It's 3 a.m.: Do You Know Where Your Fonts Are?

One of the annoying little details of good print and document management is the need for proper font management. My prescription is for everyone to stick with Arial and Times New Roman, but unfortunately, the world isn't that simple anymore.

In addition to a wide variety of fonts necessary for proper display of Web pages, graphic designers and corporate marketing types are always pushing for something new and distinctive. Add in the demands of multilingual publishing, and suddenly, your font library can grow and become difficult to keep straight. And yes, fonts are software just like all other software and so are subject to proper licensing, which gives Doc a headache just thinking about it.

Windows 7, for example, contains 48 new fonts that weren't in Windows Vista. Fortunately, some simple font-management tools are built into Windows 7.

For more complex network font administration, a variety of font-management tools are available in the marketplace. Doc says a good starting point is to see the list (complete with links) available at myfonts.com.

And for a more complete review (though slightly dated), see a great comparison of eight industrial-strength font-management tools at creativepro.com.