Your frequently asked questions answered
Thank you for your interest in the FontExplorer® X Pro font manager.
Our FAQs should answer most of your questions regarding
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Installation / Handling / Technical features
Q: Can I retain my settings from FontExplorer X for use with FontExplorer X Pro?
A: Settings from FontExplorer® X version 1.2.3 can be integrated easily into FontExplorer X Pro. After downloading the new software, simply copy FontExplorer X Pro to your application folder. When you start FontExplorer X Pro, all your fonts, sets, smart sets, labels and settings will automatically be integrated so you can start working right away.
Q: I am using an older version of FontExplorer X (prior to 1.2.3). Can I retain my settings for use with FontExplorer X Pro?
A: If you wish to have your current fonts, sets, smart sets, labels and settings automatically integrated in FontExplorer X Pro, you will first need to update your earlier version of FontExplorer X to version 1.2.3.
Q: Why should I switch to version 2.5.x?
A: We strongly recommend that FontExplorer X Pro users keep their software versions up to date. Upgrading to version 2.5.x will not only ensure that you will be informed about future releases but will provide you with improved performance and stability.
Q: How do I switch from FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.x to FontExplorer X Pro 2.5.x?
A: If you have FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.1 installed, you can use the integrated "Check for Update" function to update your software. However, if you are running FontExplorer X Pro 2.0 you will have to visit our website at www.fontexplorerx.com/mactrial and download the new version from there. When manually updating, if FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.x is already installed please make sure that it is not running. Install the new version by dragging the FontExplorer X Pro application icon to the Applications folder on your hard disk. A message will be displayed stating that FontExplorer X Pro already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it? Click "Replace" and then open the application from the Applications folder. You will see all the fonts, sets and smart sets from FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.x. When switching from a trial version of FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.x to version 2.5.x the remainder of your 30 day trial period will still be valid for the version 2.5.x.
Q: How do I switch from Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3 to FontExplorer X Pro 2.5.x?
A: If you already have Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3 installed on your system just start up FontExplorer X Pro and it will automatically convert the database to the new format. You will see all the fonts, sets and smart sets you used in Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3. To avoid inconsistencies please do not use both applications in parallel, after the conversion all changes you make in Linotype FontExplorer X 1.2.3 will not be visible in FontExplorer X Pro.
Q: Does FontExplorer X Pro offer plug-in support for the Adobe CS5?
Yes, with FontExplorer X Pro you will receive plug-ins for the Adobe® InDesign CS5, Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Illustrator® CS5 applications.
Q: What about older Adobe products?
A: FontExplorer X Pro also includes plug-ins for the following applications:
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign CS2
Adobe Illustrator CS2
Adobe InDesign CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe InDesign CS4
Adobe Illustrator CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Q: I work with QuarkXPress®. Are Quark XTension® modules available for QuarkXPress?
A: Yes, FontExplorer X Pro provides plug-ins for QuarkXPress 6.5, QuarkXPress 7 and QuarkXPress 8.
Q: Can I use FontExplorer X Pro to manage fonts from other foundries?
A: Yes. FontExplorer X Pro allows you to manage all your fonts independent of licensor, manufacturer or designer.
Q: Do I need FontExplorer X Server to manage my fonts?
A: No, you don’t need FontExplorer Server to manage fonts on a standalone workstation.
Q: We have several workstations in our studio. Do I have to install each workstation individually?
A: No, you can install FontExplorer X Pro on one machine and create a "Quick Installer ". The Quick Installer can be copied to other workstations for a speedy and simplified installation process.
Q: Whenever I try to activate a font other than one of the the System Fonts, the font will not activate.
A: With Mac OS 10.6 Apple introduced a method to the System, that monitors the System Font Folder and checks whether all "protected" System Fonts are still in place. If not, they will be copied back into the System Font directory. If for any reason the responsible process is unable to perform this task, ATS (Apple Type Services) will run on a read-only database and will only activate available System Fonts.
There are two ways to solve this problem:
a. This method is the preferred way to restore your System Font directories to its original state:
If possible copy all fonts that you removed from System/Library/Fonts and from the protected folder (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ProtectedFonts/) back to these directories. Use the System Font Cache cleaning function from the FontExplorer X Pro Tools menu and restart.
b. This method is for experienced users only and will permanently switch off the font protection functionality of the System:
Please use this at your own risk and be aware that there is a good reason why Apple introduced this functionality. Some Applications will no longer start if they don’t find one or more specific system fonts activated.
Quit all running applications.
Open the Terminal application and enter the following after the prompt:
atsutil fontprotection -off
[enter] This switches off the fontprotection and should return:
ATSProtectRequiredSystemFontsSetting disabled
atsutil databases -removeUser
[enter] This removes the font cache database for the current user and
should return something like:
Removing: /private/var/folders/g7/g7JKcw83HeW1qlFfciQeVH0JJe
/-Caches-/com.apple.FontRegistry
atsutil server -shutdown
[enter] This stops the ATS server, creates a new instance and should return:
ATSServer shutdown
atsutil server -ping
[enter] This pings the server and should return:
ATSServer is running
Q: How do I uninstall FontExplorer X Pro 2.x?
A: To remove FontExplorer X Pro from your computer:
1) Remove all plug-ins installed by FontExplorer X Pro.
Go to the “Tools” menu in FontExplorer X Pro and select “Plug-In Manager…”.
Click on the “Remove” button next to each installed Plug-In as shown below.
2) Locate your font folder*and drag or copy the content to the desired new storage location.
The name and location of this folder depends on the set up of your preferences. See screen-shots below for more details on how to locate this information under the Help Menu of FontExplorer X Pro.
*If you are not familiar with the location of your font folder please refer to the section “Where are the Font Files Stored?” located in Chapter 5 of the FontExplorer X Pro Help manual which is available under the FontExplorer X Pro Help Menu or online
3) Click on ‘Macintosh HD’ in the Finder and open the ‘Users’ folder.
In the ‘Users’ folder you will find a folder named after your login name. This is your home folder.
As it is currently your active home folder it will have a ‘house’ icon assigned to it. (See screen-shot below)
Delete the following files:
[user]/Library/Preferences/com.linotype.FontExplorerX.plist
[user]/Library/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorerX
[user/Library/Caches/Metadata/FontExplorer X/
[user]/Library/Spotlight/FontMDI.mdimporter
Note: If there is more than one user on the respective machine, you have to repeat all sub steps of Step 3) for the other users, too. Example: The users Jane Doe and John Doe share a machine to work with Font Explorer X Pro. They both have their own user account on this machine. In this case, the Font Explorer X “plist”-file must be deleted from two different locations:
/Users/janedoe/Library/Preferences/com.linotype.FontExplorerX.plist
/Users/johndoe/Library/Preferences/com.linotype.FontExplorerX.plist
Repeat this for the other files mentioned in Step 3.
4) Drag and drop the FontExplorer X Pro Application file from the application folder to the trash, or select it and Press ⌘+ delete
Q: Where do all the fonts come from that are stored in FontExplorer X Pro?
A: During the install procedure, there are three default folders that FontExplorer X retrieves fonts from. The details of these folders are listed below:
[user]/Library/Fonts: This folder is in every user’s Home directory.
One folder like this will appear in the list for every account.
/Library/Fonts: This folder is visible to every user of the machine.
It contains most of the fonts included with the system.
/System/Library/Fonts: This directory stores fonts that are required by the system.
(See screen-shot below)
Additional directories can be added during the installation as shown in the screen-shot above or any time afterwards. If you have turned on font management, then those additional fonts will be moved or copied into the new location specified under the preferences/advanced section, (explained in further detail in the next question). If you have not turned on the font management feature, then those fonts will remain in their original location.
Q: Can FontExplorer X Pro move all of my fonts for me to a single consolidated directory?
A: Yes. You can enable this feature during the installation, see screen-shot below.
To enable or disable this feature anytime after the installation, follow the steps below:
Open FontExplorer X Pro
Go to the “FontExplorer X Pro” Menu
Select “Preferences”
Select the “Advanced” entry
If it is not already selected, check the “Organize font files” entry.
Select if you want to copy or move all your fonts to the “FontExplorer Pro” folder.
If you wish to change the default FontExplorer X Pro font folder to a new location, select the Change button and select the new location where you want to store your files in. Click the “Move now/Copy now” to move or copy the fonts to the selected location. Once this is set, all your fonts and all the fonts that are added to FontExplorer X Pro are stored in this location.
Note: FontExplorer X Pro will not move any System Fonts (shown as blue icon with lock in the font list) or fonts from the directory /Library/Fonts (shown as blue font icon without lock in the font list).
Q: How does FontExplorer X handle system fonts?
A: When you launch FontExplorer X, system fonts are all displayed in the System fonts folder in Library within the source panel. The system fonts can be shown or hidden in the Font Library and Smart Sets via the "System Fonts" option in the View Menu. Additionally, the system fonts can be hidden under the Configure Source List… located under the View Menu. Also, note the difference in icons in the font list – items shown in blue with a lock are system fonts from the /System/Library/Fonts directory.
Fonts in blue with a lock icon cannot be deleted or removed from FontExplorer X Pro.
The screen-shot below displays no possible choice to delete these.
System fonts in blue without a lock icon reside in the /Library/Fonts directory.
These system fonts can be deleted as shown in the screen-shot below.
Q: Why are my Fonts displayed in red?
A: There are two reasons why font names may be displayed in red. To determine the cause, view the Conflicts entry in the Source list. Check for an entry named “Conflicts” in the Source list. If it exists, move to the instructions below for scenario 1. If you see no entry in the Source list, go to the View menu -> Configure Source List and activate the checkmark for the Conflicts entry.
1) One possible reason fonts will display in red is that the fonts are listed in FontExplorer X Pro, but cannot be found. This can occur when only a portion of the fonts in a font suitcase have been imported, when fonts have been imported from a server or external device that is not currently accessible, or when fonts have been deleted in the Finder while FontExplorer X Pro was not running.
Select the Conflicts entry in the Source list and select “Fonts listed in FontExplorer X Pro but deleted in Finder”. You can re-connect the drive, select a new path, or remove the selected font(s) from FontExplorer X Pro as shown below.
If you no longer have access to these fonts, you can remove them from the listing in FontExplorer X Pro by selecting them and pressing the button “Remove selected Font()s from FontExplorer X Pro”
2) Alternatively, the fonts could have missing printer-font files.
In the Conflicts view select “Fonts with missing printer-font files”.
Follow the description in this view to resolve this problem.
Q: Why does a white question mark in a black diamond appear next to some fonts?
A: A font can contain thousands of characters and in most cases you can expect that typing e.g. a “T” on the Keyboard will display a “T” on your screen in the selected font. But not every font has a character for every Keystroke. In some cases, e.g. Arabic Fonts or some Symbol fonts, the place that is reserved for standard characters like “T” is not filled. In the list view FontExplorer X Pro will then display the question mark in a black diamond.
To find out which characters in the font are available, select the font in the list view and do one of the following:
- In the font menu, select Information
- Press Command + I
- Double-Click the preview
- Select the Characters tab from the resulting dialog.
- To display all characters, also those that are not filled in this font, check the checkbox at “Show missing characters”.
You will now see all the missing characters of this font displayed in red.
Q: How do I get the German version of FontExplorer X Pro?
A: The following information is only valid until Mac OS 10.5.x.
Find the FontExplorer X Pro application file in the Finder. A good place to look for it is the Applications folder.
Q: Where is the documentation?
A: The documentation is found under the Help Menu in FontExplorer X Pro, and is also available online in the Download section.
Q: I do not have a Server Menu or a Servers entry in the Source List of FontExplorer X Pro.
A: This is because you have an unregistered copy of FontExplorer X Pro. If you have not yet purchased the software, you can make your purchase online from the Purchase page. If you have purchased the software, and have a valid license, you can import your license into FontExplorer X Pro as described below:
1. Select Client License from the FontExplorer X Pro Menu
2.Choose “Select License File…”
3. Click Close
Note: Please refer to “Where’s the license file I just purchased?” in the FAQ section Licensing / Ordering if you haven’t already downloaded your license file.
Once a License file has been imported, the “Server” menu will be available and you will also see the list of available servers in the source List under the Servers entry.
Q: I have a server menu, but I cannot see the server I need to connect to?
A: Ensure that Bonjour is enabled on the server and that the server is located on the same subnet as the client, (see screen-shot below). You can also try to connect from the file menu choose Server, (or command K), and enter IP address or Hostname to manually connect.
