Many times in InDesign you can use the Package command, which will save a report of the assets used in the creation of the document. Unless you integrate that feature into your workflow, you are required to launch InDesign, open the document, and use the Find Fonts command to access a comprehensive list of the fonts used in the document.
Depending on the size of the file, this can take a while. If your document uses many fonts the Find Font dialog window does not expand so you can easily examine the whole list. AppleScript offers us another way. In this post we are going to instruct you on how to use a script we developed at FontGeek that allows you to get a list of all the fonts used in an InDesign document without having to launch the document, or even have InDesign installed on your system, and then save a report if you wish.
First download the compressed AppleScript application here , then unzip the file. Then drag and drop an InDesign doc onto the script icon. You will be prompted with the message below:. Click OK and the script will search through the InDesign document, gather the fonts used into a list and display them for your examination. At this point you can dismiss the dialog, or save a copy of the report to the location of your choosing with any name you wish.
The report can be read with most any text editor. This script does have some limitations, such as only processing one document at a time. Also if no fonts are used in the document, the script simply lists no fonts.
The script is provided as is, which means you are using the script at your own risk, and I will not answer emails for support. I am happy to answer any questions you might have and you can reach me at my email, scott fontgeek. Stay tuned to FontGeek for more about using AppleScript to automate font-related workflows. In an earlier post , we showed you how to use TTX , an open source font editor, to rename a font in order to avoid font conflicts. This can be helpful because your operating system and your applications recognize fonts by name and name alone, and on occasion you may need to activate a font which conflicts with an installed system font.
So even if you have two very different versions of a font, but they have the same name, the operating system cannot discern between them. The biggest hurdle for most people, is that TTX is a command line tool, which adds one layer of difficulty, but the method of installation, which is very obvious to those acquainted with Python, is not readily apparent to the technologically challenged. But once the steps are explained, and carefully followed, you will get access to a powerful tool for editing fonts.
Secondly, when you process your fonts using TTX, there is no behind the scenes mystery to what is happening with the fonts. You could use tools like FontLab Studio or Fontographer to make changes to your fonts, but it is not always transparent what is happening to your fonts during this process. In short, changes made in those applications may include something you not readily apparent in the processed font.
TTX is the least invasive option for those seeking to make simple and sometimes very complex changes in your font files. First you will need to have Xcode installed, and a download link to the version you require can be found here.
Make sure you download the correct version for your OS, as the development tools for Snow Leopard cannot be installed on Leopard. Then download TTX. A link to the files needed can be found here. Once downloaded, decompress the file and move the folder to the root level of your hard drive.
Terminal will automatically add the path to the folder, which saves us from possible typing errors. What you entered should look something like the line below:. What this command does is run the installer in the fonttools folder setup. Because you are running the command as the superuser, you will be required to enter an administrator password.
After you have the command inserted at the prompt, hit return, then enter your password and hit return again. If all is well, the Terminal will spit back a bunch of information describing what the script is doing, mainly that it is moving files to the locations needed to run TTX. Once installed, your are ready to run TTX. There are a lot of things you can do with TTX, including the post mentioned earlier on how to rename fonts with TTX here. Hopefully, this article lowered a barrier of entry for those looking to work with TTX.
It is a powerful tool, and like all powerful tools, it gives you the capability of really messing things up, so always back up your font files before getting too deep in editing them. As a designer, I am always interested in what other fonts people are using and what is new in the world of type. They are a pair of Top 50 countdowns, except instead of music, they show what the best selling typefaces are. The first is a Top list of their best-selling fonts from the previous month.
As expected there are a lot of classics in that list including Helvetica, Swiss and Frutiger. While this is interesting it certainly does not get us close to the leading edge of font design.
They have a second list however, Hot New Fonts , that lists the best selling fonts new to MyFonts in the last 50 days. On this list are some fresh offerings from smaller font foundries that you may not have seen. If you are looking for some fresh faces typefaces, that is for your latest project, this is a great place to start. One of the most challenging font issues facing designers and enterprises today is licensing.
Font licensing is not standard across foundries and the terms of the license are often byzantine requiring a team of lawyers to help you decipher how a font can be used. But what if there was a way around dealing with font licensing issues all together? This is where open source fonts come in. In the past many fonts offered as open source were, to put it kindly, not ready for prime time.
But as the open source font movement has matured the quality of fonts under these licenses is getting better all the time. The Open Font License was created to make collaboration on font projects easier for academic and linguistic communities. But one of the side benefits for end users is that these fonts can be used anywhere, free of charge. This applies only to fonts that use this license.
You will need to read the fine print, but in most cases sites offering open source fonts are very up front about their licensing. But if a font has an Open Font License, there is no limit to the way you can use it in your graphic projects. As mentioned earlier the quality for open source fonts is vastly improved. One of the more vocal proponents of the open source font movement, The League of Moveable Type , offers 12 very nice typefaces and is looking to add more including several display and text fonts.
Many offer only one style, or if you are lucky, a roman and an italic font. For projects that call for a nice display font, you may find a good open source alternative. If you need more versatility in your typefaces, you might be hard pressed to find on in the open source world.
But as the movement continues, and because of the collaborative nature of the open source fonts, we will see more full-featured fonts. It is only a matter of time. One of the most problematic issues associated with font management is how to manage font conflicts. Font conflicts come about when you activate a font with the same name as a font that is currently activated.
If you have seen an alert like the one below you know what I am talking about. Your operating system and your applications recognize fonts by name and name alone.
If the issue were that easy we could rename fonts in the Finder and the problem would be solved. There are tools available that allow you to rename a font, such as FontLab Studio or Fontographer , but those tools can be cost prohibitive and oftentimes might not be worth the investment to make changes on just a handful of fonts. There is an option in the open source world that can help. What we are going to do is change the internal name of the font so it will no longer conflict with the system version of the font and can appear in our font menus, along with the system version of Helvetica Neue.
Since TTX is a command line tool, we will need to launch Terminal, which is found in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. Terminal will automatically add the path to the font file. The results in in the Terminal will look like the screenshot below:. Once the path is added, hit return. TTX dumps the font tables into XML and saves the file in the same folder containing the original font. This new. In our example we are going to use TextEdit. Myriad Pro Black Italic. Myriad Pro Bold SemiCondensed.
Myriad Pro SemiCondensed Italic. Myriad Pro Black Condensed. Myriad Pro Semibold. Myriad Pro Light SemiExtended. Myriad Pro Semibold Condensed Italic. Myriad Pro SemiExtended Italic. Myriad Pro SemiExtended. Myriad Pro SemiCondensed. Myriad Pro Semibold SemiExtended. Myriad Pro Semibold SemiCondensed. Myriad Pro Semibold Italic. Myriad Pro Semibold Condensed. Myriad Pro Light SemiCondensed. Myriad Pro Light Condensed Italic.
Myriad Pro Light Condensed. Myriad Pro Light. Myriad Pro Heavy. Myriad Pro Condensed Italic. Myriad Pro Condensed. Myriad Pro Bold SemiExtended.
0コメント