensis released Suitcase Fusion a couple of weeks ago. Suitcase Fusion has become the long expected hybrid between Font Reserve and Suitcase XI. The interface is the one of Suitcase XI, but much of the new power comes from Font Reserve, including the font vault, FontSense and the ability manage fonts just as if they were photographs, images, or other digital assets.
In fact, Suitcase Fusion applies the Digital Asset Management paradigm completely with its capabilities in terms of associating meta data with fonts much like the meta data you can associate with images in Portfolio or Aperture. Our first encounter with Suitcase Fusion was not very successful. This in-depth analysis shows we were wrong in most of our conclusions.
Suitcase Fusion initially was a disappointment because it did not live up to expectations. We installed the application twice, once on a system that had FontAgent Pro running and once on what we thought to be a clean system. The first experience was downright terrible. InDesign crashed, Suitcase would hang, and the machine seemed stuck for hours on end.
The second installation improved things just a little. At least, the computer wasn’t stuck anymore. But Suitcase still did bad things to our system. For this in-depth analysis, we cleaned up the complete system. Cleaning in this case means getting rid of everything related to other font management applications. We removed all daemons, reporters, and databases from all libraries. All preferences were thrown away, after which we restarted the system.
Only then did we install Suitcase Fusion. And lo and behold, all our previous problems were gone. The first lesson we would like to pass on therefore is: don’t install Suitcase Fusion unless you are absolutely certain everything reminding of another (non-Extensis) font manager has been removed. This will ensure trouble-free working with Suitcase Fusion.
Managing System fonts
You start using Suitcase Fusion by importing fonts. If you have a previous version of Font Reserve’s Vault, or a Suitcase XI database, you can import the fonts in there. We tested the ordinary import capabilities by lack of such versions capable of running trouble-free on Tiger systems. Font import is fast. It’s actually not the only thing in Suitcase Fusion that has been sped up. The whole program is faster than previous versions.
Import can be done using the menu item, but also by dragging folders onto the Suitcase Fusion application window. All fonts will be kept in the Vault if you so desire. You can also opt to have references to your fonts only. Our advice is to have Suitcase Fusion copy them to its Vault. That’s safer, especially if you deselect to delete the fonts from their original location.
When all our 1200 fonts were imported, we set up an initial font set that would have to keep fonts available at all times. Font sets can be created by drag-and-drop within the program. Dragging a collection of fonts from the library panel to the sets panel will automatically create an Untitled set for you. Activation is done by clicking an Activation button. To keep a set “on” at all times, you Option-click, unless that is your default setting, in which case temporary activation requires the Option key to be held.
Despite having selected several Arial fonts that were already sitting in one of the system’s Library folders, Suitcase Fusion let me activate the set and only activated those fonts that were not already activated—none of the Arials were included as a result. Suitcase Fusion determines whether a font is identical to another by using FontSense. FontSense is patented technology that looks beyond font names to determine whether fonts are identical or not.
In most cases FontSense works wonders. Sometimes it may give you results that you don’t particularly like, but that has more to do with how you set up your font sets than with FontSense by itself.
Suitcase Fusion allows you to manage system fonts, but it really isn’t necessary. Unless you want all your fonts under the control of one program, Suitcase Fusion is perfectly capable of avoiding font conflicts altogether.
Suitcase Fusion goes an extra step with font management. It allows you to associate “Attributes” to fonts. Such attributes can be the font classification, the foundry, keywords, etc. The Attributes act as meta data, enabling you to find fonts fast and to manage them more efficiently. You can add attributes in the program and expand the already available sets of attributes.
Unique Features
The concept of Digital Asset Management applied to font management is pretty unique by itself, but Suitcase Fusion has more unique features that set it apart from the crowd.
For example, font managers always come with InDesign, QuarkXpress and perhaps Illustrator and Photoshop plug-ins to auto-activate fonts in those programs. Suitcase does a bit better. It comes with the capability to create Application sets.
An application set’s fonts will activate when the application runs, thus making fonts available on a per-application basis without the need for plug-ins for each program. For example, OCR A and OCR B are fonts you will only use with a barcode program. In Suitcase Fusion, you will create a set for your barcode program, drag the OCR fonts inside and forget about them, until you start the barcode program.
No
The fonts will then automatically be activated. This works well, although it takes a few seconds before the fonts are visible in the list, at least with some programs. And what we found less attractive is that Suitcase Fusion leaves those fonts activated even when the application has quit. It would be best if fonts were de-activated again when the application quits. Otherwise you risk having lots of fonts open, slowing down your system without any real need.
Suitcase Fusion has a feature called “Collect for Output”. This is more or less what Insider Software’s Font Agent tries to achieve with offering different libraries next to different sets. Insider claims their concept works both ways: if you want to collect fonts, you can create a new library specifically for the job, and when a client sends you fonts, you can also create a library specifically for that client.
In Suitcase Fusion, you have but one library, but you can drag folders with fonts to the application and turn them in sets automatically. Better still, fonts will be checked for errors and corruption before you add them to Suitcase if you have that set in the preferences, automatically. Font suitcases and folders holding together font families will also automatically be split up in font faces before Suitcase collects them in the Vault.
This foregoes the need for a separate program like Insider Software’s Smasher, which basically does the same.
Conclusion
After running Suitcase Fusion for some time now, we must conclude the program has done what we hoped for: taking the best from Font Reserve and Suitcase and combining these features into one robust program.
Suitcase Fusion is fast and has many appealing features that will make font management more efficient and easier. Suitcase Fusion has one disadvantage: when it has been used and fonts are open, it takes a long time to close these when you just quit the program. In fact, Suitcase will then hang or at least seem to hang. If you close any open sets before quitting the program, however, this takes only a few seconds, after which the program is quite happy to quit.