Font Management in Mac

Carl Shank • March 24, 2022

If you are like many users, you will soon be overwhelmed by the wealth and number of fonts in your font system folder. This is where a Font Management tool comes in handy. Such a tool helps you organize, specify and use a limited number of fonts for specific projects. It also helps to identify font conflicts, badly designed or corrupted fonts or fonts that simply do not work anymore.


SUITCASE. A premier font management tool is Suitcase Fusion (www.extensis.com). This tool has served font and design professionals over the years with expert and solid font management. The modern name is "Suitcase Fusion," version 22.x. This tool helps the user to install Adobe fonts directly into the Extensis files, auto-activates fonts in Adobe's Creative Cloud, drag and drop fonts into Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher on the PC. It finds and compares fonts on the list view. The modern iteration works on the newer Macs M1. There is a free trial offered.




Older Mac Systems

As my readers know, I use a number of older Macintosh systems for archived software use. Extensis Suitcase Version 10 is what I use on these systems as well. Suitcase Strip puts font management on the Control Strip of Mac OS 9, and a "Collect for Output" function allows users to send their fonts with the projects to a printer. Suitcase on these older machines requires a PowerPC processor, OS 8.6 or newer and 32MB of RAM. The program also includes LemkeSoft's FontBook, a font preview utility (See below.)


The downside is working with Adobe's Type Manager (ATM). ATM Deluxe does not work in Mac OS 9.2.2 with Suitcase. However, ATM Light 4.6.2 or 4.6.2a is necessary for smooth font previews, since Suitcase has no smoothing option. Adobe Type Manager (ATM) Light is a system software component that automatically generates high-quality screen font bitmaps from the PostScript outlines in Type 1 or OpenType format. ATM Light was discontinued in 2005, but Adobe still makes it available for customers who require it for older operating systems. With ATM Light, you can scale your fonts on legacy systems without the characters appearing jagged, and you can also enable "font smoothing," which further improves the appearance of your fonts onscreen by using your computer monitor's color palette to intelligently improve the rendering of characters. ATM Light also allows you to print PostScript fonts on non-PostScript printers. You may have to hunt and search for ATM Light version 4.6.2, but a good place to start is Macintosh Garden (macintoshgarden.org) and Macintosh Repository (macintosh repository.org). See the examples below.

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Type After Gutenberg: A Historical Sketch

By Carl Shank • November 8, 2025
What Happened to Type After Gutenberg? A Brief Historical Sketch from 1460-1640 At the end of the 15th century, German printing was at the forefront of a revolutionary transformation in Europe, driven by the invention of the movable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. This development had a profound impact on culture, education, and the dissemination of knowledge. By the end of the century, Germany had become one of the key centers of printing in Europe, particularly in cities like Mainz, Nuremberg, and Augsburg. Books printed before 1501 are referred to as incunabula. German printers produced a significant portion of the incunabula, with many focusing on religious texts such as the Bible, liturgical works, and theological treatises. Secular works, including classical texts, legal documents, and scientific works, also gained prominence towards the end of the century. German printers played a key role in developing early typefaces. One of the most popular was Blackletter (also called Gothic script or Fraktur), which dominated printed works in Germany during this period. The dense and elaborate script was particularly suited to religious and formal texts. By 1500, there were over 1,000 printers operating in various German cities, making Germany a leading hub for the printing industry. Notable printing centers included: Mainz—The birthplace of Gutenberg’s press; Nuremberg — An important center for both printing and intellectual activity; and, Augsburg—A commercial and printing hub. What is often lost in typographical history in the years closely following Gutenberg are the important printers and typographers in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, England, Austria, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Mexico, Ireland and the United States who furthered the cause of typography and printed works. This Blog serves as a historical sketch of a number of these important people.

Theology of Type (3): The Twentieth Century (Part 2)

By Carl Shank • November 1, 2025
SWISS TYPE BEAUTY DESIGNERS LIKE JAN TSCHICHOLD were foundational to many of the Swiss design principles. This style evolved from Constructivist, De Stijl and Bauhaus design principles, particularly the ideas of grid systems, sans-serif type and minimalism. Emerging in Switzerland during the 1940s and 1950s, this typography, also known as the International Typographic Style, directly responded to the type chaos of Dada and the stylization of Art Deco. The Swiss style emphasized readability, visual harmony and universality. Clarity, objectivity and functionality were key components. Contributors included Max Miedinger, creator of the Helvetica typeface and Adrian Frutiger, creator of the Univers typeface, both in 1957. The Journey of Helvetica We all use Helvetica. In fact, some say it has been overused through modern years. Helvetica derives its powerful simplicity and display qualities from the 1896 typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk. “The design originates from Royal Grotesk light by Ferdinand Theinhardt who also supplied the regular, medium and bold weights. Throughout the years, Berthold has expanded this extremely popular and versatile family. AG Super was developed in 1968 by Günter Gerhard Lange and is an excellent choice for headlines. In 2001, Günter Gerhard Lange added more weights for Berthold including Super Italic and Extra Bold italic.”[1] “Helvetica is a twentieth-century Swiss revision of a late nineteenth­ century German Realist face. The first weights were drawn in 1956 by Max Miedinger, based on the Berthold Foundry’s old Odd-job Sans-serif, or Akzidenz Grotesk, as it is called in German. The heavy, unmodulated line and tiny aperture evoke an image of uncultivated strength, force and persistence. The very light weights issued in recent years have done much to reduce Helvetica’s coarseness but little to increase its readability.”[2]
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