Fonts, Fonts, every where and…boy are they out of control!

Ask any graphic designer, web master, or Photoshop guru and they will tell you. We are overrun with fonts. Apple knows it. Thus the release of FontBook with Jaguar. There are, at last check, nearly 100 font related (viewing, cataloging, etc) apps available at versiontracker.com.

You Software (an oddly named company if ever I heard one) has added a font viewing utility to their line of You Control products called You Control: Fonts.

You Control: Fonts has two components, the application (which is more of a preference window than an actual application) and the application itself which resides in your toolbar.

The program has one function: Provide quick viewing of all of your fonts. The fonts are displayed (see image right) in the toolbar menu in their own typeface. This is a time saver, especially if you are accustomed to opening FontBook (or another Font Viewer) when you want to sample your fonts.

You Control: Fonts allows you to preview your fonts in four different sizes 9pt, 10pt, 12pt, 18pt and 24pt. It should be noted that you can customize the sizes displayed if the need should arise. Another standard feature of this font viewing utility is the ability to view the font with your own custom text.

The program has some very handy features:

Ability to view fonts in collections (see image below) that you have created in FontBook. If you don’t want to view all of the fonts in one long menu, you can turn ‘Show Fonts’ off and leave the collections enabled allowing you to shorten the list while retaining the functionality of the app.

HotKey Enabled: The You Control: Fonts menu of fonts can be displayed anywhere on your screen by setting a HotKey. Nice time saver. Recents & Favorites Menu: Recently selected fonts are added to a Recent menu and the program allows you to place ‘Favorite’ fonts in a favorite menu for quick access.

EyeCandy: You Control has added a palette full of icons that you can use for your menu bar. You can also select your own image or use text.

You Control: Fonts works with all of your most-used apps:

  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • QuarkXpress
  • Microsoft Office
  • Keynote
  • Macromedia Flash

Now comes the bad news. The Price: $29.95. I like this program but I can’t justify the $29.95 price tag. Maybe after using it for a week I’ll be hooked on it and won’t be able to live without it. Until then, no.

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