CK font organizer

[Sierra]

Does anyone use the CK font organizer? It comes on the CD "CK Fresh Fonts with Organizer". Just wondering if it is a good organizer?

Thanks
Sierra

[Cupcake]

I have used CK font organizer and wasn't impressed with it. There were a lot of steps and sometimes the program would just shut down. I finally managed to get a complete list of all my fonts printed but it took a lot of work. I tried HP font smart and it was easier to use. There were two lists of fonts those installed and those not imstalled and you just dragged and dropped fonts from one list to the other. This was fairly easy, I never tried to get the program to print a list of all my fonts. I had nearly pulled my hair out to get the first list from CK font organizer and I didn't want to go through the whole thing again. CK font organizer did print out a nice catalog of all my fonts and an example of each. It is just a bit hard to deal with. Hope this helps :)

[Sierra]

Thanks, that does help. Where did you get fontsmart? I have heard of it but don't know much about it.
Thanks
Sierra

[Amanda]

As far as I know - CK Font organizer only works for CK fonts, right?

There is a tutorial for using the Font Thing in our University. It's a great easy to use free organizer.

[Cupcake]

Hi Sierra and Amanda,

I got Font Smart when I purchased a Hewlet Packard printer. The program came as one of those add ons. I don't know if you can go to Hewlet Packard and purchase or download it. Try putting Font Smart into a Google search and see what you get.
I liked Font Smart because it is very easy to use. Font Smart will search your entire computer and make a list of all your fonts. You get two lists one of installed fonts and one of uninstalled fonts. All you have to do is drag and drop fonts from one list to the other. I like Font Smart because I don't need a degree in brain surgery to use it. Font Smart also comes with its own list of abt. 1,000 fonts which should be enough to make any fontaholic happy.
I haven't tried to print a list of my fonts from Font Smart but I probably should.

CK Font Organizer will go through your computer and make a list of every font you have. It will then make a copy of ALL your fonts and put them in a folder within the program. I didn't like this because I now have two copies of all my fonts, It also took me 15 min. to find the folder where the program stored them. This is supposed to be like a vault, however if your system crashes or you need to reinstall windows you loose them anyway. CK Font Organizer will then allow you to organize all your fonts. This is somewhat difficult because some fonts fall within several different catagories and you must choose which one you want. Then you can print out a list of all the fonts you have. I did this and then used it to decide which fonts I would use and which I probably wouldn't. I then made a folder under Fonts in the Windows directory called discarded fonts. Using my list I then went through my fonts and put the ones I wouldn't use into my new folder. I created another folder under fonts and named this one MY FONTS. I copied all the fonts that I had collected, purchased or downloaded because I didn't want to loose then if I had a computer crash. I could now copy paste this folder from my C drive to a folder on my D drive. I also burned a copy and put another copy on to my USB drive. This way I safeguarded all my fonts. CK Font Organizer is a good program but it does have a lot of steps. The program seems stright forward when you enter it but be prepared all is not as it seems. You must tell the program which folder you want to search, Now do you want to put them into catagories, Where these fonts will be stored. You can now print a list but you must first tell the program 1. which folder you want to print. 2. How many fonts in a row and how many to a page. 3. If you want to have it print the name as well as a sample of the font. 4. If you want the program to print out the catagory designation you gave it. As I went though my list I found many fonts that it didn't even list or print a preview of. I used this feature to print out a list of all the fonts on a disk I had purchased as I didn't want to install all the fonts on the disk. This is a good program but it takes a learning curve to operate it well. Font Smart isn't as powerful with fewer bells and whistles but it is easier to use.

Good luck on finding Font Smart and deciding which one you like
Vicki

[Cupcake]

Hi,

I am sorry for this new post but I forgot to mention that Lettering Delights is haveing a sale on their true types as well as their graphic fonts. I don't know how much longer the sale is on for but you can go to letteringdelights.com to see what they have. They also offer a free program that allows you to use and manage all your LD graphic fonts as if they were true type fonts.

[figrsk8r]

I use Font Xplorer, it's an inexpensive shareware program (one of the few I actually have purchased). I do graphic design work and have more than 15,000 fonts. I divide them into folders by category (serif, sans, alpha fonts, dingbats, retro, etc.). I have used every font manager available and keep coming back to this one. When Adobe decided to discontinue the full version of ATM, I've found this one to be the best for the money...but still not perfect. Personally, I don't think there is a good font manager out there anymore. The Font Thing is an adequate program, but I found that once I surpassed 450 installed fonts it just hangs. Font Xplorer also lets you search for duplicate fonts (I recently deleted over 8,000 duplicates) which it identifies by the file name in the header instead of the file name. I've moved all but the default and my favorite fonts to a category specific folder from the windows font directory. It really helps the load time on startup. I still use ATM light for all my mac converted fonts & postscript fonts. Hope this helps.

[DianeR]

I've only ever used the same font organiser and it's done me well for a long time. It used to be freeware but now it's $20 - well worth the money if you use fonts a lot. I never have more than about 300 fonts installed and have the rest organised in folders and it's very easy to just install what I need at any given time.

http://users.pandora.be/eclypse/ Here's the link to x-fonter, if anyone's interested.

HTH
Diane :D

[Pam]

The CK font organizer came on a CD I purchased and I do have other font organizers but like The Font Thing, even though I have hundreds of fonts. It allows me to keep a select few installed at any one time. I have created a directory with subdirectories and have placed ALL of my fonts there by categories. When I install one it copies it to the font directory in Windows. When I uninstall one and TFT deletes it, I still have a copy of it in my own directory of fonts (and I have the subdirectories of different types to keep it from taking so long to load - I keep about 100 in each directory).