This latest FontAgent Pro release is available for immediate download here.

Unrivaled Auto-Activation Precision in Adobe CS 5.5 and Quark 9

Built on Insider’s unique FontSavant™ technology, the 4.2 release includes Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 and QuarkXPress 9 plug-ins that ensure FontAgent Pro always selects the right font for your documents—not just a close match or one that has the same name.

The updated plug-ins support both CS 5.5 and the recent Creative Suite 5.5.1 update, and are available for installation using the Install Plug-ins/Xtensions manager in the FontAgent Pro pull-down menu.

FontAgent Pro gives you full control over the auto-activation process. It detects subtle differences among fonts to deliver the most accurate font activation possible. When no installed fonts match one required by a document, it provides a list of alternate fonts in your collection—with a relevancy ranking that shows how closely they match the font your document requested—so you can choose the best font. You can also activate a preferred font format (e.g., Type 1, OpenType, TrueType) automatically.

Availability and Pricing

Release 4.2 of FontAgent Pro is free to users who have already licensed FontAgent Pro 4. The product retails for USD $49.95 for registered users of FontAgent Pro 3 and earlier, and is USD $99.95 for new purchasers. Cross-grades from qualifying competitive products are also available.

Support for Windows 7 Fonts
FontAgent Pro 4.1 provides full support for Windows 7 system fonts. With a click, you can optimize your Fonts Control Panel, leaving system fonts in place while moving your other fonts into your FontAgent Pro font library where you can view, search and activate them as you wish.

New Auto-Activation Plug-Ins for Adobe Creative Suite 5
The new release includes auto-activation plug-ins for Adobe CS5 that find, match and activate fonts as you open InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop documents.  So now, FontAgent Pro for Windows includes auto-activation plug-ins for CS2, 3, 4 and 5.

Improved Keyword Search
The V4.1 release also expands its unique and extensive keyword search functionality, adding hundreds of new keywords and topics as well as support for fonts from the Ascender library of Monotype Imaging.

Connectivity to FontAgent Pro Server
The new FontAgent Pro 4.1 for Windows adds scheduled FAP Server synchronization to its existing manual sync functionality, making it even easier for organizations to standardize fonts across user desktops.

Free Upgrade for Existing FontAgent Pro 4 Licensees!
Do you already have a license for FontAgent Pro 4 for Windows? Have a license key beginning “FAW4″?  If so, you can upgrade to FAP 4.1 for free.

For More Information or a Free Trial
To learn more about this release, to download and update your software, or to get a free trial of FontAgent Pro 4.1 for Windows, click here.

The scripts that come with FontAgent Pro work directly with FontAgent Pro, but you can add scripts that run other applications as well.

Below is a script that launches Smasher, Insider’s font and cache maintenance utility. If you would like to download the script click here. Unzip the attached file and place the script in the /Library/Application Support/FontAgent Pro/Scripts/ folder to get it to appear as Launch Smasher in the FontAgent Pro > Scripts menu.

set appFolder to (path to applications folder as Unicode text)
set afolder to appFolder & “Smasher”
tell application “Finder”
if exists folder afolder then
try
tell application “Smasher”
activate
end tell
end try
else
tell application “Finder”
activate
display dialog “You do not have Smasher installed. To learn more about Smasher and download a demo click \”Learn More.\”" buttons {“Cancel“, “Learn More“} default button 2
if the button returned of the result is “Learn More” then
set theURL to “open http://www.insidersoftware.com/SM.php”
do shell script theURL
else
– nothing happens
end if
end tell
end if
end tell

Note:  If you copy and paste the text into Script Editor, depending on the browser you are using, you may need to do a find-and-replace on the quotes to get them to be dumb quotes. ScriptEditor will see a smart quote as an unknown token and the script will not compile. You can view and edit the linked script after you download it if you wish.

This script is handy because when you start seeing symptoms of font cache corruption, it allows you to quickly launch Smasher from FontAgent Pro, where you can clear your caches and get back to your work. It is also a good idea to make sure you have Smasher’s cache clearing scheduled to run each time you start or shutdown your Mac.

When you run the script, Smasher launches and you can edit settings to clear your caches in any manner you wish. If you don’t have Smasher installed it  gives you an option to go to a web page where you can learn more about the product.

This script is offered as is and you may feel free to edit it in any way you wish. For example, you add scripts that launch other applications such as QuarkXPress or InDesign from within FontAgent Pro.

In future posts, we will talk more about using AppleScript to automate font-related workflows. Stay tuned to The Inside Scoop.

Unique Technology that Ensures Correct Activation

Built on Insider’s unique FontSavant™ technology, the new release ensures that FontAgent Pro’s auto-activation manager always selects the right font in your documents—not just a close match or one that has the same name.

FontAgent Pro gives you full control over the font auto-activation process. It begins by detecting the most subtle differences among fonts to deliver the most accurate font activation possible. When no installed fonts match one required by a document, it provides a list of alternate fonts in your collection—with a relevancy ranking that shows how closely they match the font your document requested—so you can choose the best font. You can also activate a preferred font format (e.g., Type 1, OpenType, TrueType) automatically.

Availability and Pricing

Release 4.140 of FontAgent Pro is free to users who have already licensed FontAgent Pro 4. The product retails for $99.95 for new purchasers and is $49.95 for registered users of FontAgent Pro 3 and earlier. Cross-grades from qualifying competitive products are also available. Existing users and those wanting a 30-day trial version of FontAgent Pro can download the latest release from:

http://www.insidersoftware.com/downloads/FontAgentPro4.dmg

FontAgent Pro’s competitors claim their font managers are compatible with CS5, yet they also tell you that they have not released auto-activation support for it.  What’s that mean? At Insider we are providing you with the tools you need to stay productive today, not asking you to wait and see.

So, even this late in the game, FontAgent Pro is still the only game in town if you want full compatibility with Adobe Creative Suite 5. And from what we have been hearing, it could easily be that way for a while.

To download the FontAgent Pro CS5 auto-activation plug-ins click here.

To learn more about how Insider can help you streamline your creative process, including the industry-leading line of FontAgent Pro products, visit our site at www.insidersoftware.com.

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 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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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.