Tracking changes in text-heavy documents can be a real headache, especially if several people are working with the files. CtrlChanges Pro helps keep your text tracking under control by showing you exactly what’s been modified in your InDesign CS3 and CS4 files. The plug-in tracks all text changes, shows added and removed text, tracks who made changes and when, can print a list of changes, builds PDF reports, color-codes text changes based on author, includes the ability to accept or reject changes, and can build PDF versions of your InDesign documents with changes shown as sticky notes.

CtrlChanges Pro is amazingly easy to use, and its features are nicely grouped under a special menu item and also in a tool panel. Text change highlighting can be shown or hidden, which is really useful when lots of people are modifying your document’s copy, and change tracking can be disabled for documents where text control isn’t critical. InDesign and InCopy CS4 users can hover their mouse over text changes to see who made the modifications, along with a date and time stamp.

On the down side, licensing goes smoothly on a Mac only if you’re logged in as an administrative user. Entering a license code as a standard user fails without any indication that something went wrong, and the installation instructions don’t mention the administrator requirement—something that could easily be avoided with a simple warning dialog.

Despite some potential confusion when entering license codes, CtrlChanges Pro does its job like a champ. It makes tracking text changes in your InDesign documents wonderfully simple, and its change history makes it easy for project managers to keep up on a document’s evolution, too.—Jeff Gamet

Company: Ctrl Publishing
Price: $549
Web: www.ctrl-ps.com
Rating: 4

Hot: Easy to learn; highly detailed text tracking
Not: Licensing works only for administrator-level users

Extracting text from an InDesign file can be a pain if your document has lots of text frames, but CopyFlow Gold for InDesign CS2 and higher turns the export into a drop-dead simple process. In addition to exporting a document’s text, it can reimport the copy, making this plug-in especially useful for designers that need to hand off text for editing (or, according to the company, for translation purposes).

CopyFlow Gold sports an easy-to-use panel interface that manages importing and exporting text, file export formats, document settings, and its own activity log. It supports plain text, RTF, Adobe Tag, XLIFF, XML, INX, and IDML file formats to accommodate most any reason for exporting copy, including editing and archiving, and it can export a document’s stories as individual files or as a single document.

Every text frame in a document needs to be tagged before copy can be exported, and CopyFlow Gold handles that for you, too. It can auto-name each frame, or lets you apply names on a frame-by-frame basis. Exported text files can be edited and reimported, although RTF and plain text documents will lose their formatting when imported, so don’t spend time on formatting before those files come back.

While importing and exporting is amazingly simple, installing CopyFlow Gold takes extra effort. There isn’t an installer, so all of the components need to be copied to the appropriate directories before launching InDesign. Clear instructions are included, which makes the process a little bit friendlier.

Despite the manual installation process, CopyFlow Gold is a breeze to use for repurposing or archiving text, and its round-trip text control can be a lifesaver for designers that work with several copy editors.
—Jeff Gamet

Company: North Atlantic Publishing Systems, Inc.
Price: $495
Web: www.napsys.com
Rating: 4.5

Hot: Easy to use
Not: Manual installation process

The Color Picker in Adobe InDesign works well enough. It lets you choose colors based on values we’re all familiar with: CMYK, RGB, and Lab. It isn’t, however, all that great at selecting colors the way your brain perceives them. Enter HVC Color Composer Professional.

This InDesign CS and CS2 plug-in, which includes hue, value, chroma, and Photoshop-style HSB options, dynamically builds color palettes based on the currently selected color, and saves palettes as standard ASE files for use elsewhere. Unfortunately, accessing the HVC values isn’t exactly straightforward, as double-clicking InDesign’s Fill color swatch opens the default Color Picker. Instead, the user double-clicks the Fill color in the HVC Color Composer palette. The palette also includes color sliders but they don’t offer the same control as the plug-in’s Color Picker window.

Building complementary palettes is where this plug-in shines. You set how many steps apart colors should be and it creates a palette where all the colors are the same contrast range away from the currently selected color. It also supports creating palettes with colors that are proportionally the same contrast range away from two selected colors—a handy tool when you need to create a palette that works well with a client’s corporate colors.

As a bonus, the HVC color range falls almost completely within the CMYK color space, which means that there shouldn’t be any out-of-gamut headaches, such as those that crop up when converting from RGB.

HVC Color Composer Professional for InDesign fills an important niche in the color-picking world, and its smooth conversion to CMYK means fewer problems on press. It’s Mac-only for now, but a Windows version is on the way.—Jeff Gamet

PRICE: $129.95
FROM: Master Colors, LLC
PHONE: 303-641-1532
WEB: www.master-colors.com
FOR: Mac
RATING: 4

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Builds great palettes; converts well to CMYK
NOT Color Picker access not obvious

Linotype joined the font management fray from a different perspective than Extensis and Insider Software: Instead of selling an application to help wrangle your fonts into submission, it gives FontExplorer X 1.0.1 away for free and includes an easy way to purchase fonts from inside the program. Even though Linotype doesn’t charge for FontExplorer X, it’s still a full-featured, professional font-management application.

Font Explorer X supports auto-activation in many applications, including Illustrator and InDesign CS and CS2. It offers the flexible font-organization capabilities you expect in products you pay for, such as font groups and subgroups, smart font lists, and font previews, and it also includes a system font group that lets you deactivate system fonts when necessary.

With Font Explorer X, Linotype hopes that you’ll use the built-in shopping cart to purchase new fonts. If you need to purchase a new font for a project, you can use FontExplorer X to find, pay for, and download the font. The first time you use the shopping cart, it helps you set up a Linotype account to manage your credit card and transaction information. After that, purchasing new fonts only takes a few mouse clicks.

Despite the feature set FontExplorer X offers, it does have a few limitations. First, there’s no network or group collaboration support. Second, there’s no Windows version, although one is in development. Finally, if Linotype doesn’t see a suitable return on its investment, it could drop the product sometime down the road.

Despite these limitations, FontExplorer X is a capable font manager and a nice alternative for designers who either can’t afford competing products or who work in agencies that won’t spring for another product.—Jeff Gamet

PRICE Free
FROM Linotype
EMAIL info@linotype.com
WEB www.linotype.com
FOR Mac

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Great price; includes font shopping cart
NOT No Windows version; no network support
RATING 4

Dealing with fonts is a complex puzzle when you add in all the variables. On any given day, you have to deal with different computer operating systems, multiple font types, conflicting font names, corrupt fonts, type reflow, and the list goes on and on. Keeping your fonts organized and checking for any corrupted or damaged fonts goes a long way to keeping your design workstation happy and healthy.

Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to keep your fonts under control and improve your productivity. We’ll start by figuring out what types of font formats you are likely to encounter, work our way through organizing and managing your font library, and check out some options for dealing with damaged and corrupt fonts, too.

A rainbow of font flavors
Over the years, several font file formats have emerged. Knowing which type you can use, and where, helps prevent headaches and hair pulling. Here’s what we’re up against:

TrueType: There are actually two versions of TrueType: One for the Mac and one for Windows. The Mac version of TrueType is compatible only with the Mac, although Mac OS X can use Windows TrueType fonts. Windows is limited to its version. At least on the Mac, TrueType is something of a cross-platform format.

TrueType fonts are sometimes called bitmap fonts because each type size is built pixel by pixel—in essence, a bitmapped image. Since it would take an insanely long time and make massively huge font files, TrueType fonts tend to be limited to only a few type sizes. For example, a specific version of Times Roman may come in 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 36, and 72 point sizes. If you want to use 42 point, your workstation has to take a guess at what the type size should look like, and you often end up with something that’s jagged and not at all like what you intended.

If you use TrueType fonts, stick with the included type sizes. Straying outside the available type sizes is likely to cause output problems later in your workflow. A lot of direct-to-plate and direct-to-film output devices will change your nonstandard type sizes to Courier.

PostScript Type 1: For years, PostScript fonts were the preferred standard in the design industry. Most professional and high-end output devices, such as laser printers, film and plate output systems, and proofers use the PostScript language to process your print jobs at the device instead of in your computer.

PostScript fonts have the advantage of not requiring specific type sizes in the font file. Instead, they use vector information, much like Adobe Illustrator, to scale your type to near infinite sizes without quality loss. They also have the disadvantage of being limited to either Mac or Windows. PostScript fonts are not cross-platform.

This font format includes two files for each typeface. One is the screen font, which represents your typeface on your computer display; the other is the printer font, which the printer uses when you output your file. Lose either one, and your document looks wrong either onscreen or when it prints.

OpenType: OpenType is the new emerging standard in font technology. This file format is truly cross-platform, so your documents look the same on a Mac or Windows workstation. They can contain far more typeface and typestyle information than their TrueType and PostScript counterparts, including ligatures, true fractions, multiple languages, and more.

Adobe co-developed the OpenType standard with Microsoft, and all of the Creative Suite applications are fully OpenType compatible. Stray from the Adobe fold, however, and you may run into problems. Some design applications are not fully OpenType compatible, so you may not have access to all of the characters in the typeface.

Outputting documents with OpenType fonts shouldn’t be a problem, but some older output devices may choke on them. If you haven’t been working with OpenType yet, be sure to run a few tests with your output house, service bureau, or print provider before running a real job. It’s always better to uncover potential problems before you get a paying job on press.

Font management, or the art of typeface juggling
Unless you work in a totally isolated environment, never exchange documents with other people, and are limited to using a small handful of fonts, you need a font management application. Without one, there are too many places where problems can crop up, and they always happen at the worst possible time: like when a client or your boss is looking over your shoulder.

It’s almost as if fonts breed. No mater what you do, there always seems to be more and more fonts on your computer every week. Keeping track of where they come from and which jobs they are for can become a nightmare. Because there’s no real control over font names, you can end up with several versions of a font with the same name. This one is easy to check: Ask other designers how many versions of Helvetica or Times they have. Without a font manager, it’s almost impossible to tell them apart.

Most of the fonts that end up in your ever-growing library tend to have a shady past. Because you have no way of knowing where a font really came from, or if it’s damaged before you get it, a font manager may be your only line of defense against the dreaded crash. Corrupt or damaged fonts can cause stability problems with the Creative Suite, and in some cases, they can cause system stability problems. To Mac users, that potentially means the gray kernel panic screen; to Windows users, that’s the dreaded blue screen of death.

I’ve noticed that software developers lean a little more toward the Mac side when it comes to marketing font management applications. Although there are several shareware font managers for Windows, there’s not much available in the commercial market. Mac users, on the other hand, have quite a few commercial offerings along with a substantial number of shareware picks.

Some people believe it’s okay to manually add fonts to your system so they are always loaded and available to all of your applications. If you only have a couple of extra fonts, that’s probably okay. In the design world, however, that’s almost never the case. Without a font manager, your library will soon grow to an unmanageable level, you’ll start to see fonts with similar names conflicting, and it will be almost impossible to be sure you’re using the correct font for any given project.

Instead of running through a long list of all available options, let’s take a look at a couple of the commercial offerings, and what they can do for you.

ATM (R.I.P.): For the strong commitment Adobe has made to designers, it certainly is lacking in its font support. The company axed the Mac version of its font manager, Adobe Type Manager Deluxe, when Apple transitioned from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X a few years ago. It followed suit and discontinued the Windows version about a year ago. Adobe offers no support for the product, so if you still use it, you’re on your own.

Translation: It’s time to move on. There are options available for both Mac and Windows that offer better compatibility, more features, and better performance.

Suitcase: For the Windows crowd, your commercial options are pretty much limited to Suitcase 9 from Extensis (www.extensis.com). It’s compatible with Windows 98SE and higher, and includes a free copy of FontDoctor for Windows. If you’re using Windows 98SE, you also need to install the included copy of ATM Light 4.1 for PostScript fonts to display properly onscreen.
Mac users can take advantage of Suitcase Fusion. This new version was released at the beginning of the year, and is a blending of features from Suitcase X1 and Font Reserve. At one time, Font Reserve was a competing font manager for the Mac, but was acquired by Extensis a few years ago.
Suitcase supports auto-activation of fonts in InDesign and Illustrator, but not in Photoshop. Auto-activation lets Suitcase find the correct version of a font in its database and open it for you. If there’s more than one font with the same name on your computer, it will do its best to match the correct version to your document. You can also create sets to better organize your font library.

Suitcase Fusion for the Mac (left) may have more features, but its Windows counterpart, Suitcase 9 (right), is still a capable font management tool.

Font Reserve: As mentioned above, Extensis purchased DiamondSoft’s Font Reserve a few years ago, and blended some of its features into Suitcase Fusion. The Mac version of Font Reserve has been discontinued, but the Windows version is still available. Its days are certainly numbered since Extensis is working to add Font Reserve features to the next Windows version of Suitcase.

FontAgent Pro: Insider Software’s FontAgent Pro (www.insidersoftware.com) is available only for the Mac, and it lets you auto-activate your fonts, create sets, and check for conflicts like Suitcase does. It’s a powerful and capable font manager, and has an easy-to-use interface. Mac users have the luxury of trying both applications and deciding which works best for them.

FontAgent Pro’s flexible viewing options let you list your fonts the way you want. List all of your fonts (left), and see which sets they are assigned to. Viewing by sets (right) hides the fonts you aren’t interested in.

Making fonts work for you
It doesn’t matter what font management tools you have if you can’t use them effectively. Because there’s no single answer to address every creative professional’s work style, you need to find a procedure that works best for you and stick with it. Look at these tips as guidelines to help you forge your own font workflow:

• Choose a location on your hard drive for font storage. This can be a directory dedicated to project fonts, or it may be a location in each client’s job directory.
• Group fonts in Suitcase or FontAgent Pro in a way that makes sense to you. If that’s by typeface or font style, great. Or maybe grouping fonts by client or project works better for you.
• Only activate the fonts you need for the job you’re working on. Activating every font in your library isn’t really any better than loading them into your operating system manually. There will be too many to easily work with, which impacts productivity, and you may accidentally select the wrong font for the project you’re working on.
• Deactivate fonts when you aren’t using them. If you finish a project that uses one version of Helvetica, then start a second project that uses a different version before shutting off the fonts you are finished with, you run the risk of unintentionally using the wrong font version. Using the wrong font version can lead to type reflow, leading and tracking problems, and unhappy clients.

Share and share alike
If you work alone, it’s easier to keep track of the fonts that belong with each job. But if you’re part of a larger group, shuffling fonts from machine to machine costs time, and someone is bound to mix them up. That’s where font servers come in: These specialized applications sit on a computer that acts as a font babysitter, keeping a central repository of your agency’s font library. Users can access the fonts and font sets that the server manages, ensuring everyone uses the same fonts for each project they collaborate on. Each workstation still needs to have its own font manager application; otherwise, it can’t talk with the server.

Both Extensis and Insider Software offer font server packages, although Suitcase Server is the only cross-platform option at the moment. Suitcase Server is not compatible with Suitcase Fusion, and instead relies on Suitcase 9 for Windows, and a special version of Suitcase X1 for the Mac on client machines.

FontAgent Pro Server is compatible with FontAgent Pro; and in smaller workgroups, FontAgent Pro’s Workgroup Edition may meet your needs. The Workgroup Edition lets each Mac share its fonts with the other workstations on your network, but your font library is distributed amongst each computer instead of centralized.

When good fonts go bad
Just because a font is working for you today doesn’t mean it will tomorrow. Other times, a client or another designer may provide you with fonts that just don’t work. Luckily, Extensis and Insider Software both offer utilities to help straighten out your problem fonts. Suitcase includes FontDoctor with the boxed version of the application, but Insider’s Smasher is a separate product.
FontDoctor is fairly good at repairing damaged and corrupt fonts on both Mac OS X and Windows. Mac users, however, may want to take a closer look at Smasher. This utility also lets you get inside font suitcases and reorganize typefaces, compare the contents of multiple suitcases, convert Mac OS X system dfonts into TrueType fonts, and more.

Keep in mind that font repair utilities aren’t magic bullets to take away your font woes. If a font is beyond repair, your only option is to try and find an undamaged version, which often means tracking down the original font file.

FontDoctor ships with Suitcase and helps you track down missing, corrupt, and otherwise defective fonts. It’s available for Mac OS X and Windows.

Smasher can pull typestyles out of suitcases, convert dfonts to TrueType, display font permissions, and more.

On the road to font organization
Keeping your fonts under control is more than just buying the right applications to help out. It also involves weeding out irreparable fonts, organizing your library, and a healthy dose of self-discipline. If you’re starting with a tangled mess of fonts, the road may be long and full of headaches, but the payoff is well worth it: a faster, more stable workstation; a streamlined workflow; and the happy, warm feeling of being in control.

Photoshop color selection tool heightens color harmony

HVC Color Composer is a Photoshop plug-in that enhances Photoshop’s Color Picker by adding hue, value, and chroma controls. The idea is that because artists perceive colors based on hue, brightness (value), and intensity (chroma), they should be able to select colors the same way. The Color Picker is easy enough to install: Just copy the Master Colors HVC Color Composer folder into Photoshop’s Plug-Ins folder, choose HVC Color Composer as your color picker from Photoshop’s general preferences, and you’re set.

Choosing colors is fairly straightforward. Clicking the Hue button shows all colors with the same hue, Value shows all colors with the same brightness, and Chroma shows colors with the same intensity. Photoshop’s Color slider is still there but now includes a split slider that shows the color range on the left and available colors based on the currently selected hue, value, or chroma setting on the right.

olor Composer’s real power lies in its ability to show color relationships and build swatch palettes based on them. Range mode builds a palette with colors that all have the same contrast range from a target color, and Proportion mode creates a palette in which all of the colors have the same contrast from two target colors. The Create Palette button builds a palette of colors that work together nicely, and the Pro version adds the ability to fine-tune the contrast ratios and save your palette as a standard Photoshop ACO file.

While understanding color relationships can be difficult at first, Color Composer makes short order of building complementary color palettes. It’s currently only available for Mac users, but a Windows version and a standalone application for both Mac and Windows (although not available at this writing) are slated for release in the spring.

PRICE: $49.95 (Pro $129.95)
FOR: Mac
FROM: Master Colors
PHONE: 303-641-1532
WEB: www.master-colors.com
RATING: 4.0