WNP  Suitcase Fusion is a good font manager, but it still is unstable. Over a few months of use, I had to completely rebuild my font database and sets twice. This can happen but it brings me to the real point: Poor quality of support. They do answer questions rapidly (more or less), but in both cases, they end up telling me to reinstall the application and rebuild de database. In one instance it was worse... they told me to reinstall the system! Which I didn't do and switched to FontExplorer. But when SF2 came out, by loyalty I upgraded although they took ages to bring us a major upgrade, with few enhancements and a much higher price.

Please note that I submitted a crash log which clearly indicated some errors wth SF2, but they would not give me a feddback on that matter, neither telling that they would consider and address this bug in a future release.

Regarding the auto-activation feature, it works well, except that it takes a very long time and does not always activate the proper font. A classic example is if you use Helvetica Neue LT std Bold in an Xpress doc, but also have Helvetica Neue in the database, it ends up by replacing the font with HelveticaNeue with the bold attribute, which is not good for sending the file to the printing bureau.  
(Version 13.1)

EDSTATE  I have thousands of fonts, and have been DESPERATELY looking for a powerful, and stable solution for years. Ever since OS9.

First, I must say, the fact that OSX doesn't handle this itself is simply unacceptable. As someone who isn't quite a "power user" but uses many different fonts, in many different programs, for various aspects of my business, the fact that I simply can't have the fonts turn ON when I need them, and OFF when I don't, without mussing up the system fonts (I'm looking at you Helvetica) is simply maddening.

I mean hey, I'm not a programmer, lol, but... how hard can that be?

So I recently decided to try out this program in place of FontExplorerX. I had been using FEX for over a year, but disliked how it needed to always be OPEN to use it's auto activation. I also didn't like FEX's interface that much (personal preference), and most importantly it's handling of duplicate fonts left much to be desired.

So here I am. And here's the review (mostly as compared to FEX):

YAY:

I like Fusion's simplicity very, very much. It has *most* of the same features as FEX, but just seems, well, cleaner. And since dealing with fonts in Leopard is so damn maddening, imho "simple" is a must-have. It's previews are decent, and Fusion also auto-activates without having to be "on", which is very nice.

Fusions' duplicate finding/handling is better than FEX (imho) because, again, it's simpler. FEX just listed everything that was even close to being a dupe, but Fusion lists either EXACT dupes (by font ID) or NAME dupes, which you can easily click through and decide if you *really* need all those versions of TTArial. Fusion is also more "strict" about possible corrupt fonts, which I like. Overall, it's much easier to keep a tidy, stable collection.

BOO:

There are a few problems w/ Fusion though, which are regrettable. First of all, although the previews are ok, they're not totally customizable, in that you can't do an ATM-ish "super waterfall" to see a typeface in as many iterations as your screen can hold. Not that big of a deal, but it's weird that neither Fusion, nor FEX, has an ultimately customizable preview (again, how hard can it be?). Also, the "floating preview" is a good idea, but it's not intuitive to turn on. You have to click/hold/drag on this little weird icon to separate the palette, and that's the ONLY way to get it started. If you go to the menu (where you'd think you could turn it on), it's greyed-out. Silly, because it should be launch-able from both places.

Also (and this is a biggie) the auto-activation is not perfect. I'm in the middle of doing a fairly beefy BOOK in InDesign CS3 (probably not the best time to switch font managers, in retrospect), and the book uses, probably, 50 different fonts and their variations. And, although I took the time to make a separate folder, turn on all the fonts TEMPORARILY, and then UPDATE and SAVE my file... for some reason it only SOMETIMES auto-activates the fonts! It's really maddening. What's more, if I go and open Fusion, and then click "TEMPORARILY ACTIVATE" Fusion SAYS they're active, but I still get a "font not found" warning in InDesign for one, or a few of them. So I have to go to Fusion and click the font on, then off, then on again. Jeesh?

Also, when I first installed it, Fusion "detected" that I had another font manager (FEX) managing my fonts, and offered to "take over". So, I clicked "sure!"... but FEX refused to relinquish control, even after several tries. I had to manually take control away from FEX and give it to Fusion. Pretty wimpy, Fusion.

Lastly, and in terms of "stability" when I was using Fusion to tackle my duplicates I stupidly tried to do my entire collection all at once. It found them all, and listed them all... but it was overwhelming. So I (again, stupidly) clicked every font's disclosure triangle so I could see all the variations, and decide from there. Well, Fusion did NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL, and froze up my entire system. So, I had to force-quit. But when I re-opened, the triangles were still open, and the beach ball was already spinning. Again, I force-quit, and restarted... I had to wait about 20 minutes for the ball to stop spinning, and then close the "duplicate search" options at the top. Whew! ...So I decided to search for dupes again, but in smaller batches. Only when I clicked "find font" again, the SAME SEARCH CAME UP, complete with the opened triangles. Yay. ...I ended up having to trash the prefs, and reinstall. Clearly a glitch that needs to be addressed.

SUGGESTIONS:

Fix the auto-activation NOW. I don't know if it's Adobe's fault or not (it probably is), but it doesn't matter. Fusion needs to auto-activate every, and any font that needs to be opened. End of story. If not, what's the point?

Per the duplicates, Fusion should include in the column choices "# of characters", because sometimes the reason to keep one version over another version is that it's got more glyphs. Oh, and colors should be included.

Neither Fusion of FEX has an UNDO function, which is just stupid. If I delete a font, and it says "are you sure!??!" and I click "yes"... and then realize I'm drunk... I should be given at least ONE undo. Seriously. Guys?

Oh, and the price? Really? If it was bullet-proof I *might* consider it, but otherwise... no f'n way guys.

OVERALL:

Not a bad program, and has a lot going for it. But a few minor omissions, and the BIG auto-activation wonkiness is a MAJOR problem.  
(Version 13.0.2)

FVDG  Deactivates system fonts without warning! If you have a set that contains fonts that are also in your home library or in the system library, you do NO longer het a warning. And if you deactivate the set it deactivates your library and/or system fonts! BAD!  
(Version 2.0)

JBUG  It looked very good so I downloaded their free trial and so far it's really stable and kinda slick. Fear not- you should check it out.  
(Version 2.0)

SHANE C SMITH  I have to say Fusion 2 looks impressive but I'm scared to try it. After using previous versions of this software and having nothing but problems I gave up and starting using LinoType FontExplorer. As much as I love FontExplorer it rarely gets updated and hasn't had any major update since version 1 which was a very long time ago. With that said it will not work with the new CS4 or Quark 8 until they either update it or make the next move to a new version 2. I may have to switch back if an update is not soon. As anyone tried Fusion 2 yet, I'd be interested to here some reviews before I try this again.  
(Version 2.0)

DLWHITE  Extensis is refusing to provide a free auto-activation plugin for Quark XPress 8.

If you want that functionality that they HEAVILY advertise as a core feature of their software, you're going to have to fork out extra money to purchase the new Suitcase Fusion 2, due this fall. But they have NO PLANS to make Suitcase Fusion compatible with Quark XPress 8.

So anyone considering buying Quark 8, know that it won't work with Suitcase Fusion.

Anyone else feel screwed?  
(Version 12.1.7)

LARAINE  I tried this software for a whole month, all the while desperately looking for a solution to my problem that would allow me to do without it. Nothing worked. I think the software is well worth what it costs, especially with the addition of FontDoctor, which I think at least doubles the usefulness of Suitcase Fusion, but I still resent not being able to use my favourite Postscript fonts without something like Suitcase Fusion simply because the fonts aren't in suitcases. The fonts come from the days of the MacPlus and a family of four (regular, italic, bold and bold italic) cost $1,000 (NZ dollars).

I can't think of any negative things about Suitcase Fusion, so I've given it 5 stares in all four categories.

Thank you, Extensis, for such lovely software, and keep up the good work. :-)  
(Version 12.1.7)

THINKINGMAN.COM  We’ve owned this software for years as it’s the de facto standard for font activation. Its odd interface and incomplete activation capabilities have always been a bit frustrating, but it does generally do the job it should. I don’t think that the problems with this software are Extensis’ fault, however, but rather the continuing difficulty with integrating 3rd-party font activation into Mac OS X. It usually works well for us under Leopard, but still occasionally fails to activate fonts, and has an odd bug where it doesn’t allow itself to be hidden in the background, so you must manually minimize its ginormous window every time your computer starts up. Recommended, with caveats.  
(Version 12.1.7)

FFASS  Auto activation does not work. Not a single font auto-activated in Photoshop CS3 or any other application. Don't waste your money.  
(Version 12.1.6)

TTLCNTRLPRINT  In my humble opinion this is now the most complete font management application to date. Especially since Extensis has fused it with Font Agent Pro.

Only real gripe is that this software should be supplied with Auto Activation Plug Ins for Photoshop and Word, at the very least.

Also, this software also includes Font Doctor, downloadable separately.

totalcontrolprint  
(Version 12.1.3)