Linotype has finally released the long-awaited update to it's free font manager FontExplorer X - a favorite among designers everywhere as an alternative to Suitcase Fusion and FontAgent Pro. The features are rich, unfortunately, so is the price.
FontExplorer X Pro now comes in two flavors, a desktop client and a server version. The desktop client now sells for $39 until February 28th. On March 1, 2009, the app will jump to $79. The server version price is based on the number of seats that you require it to serve.
FontExplorer X Pro supports Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator CS2, CS3 and CS4, as well as Quark XPress versions 6.5 through 8.x, and features auto updater, the ability to clear system and application level font caches, smart sets, application-based sets, font previewing, Spotlight support, conflict resolution, backup support, and of course a built-in online font store.
A demo of FontExplorer X Pro is available and runs on Mac OSX 10.4.x through 10.5.x. I have not tested the application yet, but will be in the near future.
What's the difference?
Mon, 01/05/2009 - 10:43 — Ross Graham (not verified)Quick glance, tells me it's not much different. I downloaded the 30-day demo and ran it. The sidebars and interface look like the new iTunes, but the app sure seems to act the same.
Maybe if I were running CS4 I'd care?
Nope
Mon, 01/05/2009 - 10:59 — Websnap (not verified)Yeah, time to look at Font Case (bohemiancoding.com/fontcase/)
Fontcase looks interesting,
Mon, 01/05/2009 - 11:59 — coghill-cartooningFontcase looks interesting, but no indication of pricing and the Smart Sets are missing the ones I actually use in FEX.
I am doubting that Fontcase will be less than $40 anyways, and I am not sure I want to have to set everything up again to switch apps, unless Fontcase turns out to be extremely kick-ass over FEX Pro.
Who knows, maybe the FEX Pro CS4 plugins will work for the previous version of FEX :) Or maybe FEX Pro might be worth the upgrade price?
What a scam! You just can't
Tue, 01/06/2009 - 09:13 — Fleskpyng (not verified)What a scam! You just can't offer something for free and when ppl getting used to it start to charge full price w/out any extras offered.
If they have understanding of the market today they should keep the standard ver for free and put some bells & whistles into a Pro version w/ server support, offered at competitive price.
Oh, brother!
Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:50 — RhymingDesignerNow just a minute. Did Adobe scam users when it allowed them to try Photoshop beta for free, then disabled it when the final version was released? If FontExplorer had been labeled beta, would that make it all better?
It's not like Linotype has slammed the door on its FontExplorer users. As far as I know, you can still use FontExplorer for free if you've already got it installed. And now you can sample the full version of FontExplorer X for 30 days at no cost, and then you have an extra month or so to buy the software at about half price. I call that a reasonable approach.
Are you kidding?
Tue, 01/06/2009 - 15:05 — amicus (not verified)A company spends a lot of time and money developing software and you're saying they don't have the right to make that money back???
I think we should be thankful that we've been able to use this software for free for so long. Upgrading to the new version is a choice. Seems fairly cheap software for a professional application that will help make designers money by cutting hassles with fonts and thus saving them time.
not joking
Wed, 01/07/2009 - 07:38 — Fleskpyng (not verified)Adobe and other beta testing companys indeed do not scam users for finding bugs in their software, everyone know the deal on this (Adobe learn & earn from beta users).
In this case though it's something that's been free since day one, with the intention to have users buy their fonts instead of the actual software.
But then to completely change their agenda and start charge for new versions when enough users are used to it is nothing but a scam.
This isn't new...
Wed, 01/07/2009 - 10:00 — JamesApple does it all the time. Remember when iTools was free? Now it's MobileMe. Remember when iMovie, and iPhoto were free? Not any more.
I don't see how this is a scam. A bummer for sure, but not a scam.
Looks the same but...
Wed, 01/07/2009 - 17:47 — Eric Peacock (not verified)...it's quite a bit faster on my machine over the previous version. Previews, scrolling and generally interface speed has greatly improved.
I'm running Leopard 10.5.6 on a Quad core Intel Xeon.
Great...
Wed, 01/07/2009 - 20:29 — JamesThat's good news. What versions of Adobe apps are you running?
I'm running CS3 for work. I
Thu, 01/08/2009 - 08:44 — Eric Peacock (not verified)I'm running CS3 for work. I run CS4 at home but haven't had time to do that.
Auto activation seems perkier with CS3 for me.
If it just got a ton of optimization and Leopard clean-up that is actually worth quite a bit IMO. Free software is not often as well optimized as it could be, it is worth paying for - features aside.
I'm hoping the developers are the same folks. I think they've had the right attitude about font management. We had to drop Suitcase because it was dog slow and buggy and didn't get any updates for longer periods of time and FontExplorer X was the best replacement I found. I haven't used Suitcase Fusion at all, which if nothing else I'm sure has improved due to the pressure from FEX competition.
We didn't switch to FEX because it was free, it was because FEX worked better for us. So now it costs a little bit - it is worth it to me if they're going to stay on top of the app. Plus we are in a recession and I'd rather the app have a revenue stream other than the font store than just up and dying as a casualty of layoffs.
Switching font managers isn't something you just do casually anyway, it's always a bit of lost productivity when you jump to other apps. I'm willing to give this a shot I think - better speed is actually reason enough for me.
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