Font management software is a kind of utility software that computer users use to browse and preview fonts and typically to install and uninstall fonts. Some font management software may be able to also:
Font management software generally possesses more font management capabilities than most operating systems.
Font management software allows its users to catalogue and inspect fonts on their system. Font management software allows its users to view a font in multiple ways.
Users can inspect the font in more detail, such as looking at the fonts glyphs, or comparing another font.
Font management software may also provide detail on the glyph count of a font, if the font can be embedded (such as in a PDF), or the creator of the font.
Font management software may be able to activate or deactivate fonts depending on when they are needed. This reduces the load on the system to keep many font active at the same time.
Some font management programs can activate fonts or a specific group of fonts when a program or document launched. When the program or document is closed, the font management software can deactivate the same fonts. This method of activating fonts can activate fonts on the fly (such as during a specific project), reducing the load on the system.
Linux-based operating systems generally do not pre-load fonts on a system-wide basis. Instead, each application loads them as it needs them. Current Linux desktop environments (such as KDE and Gnome) manage fonts for applications using their internal framework library calls for font display, allowing management of fonts via the GUI.
Note: Information on supported fonts is not readily available from many manufacturers. However, most of the major commercial programs support OpenType and TrueType fonts.
Note: Information on supported fonts is not readily available from many manufacturers. However, most of the major commercial programs support OpenType and TrueType fonts.