I do graphic design work on several operating systems spanning Win 8.1, Win 10, OS X, and various flavors of Linux. I also have over a thousand fonts that I use in this work. Most programs choose to display these in a single list sorted alphabetically, which is now very unrealistic to pick from without memorizing everything about each font. OS X does a slightly better job of it by sorting these into about a dozen or so categories, but I'm still left with hundreds of items in each category (save for Favorites).
Is there a font manager I can use on Windows, OS X, and Linux that will allow me to more easily pick one that's right for the job?
I'd like it to let me do most or all of the following:
- Filter raster/vector
- Filter serif/sans
- Filter display/print (hopefully with a note about whether it has hinting)
- Filter by width
- Filter by weight (i.e. 100 Hairline, 200 Ultra-light, 300 Light, 400 Normal, 500 Semibold, 600 Bold, 700 Heavy, 800 Black, 900 Ultra-black)
- Filter ones which mimic handwriting
- Filter ones which are fixed width
- Sort by date added/invented
- Have custom folders/categories (with duplicates, e.g. so I can have "1920s" and "Art Nouveau" and "Vintage", with each folder/category sharing some or all fonts)
- Compare 2+ fonts at a time
These don't have to all be detected automatically (I don't know if font files can even encode whether it's sans/serif/etc.), so it's fine if the program lets/requires me to do this manually as long as I only have to do it once.
It does not have to integrate into Office/CS/etc.; a standalone program is fine. I'd love if it could be a portable install so I could set preferences once and forget about it.
I'd love it to be cheap or free if possible.
