Help

We offer a fully functional trial version of FontExplorer X Pro that can be used for 30 days. At the end of the trial period, you may purchase a license online and continue working with all the fonts and sets that you have organized over the last 30 days. You can download the trial version on this page.

The only restrictions on the trial version are that the printing function is limited to one font and you cannot connect to a FontExplorer X Server.

Yes! Students can purchase a Student License and save 40% off of the regular price of a Pro license. The Student License unlocks all of the features of FontExplorer X – no ID or approvals needed. (Note: The Student License is not eligible for upgrade pricing on major version releases of the application, i.e. upgrading from version 6.x to version 7.x.)

We also offer 50% off of all purchases for educators. Create an account using your educational institution’s email address, then contact us using that same email address. We will send you instructions on how to apply the discount.

FontExplorer X Pro makes it easy to install new fonts that can be used in your favorite design applications. Once you have downloaded the font files, import the fonts you want to use into FontExplorer X Pro by either clicking the Import button, or dragging and dropping the files onto your Library font list.

In FontExplorer X Pro, you can easily install hundreds of fonts at a time by either clicking the Import button and selecting a folder of fonts, or by dragging and dropping fonts onto the Library font list.

FontExplorer X Pro allows you browse the fonts on your machine and see the unique aspects of each font’s design. By default, your library will display in “WYSIWYG” mode, showing the name of each font set in the style of that font.

This setting can be turned off if you want better performance on your computer while the application is running.

FontExplorer X Pro gives you three powerful ways to organize your fonts:

1. Sets: You can create and name Sets which are collections of fonts. Sets can also be arranged in folders. This allows you the maximum level of custom organization.
   Examples: group fonts by Project, Client, or Foundry.
2. Smart Sets: You can create Sets that are based on rules, automatically grouping fonts that match criteria that you define.
   Examples: group fonts by Import Date, Language Support, or Formats.
3. Auto-classification: When the Discovery Engine is turned on, you can auto-classify your entire library, collecting fonts into Smart Sets based on their visual design.
   Examples: Serif, Sans Serif, Geometric, Script, etc.

To auto-classify your font library, make sure the Discovery Engine is turned on (Tools » Discovery Engine), then go to Tools » Auto-classify All Fonts

No, system level fonts are visible in the your library, but cannot be deactivated, removed, or disabled, as this would cause your operating system to not act properly.

FontExplorer X Pro 7 instantly boosts your type expertise with new AI-powered features to help you organize and explore your catalog, while providing time-saving automations.

The all-new Discovery Engine can categorize just about any font for you, and allows you to identify similar fonts within your collection. It will even make pairing suggestions.

For more detailed information of new features click here.

The following complete font families are available to any purchasers of FontExplorer X Pro version 7, free for desktop use:

• Bell Gothic
• Daytona
• FF Meta Correspondence
• Monotype Garamond
• Smile
• Tresillian Script
• Wolpe Pegasus

That’s 38 fonts, valued at over $1,000, for FREE!

After purchasing a license for version 7, there is a link to install the fonts on the confirmation page. Leave this page open, make sure FontExplorer X Pro is installed and add the new license in the Client License section. Then click the link on the confirmation page to install your free fonts.

The Discovery Engine should match most OTF and TTF fonts, unless they are symbol fonts, dingbats, or have an inordinate amount of points per character. Other font formats will not be matched. If an internet connection is available, FontExplorer X Pro will also use the existing server-side classification service for even more accuracy.

During the install procedure, there are three default folders that FontExplorer X retrieves fonts from:

• [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.

Additional directories can be added during the installation 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. If you have not turned on the font management feature, then those fonts will remain in their original location.

There are two reasons why font names may be displayed in red. To determine the cause, view Conflicts in the Source list in the left-hand panel of the application.

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. In the Conflicts interface, 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.

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 the problem.

If you do not see Conflicts in the Source list, go to View » Configure Source List and activate the checkmark for the Conflicts entry.

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.

The documentation is found under the Help menu in FontExplorer X Pro.

Please sign in to your account and go to your previous orders. There you will be able to access all of your orders and invoices.

You don’t need to buy another license. Our customer support department has records of your initial purchase and will be happy to provide you with a replacement license. Please contact our support team.

Please follow the following steps to retrieve your license from our website and install it in FontExplorer X Pro:

 

1. Visit https://www.fontexplorerx.com/user/previous-orders and sign into your account.
2. Click on Download license next to the correct order number to download the .zip file containing your license.
3. Extract the .zip file.
4. Locate the filename ending with .fcl. This is your license file. Move it to a folder of your choice.
5. In the top menu of the application, select FontExplorer X Pro, then select Client License.
6. Click the Select button under Select your software license file. Navigate to where the .fcl file is located and upload it.
7. You may now delete the .zip and the unzipped folders, as they are no longer needed.

Font Explorer X Pro will now be fully activated.

Yes, FontExplorer X Pro may be installed on multiple devices under the condition that persons other than Licensed Users are excluded from use of the software. Therefore, you can use the software on both your desktop and your laptop without the need to purchase an additional licenses.

Yes, for orders for 10 licenses or more you can order via email as well. Simply provide us with your complete contact details, the number of computers you need the license for and we will send you a proforma invoice. After your bank transfer has been completed, we will deliver your license file via email. While you wait to receive your license, you can download the software and use it for up to 30 days without any license.

In addition to the current release of the software, you will also receive bug fix releases should Monotype provide these in order to fix technical defects. Any major release of the software is not included.

You will receive one license file for the number of licenses purchased. If you wish to have separate license files, then please make separate purchases for each license from our Web site.

You can find your license file online under the My Account page. Please login to your account on the FontExplorer X Web site and select the previous orders option. The license file is included in the "Download Order (ZIP)". After downloading and extracting the archive, you can browse to the location of the (.fcl) file, ("folder where archive was extracted to"/FontExplorer X Pro/License), and double-click on the file, or launch FontExplorer X Pro, select FontExplorer X Pro/Client License...Menu, "Select License File...".

For Mac users, open the software, click “FontExplorer X” in the menu bar at the top of the page and select “About FontExplorer X Pro”. A dialog box will display the version of the software that’s running.

 

For Windows users, open the software, click “File” in the menu bar at the top of the page and select “Properties” (for older versions); Newer versions will find the information by clicking on “Help” and then selecting “About”. A dialog box will display the version of the software that’s running.

For Mac: The latest version supports macOS 10.13 and later

For Win: The latest version supports Windows 10

Plug-Ins allow FontExplorer X Pro to auto-activate fonts within your favorite design apps. The latest and greatest plug-ins are available within the FontExplorer application, but if you need a previous version you can download it from our Downloads page. To install a FontExplorer plug-in for any design application (include Adobe Creative Cloud apps), you can follow the general steps below.

1. Download the plug-in that corresponds with your version of the application.
2. Extract the plug-in from the downloaded zip file.
3. Open the Applications folder on your system and locate the application for which you want to install the plug-in.
4. For Adobe Creative Cloud: Within the folder for the application, locate the Plug-ins folder and move the downloaded plug-in file to the Plug-ins folder.
5. For QuarkXPress: Right-click the application and select Show Package Contents. Within the new window, go to Contents » PlugIns » XTensions. Move the downloaded plug-in file to the XTensions folder.

That’s it! If you have any trouble, please contact our support team for help.

We strongly recommend that FontExplorer X Pro users keep their software versions up to date. Upgrading to the latest version will not only ensure that you will be informed about future releases but will provide you with improved performance and stability.

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.

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

You will be able to view your system fonts within FontExplorer X Pro, but you will not be able to deactivate them nor remove them from your system. System fonts will be displayed in grey, and can be hidden from the library view.

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).

In the software, go to FontExplorer X Pro in the top menu, then select Check for Updates. You can also download the latest software from the Previous Orders section in your account on the website.

If you have questions about the update or need help with the installation, contact our support team at: https://www.fontexplorerx.com/contact/.

No. The update process is simple and once the new version is installed, you will not have to reconfigure all of your settings or purchase/download your fonts again.

Users can manually check for updates within the software. When an update becomes available, the software becomes aware of the update when the user opens the application. FontExplorer X will then show the user a notification to update.

Any client user can disable notifications, and FontExplorer Server administrators can turn off notifications for the server and all connected clients. To see if update notifications are on, go to FontExplorer X Pro in the top menu, then Preferences » Updates.

For Mac users: In the application top menu, go to FontExplorer X Pro and select About FontExplorer X Pro. A dialog box will display the version of the software that’s running.

For Windows users: In the application top menu, go to Help and then selecting About. A dialog box will display the version of the software that’s running.

No, the Discovery Engine will only process OTF and TTF font files. All other formats will not receive similarity, pairing, or classification suggestions.

You can stop the initialization process at any time and your progress will be saved. When you start the initialization again, the process will resume from where it was stopped.

There are a few reasons why this could occur: the Discovery Engine has not been turned on, there are no matches, or you have selected more than one font (the Discovery Engine only matches individual fonts). Also, matches are not provided for fonts managed through the server. Each reason should display a unique message in the UI to explain why this is happening.

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.

Please note: With FontExplorer X Pro 2.5.2 we have introduced a feature to the "Tools" Menu to disable the System Font Protection and to replay the original System Fonts into the System directory. Please download and use the latest version to solve this problem. If you are - for any reason - not able to do so, please follow the process described below.

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

There are a few reasons why this error message could appear:

• You have selected Windows PostScript fonts which are not compatible with OS X
• You have selected a folder that doesn’t contain any fonts
• You are attempting to import fonts from a folder where you do not have read permission. You can check this by clicking on the font folder and selecting "Get Info" from the File Menu in the Finder. Expand the "Sharing & Permissions" section at the bottom of the window. If you do not have "read" permission, you can change this for the folder and apply it to all enclosed items via the action popup menu. (Authentication is required to change permissions.)

If you are running under OS X 10.4 and have updated from FontExplorer X 1.2.3 there may be a problem with the database file which records which fonts to automatically activate upon system startup. Please contact customer support. They will be able to repair this file for you. Alternatively, the file can be automatically repaired after upgrading to FontExplorer X Pro 2.5. You can download the current version of FontExplorer X Pro on the trial version page.

This message appears on every startup of FontExplorer X Pro and usually should disappear. However, there may be some instances after initial install of the software that this dialog message remains. If the message persists, Quit or Force Quit FontExplorer X Pro. Now in the Finder navigate to /Users/[YourUserName]/Library/Application Support/Linotype/FontExplorer X/

Important: The following steps will reset FontExplorer X Pro by deleting certain files. Please note that deleting the db (Data Base) files will also erase all sets, settings, fonts, etc. This is only recommended when installing the software for the very first time. Delete the FontExplorer X.fexdb located in this directory, and launch FontExplorer X Pro again, (this will initiate the setup routine again).

Yes, both the Mac and Windows versions of the client and server software are affected by this.

For the client:

• On system reboot or application restart, the client will revert to trial mode.

For server customers:

• The server application itself will continue to work until the application or server is restarted.
  • However, customers running primary-secondary server configurations have scheduled restarts to sync the primary and secondary. This could be set to sync daily, which would cause the server application to restart daily, causing the failure.
  • Also, even if the server application doesn’t restart, if the customer is on an older server-client setup (i.e., client versions 4 or 5), the client applications will fail when the client is restarted.

You can either check for updates within the software or Click here to get the update.

• Version 3 or older of the Mac client can either:
  • Upgrade to the full-featured version 6x of the Mac client for USD $49, or
  • Upgrade to version 4.2.4 of the Mac client for free
• Version 4 or 5 client only users can update to newest version of 4 or 5 at no cost.

Follow these steps:

• Launch server and look for update, either via notification or manually.
• Click “yes” to perform update.
• The update process checks for OS compatibility.
• The new server version installs.
• Installation and reboot should only take a few minutes, but clients also need to be updated.
• Enterprise customers would need to coordinate server update and client roll out.
• All server settings will be maintained.
• When the server is down, the client may continue to work depending on server side settings.
• There is a setting in the server that allows the clients to continue to work without a connection to the server.
• The admin can change this setting in the server configuration before initiating the update, if they hadn’t already.

We recommend updating the server first, followed by the clients.

At this time, we do not recommend trying to implement a workaround. We are happy to help you with the update.
Please contact our support team at: https://www.fontexplorerx.com/contact/.

Not at this time.

If you’re not able to update server version before the deadline, you can activate all the fonts you need through the client and define how long you’ll need access to those fonts before you’re able to update your server version of FontExplorer X.

Yes, you will still need to update the software to ensure that it works normally.

Please get in touch with your IT team to alert them to the need to update the software, or to ask them to lift the lockdown so you can update the software.

In most cases, no. The only way that webfonts would be impacted is if FontExplorer X and the web server were hosted together.
If that is the case, please contact our support team at: https://www.fontexplorerx.com/contact/.

No. The current security certification is simply expiring. This is not related to a security vulnerability.

No. The update process is simple and once the new version is installed, you will not have to reconfigure all of your settings or purchase/download your fonts again.

When an update becomes available, the software becomes aware of the update when the user opens the application. FontExplorer X when shows the user a notification to update.
However, any client user can disable notifications, and server administrators can turn off notifications for the server and all connected clients.
You or your server admin likely disabled update notifications at some point.
Users can manually check for updates within the software.

Due to software security measures in OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), PostScript fonts now need to be located somewhere in the users directory of the logged in Mac account in order for some applications to access them. In some cases the PostScript fonts may appear in the font menu but the document text does not appear properly. To resolve these problems you will need to move the PostScript fonts to a folder under /Users/[username]/any folder. The fonts should NOT be placed in /Users/[username]/Library/Fonts/ as this will activate all of these fonts for the System.

If you need to continue working with Adobe CS 6 applications you should not update to OS X 10.11 (Adobe supports CS6 up to OS X 10.8). Alternatively you can consider updating to Adobe Creative Cloud applications or update your fonts to TrueType or OpenType format. These are not affected by the OS X 10.11 security measures

You need to enable Full Disk Access for FontExplorer® X Server. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences from the  menu, then click Security & Privacy
2. Click the Privacy tab and find Full Disk Access in the left pane
3. Click the 🔒 Lock icon in the bottom left corner of the preference window
4. Enter your admin password (the password required to log in to your Mac) and click Unlock
5. Click on the checkbox next to com.linotype.FontExplorerX.Server.PrePane.securityHelper to enable access

Follow these steps:

• Launch server and look for update, either via notification or manually.
• Click “yes” to perform update.
• The update process checks for OS compatibility.
• The new server version installs.
• Installation and reboot should only take a few minutes, but clients also need to be updated.
• Enterprise customers would need to coordinate server update and client roll out.
• All server settings will be maintained.
• When the server is down, the client may continue to work depending on server side settings.
• There is a setting in the server that allows the clients to continue to work without a connection to the server.
• The admin can change this setting in the server configuration before initiating the update, if they hadn’t already.

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 Download 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.

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.

We recommend updating the server first, followed by the clients.

No. The update process is simple and once the new version is installed, you will not have to reconfigure all of your settings or purchase/download your fonts again.

When an update becomes available, the software becomes aware of the update when the user opens the application. FontExplorer X when shows the user a notification to update.
However, any client user can disable notifications, and server administrators can turn off notifications for the server and all connected clients.
You or your server admin likely disabled update notifications at some point.
Users can manually check for updates within the software.

For Mac: The latest version supports macOS 10.13 and 10.14

For Windows: The latest version supports Windows 10

FontExplorer X Server checks whether your fonts are distributed more times than the license allows. When there are insufficient licenses, a warning is issued solely to the server administrator. FontExplorer X Pro and FontExplorer X Server transfer no information externally concerning your font installation base or the fonts in use. FontExplorer X Server simply provides the user with the means to maintain license control – at any time, at a glance.

Yes. FontExplorer X allows you to manage fonts independent of licensor, manufacturer or designer.

If you have questions about the update or need help with the installation, contact our support team at: https://www.fontexplorerx.com/contact/.