Thanks for taking the time to share even if the review isn't positive.

I've found Insider to be very forthcoming as a company (we were trying to find the EULA after install - and they were a huge help) but these issues are concerning.

I've been trying out the FAP demo on Lion and haven't seen any of these issues, but the Adobe CS5 core fonts (those that shipped with it) and the Apple supplied-fonts (system fonts/etc) I leave in the OS X font book.

I wonder if that's the difference?

Second all of your experiences. Contacted customer support as well about the "last resort" replacement font and they suggested not to use Safari. Now, that's a real helper!
I've deinstalled FontAgent Pro for the time being. Been using it since version 2, but with Lion the app just shows its age and the developer seems unwilling to fix bugs. Or maybe they're just waiting to cash in on version 5... who knows. They certainly lost my trust. I'm using Apple's FontBook now. It's not perfect, but at least compatible with Lion and working fine.

The "Last Resort" font issue in Safari was a well-documented bug in Safari 5 after Lion came out. Same thing happened to me when using FontExplorer X Pro, so that was not an issue caused by FontAgent Pro.

Fontexplorer X Pro has similar problems. Especially with Adobe apps. No response from their support either. I assume charging 100 bucks for crapware is profitable enough for those developers not to bother with fixing anything and keep current users from leaving.

Hello Caberlin!

I'm a support engineer at Insider Software. I was perusing the internet to see if anyone was in need of help with FontAgent Pro, which is how I came across this post. I apologize for not seeing it sooner.

The Last Resort font issue in Safari (and Chrome) is a pain for many Lion users. I think since the 10.7.2 update the issue has pretty much been solved in Safari, and Google released a new version of Chrome that also addressed the issue. We didn't release any update to address the issue because the actual issue at hand was out of our control (it wasn't our code to fix). This is why anyone with any 3rd-party font managers that was experiencing the issue.

So that would be my recommendation if you are still having issues: update to the latest version of 10.7 (Lion) and make sure you're running Chrome 16 or higher, if you're a Chrome user. Note: You might also need to clear your OS X font caches after installing 10.7.2 and/or Chrome 16 to fully solve your issue.

The issue you are seeing with Pages not seeing newly activated fonts, is likely due to a corrupted or failing font cache. Again, clearing the OS X font caches should help this issue but proper font management practices can go along way to avoiding corrupted font caches. For example, make sure you do not have a ton of fonts active all the time and that you don't startup with fonts that get reactivated. Many users tend to get a corrupted font cache because of too many active fonts, then they restart, which activates that same number of fonts which results in a corrupted font cache. You basically get stuck in a loop! The way to solve this is to not start up with any fonts. I agree that font cache issues are a pain, but like the Safari issue you were seeing, font cache behavior is not something we can help because FontAgent Pro doesn't create or modify the OS X font cache directly—only OS X does that.

As for the issue with Adobe's installed fonts: FontAgent Pro can manage these by simply turning on the "Manage System Fonts" feature. This brings all of the fonts that are located in the /Library/Fonts/ and /Users/[your username]/Library/Fonts folders. Let's say that feature was already turned on, then Adobe puts more fonts into the /Library/Fonts folder, simply turn off the "Manage System Fonts Folder" then turn it back on. This will sort out any duplicates that you might have in those libraries.

And finally, I must offer an apology about your claim that support offers no help your support requests. I encourage you to either email or call our support again with any further issues you might have.
The support line is open Monday - Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm Central Time.

Thanks!
-Erik

Also on their website:

The updated plug-ins support both CS 5.5 and the recent Creative Suite 5.5.1 update, and are available for installation using the Install Plug-ins/Xtensions manager in the FontAgent Pro pull-down menu.

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It can take a several seconds for Adobe apps to add fonts to their font lists and render the type correctly on screen. You could also be having a cache issue that is preventing the fonts from appearing in your Adobe applications. If you continue seeing the issue, please contact support@insidersoftware.com.

Yes InDesign activates fonts very slowly. You'll often still see pink (missing font indicator) till you close the missing font dbox. But you really don't need to restart ID. Generally I just start working (once all pink is gone).
Minimally close (without saving), then reopen the doc. I've only found this necessary when double clicking a file to open ID. You shouldn't need to do this if you've opened a file via dialog box.

I'm still using CS2 (too lazy to install CS4) - but I bet you'll find behavior the same - it's always been that way.

YMMV: Of course if your fonts aren't activating at all, you've got a problem.

The problem is not just with CS4. I have CS5 and still experience the anomaly from time to time, and I have clients using CS3 and CS4 in similar situations. Actually, the problem is not only with Adobe CS products because you might notice that when FAP-activated fonts start to not show up in, say, Illustrator, they probably will not show up in other non-Adobe applications as well.

The (almost) surefire fix I have found for this is to go into the FAP4 folder and to launch the Uninstall FontAgent Pro app, after which, you might want to run a cache-purge program, (e.g. FontNuke, Font Finagler), and then reinstall FAP after the restart. The uninstaller preserves your settings, sets, etc.

In my personal experience, since the CS5 upgrade and using FAP 4.14, I have had to do the above procedure at least three times (in about four months). Just for reference, I am running Mac OS X 10.6.5 on a MacPro3,1, with approximately 6,000 fonts in my library.

The same thing happened on my system (MacPro3,1), and two other clients, all after the 10.6.3 update. The only reliable solution I found was to completely uninstall FAP, including preferences, performing a thorough purge of the font caches, and reinstalling FAP-which meant losing all the sets that had taken countless hours compiling. But at least it now works.

There has been one recurrence of the problem since, which was again repaired following the same procedure. This was not the first time that this condition developed, but before Snow Leopard 10.6.3, I could always fix the problem by simply reinstalling FAP on top of the present application.

For your information, I used AppDelete to remove FAP, and FontNuke to clean the font caches. I am not connected with the developers of either one.