Overview / Introduction
Suitcase Fusion is a combination of Suitcase and Font Reserve. In addition to the easy to use interface, Suitcase has launched a number of new features. Suitcase Fusion is a professional font manager targeted at the professional who is working with type and fonts. Suitcase Fusion represents a seamless, dependable tool to manage your fonts, no matter how many you use. No matter how many documents you work with. No matter how demanding your workflow is.
Included in the delivery of Suitcase Fusion is a version of Font Doctor 7 (Morrison Software) for checking and repairing your fonts. Suitcase Fusion is a single-license product specifically for Mac OS X. Unfortunately, with the launch of Suitcase Fusion the support for the Classic version vanished.
Helpful Tip: After upgrading, keep the “Suitcase Bridge” and “Suitcase Extension” of your Suitcase X1 in the system folder/system extensions. That way the fonts are ready to be used, if supported by Classic.
System Requirements
Suitcase Fusion supports Mac OS X (version 10.3.9 or higher) and needs a Macintosh G4 or faster. 30 Megabytes of free disk space and 256 Megabyte RAM, as well as a CD-ROM drive for installation and setup.
General Features
Efficient font management is achieved through features such as Font Vault or Type Face Activation. The Font Vault is a central font repository that houses all your fonts, while the Type Face Activation safely adds your fonts to the Font Vault and checks if there are any defective typefaces within your library. Furthermore, Suitcase can automatically activate fonts that you need for a specific project or document. That way you don’t ever have to worry about manually activating them.
The Font Vault exposes users to highly professional font management. Font Vault is the manageable repository interconnected with the Suitcase Fusion database. This truly eradicates conflicts, especially if you have more than one version of a font with the same PostScript name. Font Vault supports the Font Sense-Technology for the precise identification of fonts and the efficient handling of multiple fonts on your disk.
Suitcase Fusion automatically splits up a font suitcase if any single font of the set has been added to the Font Vault. Also new to the product is the ability to work with multiple previews, collecting fonts for export/output and also organizing your fonts within nested fonts and applying keywords. Suitcase Fusion lets you create an Application Set. Application Sets makes working with fonts easy. Fonts stored within these sets are always automatically activated whenever a specific application is started. Attributes and the classification through keywords (for example project name, client) come in very handy. Exploring your fonts, searching and finding them is a lot easier and a huge benefit and time saver in the end.
(Suitcase Fusion offers font exportimg, type faces, fonts in (nested) sets, font families simply by dragging-and-dropping them.)
Screenshots
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| Suitcase interface; View at Font Sense identifier-code, Font Vault activation and Quicktype | keywords and allocation: example cape arcona | ||
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| Preview at various font styles, showing “ABC 123” characters |
My favourite features
Workflow optimization through Font Sense: Suitcase Fusion utilizes a technology called “Font Sense” to analyze and identify fonts. Fonts are identified on the basis of their kerning and the virtual outline of each character. Beyond the font name, these unique identifiers are used to prevent conflicts among fonts. Fonts with the same names are being kept apart nicely! This feature also applies to fonts embedded within EPS or PDF documents. The Font Sense technology is also available as a plugin for Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator.
Auto Activation has been improved since the latest version and is a real time saver, because you don’t have to activate them manually anymore. You open Adobe InDesign for example, and it will activate the needed fonts instantly.
Helpful Tip: In case you are not installing a new version of Suitcase Fusion, make sure that you remove the old version to avoid problems. Definitely go through the Quick Start Guide prior to your installation. It has a number of really helpful tips. For example the way OS X handles fonts or conflicts. In addition, you get an introduction to the Auto-Activation and its settings.
Company:
Extensis
Requirements:
Mac OS X
Pricing:
$99 full / $49 upgrade
Reviewed by:
Simona
Competition:
n/a
Pros:
Cons:
Bottom Line: