If you are based in the Manchester or Belfast areas and are interested in learning more about font management, we’ll be hosting a font management best practices session at the Adobe^® Creative Suite^® 4 Roadshows, taking place in both cities over the next couple of weeks:

• 25th November, University of Ulster, Belfast

• 2nd December, Band on the Wall, Manchester

We hope to see you there.

We’ve got a great community here at Extensis, and every so often we like to celebrate that community. Today, the Extensis Customer Service department got up early to cook everyone in the Portland office breakfast – with a little bit of flair. Jennifer, Jason and Daryl cooked us some letter-shaped French toast, brontosaurus shaped pancakes, along with all of the eggs and sausage of a typical American breakfast. So, in addition to providing great customer service, these guys also cook up a great meal!

Thanks Customer Service!

Today we released an updated version of our single-user font manager, Suitcase Fusion 2 for Windows, version 13.2.

This release adds compatibility with Windows 7, enhanced plug-ins for Adobe® Illustrator® CS4, CS3 and CS2 and Adobe® InDesign® CS4 and CS3, as well as an updated migration process for Suitcase for Windows version 11 users.

If you are a current Suitcase Fusion 2 for Windows user, you can download this maintenance update at no cost. If you have Suitcase for Windows versions 9 and 11, or standalone Font Reserve 2.6, you are eligible for upgrade pricing.

Download Suitcase Fusion 2 version 13.2 here.

Suitcase Fusion 2 is available in English, French and German. For more information on Suitcase Fusion 2, visit www.extensis.com/SuitcaseFusion2.

Later this week, we will be exhibiting and presenting at Media Pro, the unique event for those involved in the creation, production, procurement and distribution of media and marketing communications.

We’ll be presenting a digital asset management case study and best practices session. You’ll see how BB Printing, a UK-based commercial printer uses Portfolio Server, to create an easily accessible and searchable catalog with thousands of digital files.

Presentation Agenda:
• 4th November: 10:45 – 11:15, Apple Solution Expert Theatre
• 5th November: 11:00 – 11:45, Apple Solution Expert Theatre

Also, be sure to drop by the Extensis stand (24), where we will be demonstrating both Portfolio Server and Universal Type Server. We’ll also be on hand to answer any font or digital asset management questions.

Media Pro:

This year, instead of our typical Halloween costume contest we had an Extensis Pet Halloween costume contest. We had a number of funny entries with dogs dressed up in a wide variety of funny costumes. I’m happy to announce that the winner was our Accounting Manager, David Askwith and his dogs Dolby and Maddie dressed as Yoda and Princess Leia from Star Wars.

UPDATED: By request, more entries are now included after the jump.

Continue Reading »

In a few short weeks, we’ll be flying to Denver, Colorado for Educause, the premier event for IT professionals in higher education.

We’ll be demonstrating how Extensis Portfolio Server can be utilized in a higher education environment to manage documents, images and video. In addition, be sure to ask how Universal Type Server can be used to manage font installation on your workstations.

Drop by booth 1082 in the Exhibit Hall and say hello! We’ll be there starting with the opening reception from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov 3rd.

Educause:

• Nov 3-6
• Denver, Colorado
• Registration

Today we released an update to our server-based font management solution, Universal Type Server.

This update includes:

• Deeper font compliance management: administrator can see who added which font to which workgroup and reverse those actions.
• Active Directory flexibility: administrator can now exclude individual users from distribution group mappings.
• Enhanced user management allows easier batch application of settings and refined filtering of users.
• Simplified network password perfect for smaller teams (using optional LDAP bind authentication).
• Mac OS X v 10.6 (Snow Leopard) compatibility for client and server.
• Windows 7 compatibility for Universal Type Client.
• TrueType Collection font support.
• Improved font corruption screening.
• New command line scripting tool for automation and integration.
• New optional MySQL external database module (chargeable add-on component for Universal Type Server Professional only).
• Directory integration with Active Directory and Open Directory is now a standard feature of Universal Type Server Professional.
• Improved overall performance of client synchronization and working with font sets.

If you have a current annual service agreement (ASA) for server-based font management, this update is provided at no cost. If you do not have a current ASA, please contact your corporate sales representative for upgrade or purchase pricing.

Launched a few weeks ago, the Letter Playground, is a great creative space for everyone to create and submit letterforms. Whether they are found letterforms, hand drawn or computer generated, this site includes something for everyone.

When you create an account, you’re able to submit your own creations, as well as review those of others. There are quite a few fun creations on the site already, and will surely only grow.

Whether you’re creating a new typeface and looking for inspiration, or just want to play around for a while, the Letter Playground is a great place to do it.

FontDoctor diagnoses, repairs, and helps organize problem fonts. FontDoctor helps locate and eliminate hard-to-find font problems that wreak havoc on the Macintosh system performance and applications.

FontDoctor for Mac OS X has been updated to include support for Snow Leopard. This release also includes a number of other upgrades, including:

• Compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
• Updated font cache cleaning. Now cleans Adobe CS4, Microsoft Office 2008, and QuarkXPress 8 caches.
• Supports True Type Collection (TTC) fonts.

FontDoctor is included with every purchase of Suitcase Fusion 2. This upgrade is free for all users of FontDoctor 7.0 and higher.

Download FontDoctor 7.7 here.