1/6/2024 0 Comments Font universal type clientWhen UTS is released this spring it will break the speed limit you didn’t even know was slowing you down. Universal Type Server is a broadband connection. It’s screaming fast, but only until someone builds a broadband font manager. How much faster can you get than instantaneous? I was shown a stable beta version and cautioned that it might not be as fast as the shipping release. New fonts are analyzed, indexed, and added before I can find a distant object to rest my eyes upon. Instantaneous previews across the network, without the fonts installed or locally cached. And, that’s not just fonts on the local computer. Change the preview text or point size and the preview window updates without even a fraction of a second delay. And font previews? Truly real time live previews. Fonts are activated or deactivated in a blink. It’s the use of modern, open architecture technologies that enables the speed. For Macs, both UTS and UTC are Universal Binaries, running under either PowerPC or Intel processors. It’s completely cross-platform, with the Universal Type Server running on Windows- or Mac-powered servers and connecting to either or both Windows- and Mac-hosted Universal Type Clients. Oh, yeah, seeing Extensis’ Universal Type Server the first time is like that.īuilt from the ground up as a whole new server/client font management system, UTS is a blazingly fast Java-based server fronting an ultra stable, light-overhead SQL database. If you’re like me, in that moment you felt like thrusting your fist into air and yawping in triumph, shouting to Mount Olympus: “I… have… the power!” One second or or Quark VS wasn’t there, the next it was. No picture placeholders to eventually be replaced by pictures. Faster than a Speeding Bullet Glyphĭo you remember when you upgraded from a 56k modem to broadband Internet access? Whether you logged on for that first marvelous moment at the office or home, surely you remember the awestruck grin that slowly split your face from ear to ear as the Web was suddenly just there. I was gratefulthat Suitcase and Suitcase Server work as fast as they do. I had come to terms with that fact, with using the delays as an opportunity to rest my eyes, stretch my legs, or sip my coffee. Heck, for all the little pauses and delays, Suitcase does it’s job pretty quickly. Fonts pushed to clients from the server will get there sometime in the next few minutes. Adding more than a couple of new fonts takes time, too, naturally-sometimes quite a lot of time-but then, Suitcase is not only indexing the fonts but analyzing them as well, storing them in the Vault for protection (if the user has enabled that feature). Of course there’s an ever so slight delay between changing a preview type or size and seeing the change reflected in the preview pane. Sure, Suitcase takes a moment or two to startup on standalone desktops and even longer to make connections with a Suitcase Server. For many of the publishing and production workflows I’ve optimized or consulted upon, Suitcase Server is also the best available solution. (Do you know how many keyboard shortcuts the average designer has to remember?! Well, yeah, I suppose you do.) Although not perfect, the current versions of Suitcase fit my font management needs better than any other font manager on either platform. For instance choosing between activating fonts permanently or only until the system is rebooted requires remembering a keyboard shortcut or changing a preference every single time a font is activated. They aren’t perfect, and I have my gripes. Let me establish something right off the bat: I dig the latest versions of Extensis Suitcase-Fusion (version 12) on Mac OSX and Suitcase for Windows (version 11). Universal Type Server (UTS) runs on Windows and Macintosh servers, connects to Windows and Mac (PPC and Intel) clients, includes all the best features of both Suitcase Server and Font Reserve Server, and is faster than you ever imagined a font manager could be. Today at MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, Extensis, makers of Suitcase and Font Reserve, as well as Suitcase Server X1 and Font Reserve Server, will unveil an all new server-based font management system.
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