Font Server Adds Live Reporting, Backup and Auto-Failover

February 9th, 2010

We’re very proud to announce FontAgent® Pro™ Server 4, which includes live font-usage tracking, live backup, automatic failover, and enhanced directory and security services. The new capabilities increase its sizable lead as the best font server for agencies, departments and enterprises.

Real-Time Font-Usage Manager
FontAgent Pro Server 4 now tracks font distribution and usage in real-time–an industry first. It shows which users have access to libraries and fonts, and when they activate and deactivate them. You can even use your favorite scripting language to export usage data into various file formats, and then use Excel, report scripts or asset managers to analyze and report on font usage and ensure compliance with font-license agreements–and be prepared for licensing audits at any time!

Live Font Server Backup
We’ve also added live backup services to FontAgent Pro Server 4. It backs up its fonts, users and groups without locking out users… something Extensis UTS doesn’t do. Better yet, you can restore a server to a previous state with just a few clicks. The backup manager lets you set the backup times, and you can also add font-server archiving into your existing backup scripts. Another important point: you can backup your font database to any networked drive–again unlike Extensis, which seems to force backup to only local drives, a practice which at best seems dangerous.

Failover Services Add to Technical Lead in Multi-Server Environments
FontAgent Pro clients now include failover services that allow them to automatically connect to alternative servers when their primary font server is unavailable. Used in conjunction with FontAgent Pro’s server replication, these failover services make FontAgent Pro the clear choice in multi-server environments.

Enhanced Directory Services, Security and Permissions
We’ve also added faster Active Directory, Open Directory and LDAP synchronization to FontAgent Pro Server 4, along with improved support for nested groups, standalone users, keychain-based password protection and non-standard directory schemas. You can now identify group and font administrators who can upload fonts, create users and groups, edit licenses, upload and edit sets, upload and edit font libraries, assign fonts and users to groups and view font usage information–and allow IT administrators to maintain control of the font server itself.

Kerberos Single-Sign-on Support
Using Kerberos in your organization? FontAgent Pro clients now check if users have previously logged in via Kerberos. If so, they are automatically authenticated to FontAgent Pro Server. If not, FontAgent Pro asks them to enter their username and password. It’s that easy.

For More Information
We’re excited about FontAgent Pro Server 4, and we hope you are as well. If you have questions or would like more information, just let us know. We’ll get you the Inside Scoop.

TypeTrax Brings Fonts into Project Workflow

December 15th, 2009

Today, Insider released TypeTrax™ for Cumulus 8, which takes a unique and significant step forward by bringing fonts into creative project workflow management. TypeTrax unites three industry-leading technologies — Adobe’s InDesign CS4, Canto’s Cumulus 8 and Insider’s FontAgent Pro 4 — into a single, powerful workflow solution. Using TypeTrax, users can be sure that when they open a project, it will image correctly today, next month or two years from now. No other technology solution exists today that can make that claim.

How TypeTrax Works
As designers import InDesign projects into Cumulus, TypeTrax automatically imports all the fonts and files required. Users can preview fonts and their metadata with a few clicks. When users check-in an InDesign project, Cumulus and TypeTrax automatically preflight the job to ensure that all required fonts, images and resource files are included. TypeTrax detects differences between fonts resident in projects and on users’ systems. In addition, users can track all checked-in revisions, so they can easily revert to an earlier version of a project.

What It Takes to Get Started with TypeTrax
TypeTrax for Cumulus 8 is available immediately and includes a copy of FontAgent Pro 4. TypeTrax requires an Apple Macintosh running Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) or later and Adobe InDesign Creative Suite 4, as well as access to a server running Canto Cumulus 8.0 or 8.1.

A TypeTrax server license costs USD $1,995 and includes three user licenses. Additional user licenses cost $195 each. It is available for purchase from Insider and Moksa, as well as from Canto and selected Canto resellers worldwide.

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Automating Font Workflow with AppleScript

December 7th, 2009

Automating project workflow is crucial to today’s prepress and design workplaces. FontAgent Pro is perfect for these applications because you can use AppleScript to automate virtually all of its functionality.

AppleScript is an English-like language you can use to write scripts that automate the actions of your Mac and the applications that run on it. When you want your Mac applications to work together in harmony, AppleScript becomes the lingua franca that makes them all talk to each other. Using it, you and your applications become a lot more productive.

fapicon

If your project workflow uses fonts, FontAgent Pro is the font management tool you need to automate your workflow. While old versions of Suitcase supported AppleScript, the current versions of Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2 and Extensis Universal Type Server (UTS) client do not, nor does FontExplorer X.

How you can use AppleScript

There are lots of things you can automate with FontAgent Pro scripts. One of the most useful scripts imports and activates fonts when you drag a folder of fonts onto an AppleScript application.

Here is an example of how this might be useful:

It is common for prepress service providers to receive many different jobs from different clients during the day. Service providers usually receive fonts in a Package or in a folder created by a Collect for Output command. These fonts need to be imported into FontAgent Pro and activated to open the application file in the project.

Using AppleScript and FontAgent Pro, you can create a droplet application where you can drag the folder of files provided by a client (which in this example is named by job number) and the fonts contained will be automatically imported into a unique library with the same name as the folder. The script also deactivates all other fonts, and then activates the library you just imported so you can be sure you are using the exact fonts provided by the client. Without doing this, you cannot be sure that the job will rip and print as expected. After running this script, you are ready to launch whatever application your client used to create the application file and proceed.

fapdragactivatorimg

If you just want to get the script and start rolling, you can download it here and unzip it on your desktop and you are good to go.

The script is provided as is, but if you have any questions or suggestions, you can contact us at Insider Technical Support.

The script

The text for the script is below:

on open these_items
set afolder to these_items
set {name:folderName} to info for afolder
try
tell application "FontAgent Pro"
set DB to default database
tell DB
– this section deactivates all fonts in FAP
set LibList to every library
deactivate fonts LibList
– get the path to where libraries are kept and returned a as a POSIX path
set LibFolder to library path of first library as POSIX file
– build path to new libary
tell application "Finder" to set libpath to POSIX path of (container of folder LibFolder as string) & folderName
end tell
set NL to new library in DB with properties {library name:folderName, library path:libpath}
import fonts afolder options {destination library:NL, activate after importing:true}
end tell
on error the error_message number the error_number
display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end open

If you copy and paste the text into Script Editor, you may get a syntax error when you attempt to compile the script. This is most likely because the quotation marks in the text are smart quotation marks or curly quotes as opposed to the straight dumb quotation marks. Just do a find-and-replace with the dumb quotes and you can edit the script from there, or just download the script from the link provided above.

How to use the script

Simply take a folder of fonts and give it a name. This example uses a folder created from a package-for-output InDesign CS 4 project, and it’s named with a five-digit project number.

fontfolder2

Drag the folder onto the FAPDragActivator icon on your desktop and let the script do its stuff.

folderscript

From the screenshot below, you can see that the fonts were imported into FontAgent Pro (in a library named after the folder) and are indicated active with a green activation sphere. Also notice all the other fonts in the collection are deactivated.

libadded

The fun doesn’t have to stop here. This script can be integrated into a larger script that further automates your workflow. This script could activate the fonts and could hand the document off to InDesign or QuarkXpress to print a soft proof using a preset print setting.

In future posts we will talk more about using AppleScript to automate font-related workflows. Stay tuned to the Insider Blog.

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Font Caches: #1 Font Management Problem

December 2nd, 2009

The number-one issue that Insider technical support specialists deal with is not even caused by Insider products. Instead, the top problem we solve has to do with troublesome little files called font caches.

A little about font caches

Font caches are data files that help your OS and applications speed the display of text on your screen. You can open and examine most cache files with a text editor because they often just list font files or their properties. Mac OS has its own cache files, as do applications in software suites such as Adobe Creative Suite, QuarkXPress, Apple iWork and Microsoft Office.

Every time you activate or deactivate a font, these cached lists need to be updated or activated fonts might not appear available in many applications. In addition, when the updates don’t occur, the cache files easily become corrupt or damaged–or simply fall out of sync with their associated applications–and cause additional application instability.

It is difficult to tell if a cache is corrupt simply by looking at the file. Often the first indication is bizarre or unexpected behavior in your applications. So how can we go about solving this pesky issue?

In comes Smasher

SMA_md

Smasher provides preventive font maintenance for your Mac OS X design applications and acts as a companion technology to your existing font manager, such as FontAgent Pro. Smasher is an essential utility for anyone who uses a lot of fonts because it clears your font and application caches on a regular, scheduled basis. So you can install Smasher, set its preferences to clear your caches at every reboot, and say goodbye to cache problems for good.

Every time you reboot, Smasher removes old cache files. Then, as Mac OS X and your applications launch, they create new cache files that better reflect the activation status of the fonts on your system. So fonts show up in your application menus as they should, and you are better  protected against display problems, garbled fonts, strange font substitution, printing problems and application crashes.

Smasher also performs routine maintenance on CUPS print spool files and other temporary system files to keep your Mac running smoothly. To learn more about Smasher or to download a demo of this handy utility, click here.

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