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FontExplorer X Pro alternative

over 6 years ago from , Interface designer at Mono

Is there an alternative to FontExplorer X Pro yet?

They are pretty bad when it comes to paid software updates.

They manage to release new versions that do absolutely nothing new yet they want to charge you an inordinate amount for it.

€45 for an upgrade from 5.x purchased on in 2015 to 6.X which does nothing new for me? Ugh.

RIP Fontcase.

13 comments

  • Andre CabralAndre Cabral, over 6 years ago

    Not sure if this solves your issue. But I love https://rightfontapp.com

    2 points
  • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, over 6 years ago

    Have you spent much time with Apple’s in-built Font Book? It doesn’t suck, provided you don’t have too many fonts installed. It can disable fonts, too. It’s also worth noting that macOS can preview fonts in the Finder using Quick Look.

    1 point
    • Johan Ronsse, over 6 years ago

      That's brilliant, thank you. I didn't realize it was extensive enough for my use case. Maybe it's been updated in recent releases - or maybe it's always been like this.

      In any case all I need to do is load some UI fonts so I don't need all the power that something like FontExplorer X Pro provides anyway.

      This solves my problem... for free. Thanks Marc.

      1 point
      • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, over 6 years ago

        Not a problem at all! I feel like it’s a good way to go for UI designers. For print designers who need 100s of fonts enabled from a library of 1000s, it may not work as well.

        0 points
  • Lee Campbell, over 6 years ago

    I like to use a combination of OS X Font Book to install fonts and then Typeface http://typeface.criminalbird.com to view & organize.

    1 point
  • Erick PuentesErick Puentes, 6 years ago

    I'm on the same path. FontExplorer's constant paid upgrades are too much. Looking into the other alternative. Anybody used "Font Agent Pro"? How does that compare to the others? Seems like Suitcase Fusion is the leader of the pack at the moment.

    0 points
  • Ben BarryBen Barry, over 6 years ago

    I too have been searching for a replacement for FontExplorer. I'm curious to try some of the options mentioned here. The feature I want most is the ability to curate the the font list at an operating system level. For example I want to only see fonts I've selected—and none of the system installed fonts—in the dropdown menu of Illustrator. Illustrator—like Indesign before it—has finally added the ability to do this, but it's application specific. I want to be able to do it globally throughout the OS. Anyone know of any solutions that do this?

    0 points
  • Lee Fuhr, over 6 years ago

    I too used to use FontExplorer until it relentlessly convinced me to kind of hate it. I wanted something lighter but with auto-activation, and the ability to sync our giant 10k+ font library across my little team would be a bonus.

    RightFont is it. It's far from perfect, but it gets it done, as others have mentioned.

    0 points
    • Jim Kidwell, over 6 years ago

      If you want syncing, I'd recommend going with Suitcase TeamSync as it basically connects multiple Suitcase Fusion users to a common, cloud-shared font library.

      0 points
  • Nick AdamsNick Adams, over 6 years ago

    Suitcase Fusion 7 has been surprisingly solid for me so far (I was on a similar search the past few months after getting sick of Font Explorer X).

    Pros

    • It is pretty fast and fairly lightweight (about a 135MB memory footprint) with my library of almost 5k total fonts (though only a few hundred activated, system fonts included).
    • Previewing type is fast enough with a pretty large library.
    • The auto-activation for Adobe CS works well.
    • It connects with Typekit to manage your synced library from there.
    • It connects to Google Web Fonts for desktop activation and use.
    • It's pretty easy to organize with sets and sub-sets.
    • It has per-user licensing for up to 2 machines (I think that's the limit), and it has a cloud font storage thing included for free.

    Cons

    • No auto-activation for Sketch or Affinity.
    • You can't create subsets within Google Web Fonts or Typekit.
    • More expensive than Rightfont (but with RIghtfont you only get 1 computer per license).

    Rightfont wasn't bad during my trial, but I went with Fusion mostly because of the licensing with many other features being equal. It has been solid so far. Worth a trial at least.

    0 points
  • Dennis EusebioDennis Eusebio, over 6 years ago

    I used to love it, but ended up going with Rightfontapp.com now. Still don't love that solution but at least it's affordable.

    0 points