Adobe Type Manager (ATM) is one of those utilities that you tend to install and forget about. It sits quietly in the background doing its job with little intervention. When a new version would come bundled with some new software I'd install it, but beyond that I rarely noticed its presence. At its most basic level, ATM allows the use of PostScript Type 1 fonts. But with ATM 4.1 comes some new font management tools. Unfortunately, although useful and fairly functional, these tools are not particularly outstanding.
The Control Panel
The interface is a straight-forward four tab window control panel. One tab displays the names of any font sets you've created and installed fonts. You can activate or deactivate existing fonts sets from this window. Another tab display all fonts or only active fonts and you may uninstall fonts here. The "Add Fonts" is the most used tab. This is where you can add or remove fonts, create new font sets, and create Multiple Master instances. Font installation is a single click or a simple drag-n-drop operation. Fonts can be installed from any location, including from within other font sets. Under the "Settings" tab you specify the path to all your PostScript Outline and Font Metrics files and your TrueType files, set the size of your Font Cache, and turn the ATM System off or on. An Advanced button also provides access to controls such as enabling Font Substitution or using Font Smoothing.
Font Sets
When you work with many fonts installed, it can become tedious to scroll through long font lists to select the handful of fonts used in a specific project. With font sets, you can activate only the fonts needed at that time to keep font lists shorter. Group your fonts by type, by project, or any other system that works for you. The same font can appear in multiple font sets if needed. As with font installation, font set creation is an easy drag-n-drop. Because fonts can appear in multiple sets, font removal will ask whether you want to remove a font from one location or from all sets. Font sets are the best feature of this version of ATM.
Even the font sets aren't without some quirks. ATM cannot deactivate TrueType fonts that are in the Windows Fonts folder. To get around this limitation, TrueType fonts must be moved to a special folder used by ATM. However, there is a long list of fonts that shouldn't be moved. When removing fonts from a font set you can remove it from one set or all sets in one operation but not from just a few sets.
Multiple Masters
I don't use Multiple Master fonts, however, the program does allow you to take Multiple Master base fonts and adjust attributes such as weight or width. This allows you to customize fonts for your special needs.
Auto-Activation and Font Substitution
If you frequently install and uninstall fonts you're familiar with the error messages or the odd appearance of documents when a needed font can't be found by an application. ATM 4.1 has two optional features designed to minimize those frustrations.
If a required font is installed but inactive, ATM automatically activates it. However, auto-activation works only with Type 1 fonts. If you are using only Type 1 fonts this is a nifty feature allowing you to open documents created with inactive fonts with no hassle.
With font substitution enabled ATM will attempt to preserve the general appearance of a document if a missing font can't be found. This feature allows you to work with the document temporarily until you're able to locate the required font. Font substitution doesn't work with many major programs (including Adobe's own PageMaker) due to their own built-in font substitution engines. This limitation makes it only marginally useful. Neither feature works in Windows NT or Windows 2000.
Samples
The ability to print out sample sheets to develop your own hard copy font sampler book or to simply compare the appearance in print of a few different fonts is an important feature of a font management program. ATM 4.1 allows this, however, it's only a bare bones implementation. Beyond changing a single line of sample text, the sample pages are not customizable.
Font Smoothing
On the screen ATM fills in gradient shades in between the color of a PostScript font and its background to create a smoother, less jaggy appearance. Because of the increased memory load required for smoothed fonts this anti-aliasing is of limited value. Large fonts displayed on screen or captured in screen shots benefit the most from this feature.
Bundled Fonts
The 15 Adobe fonts included in ATM are a nice group of mostly fun display faces including Bermuda Squiggle, Giddyup, and Khaki Two in PostScript Type format. Reviews of this product at the time of its initial release indicate additional fonts were originally part of the package.
Overall
If your font management needs are minimal and you work with both TrueType and Type 1 fonts, this version is worth considering. It's not an absolutely essential upgrade but the font grouping feature is worthwhile if you aren't already using other font managers with this function. Adobe Type Manager Deluxe 4.1 is a good, basic font management tool for Windows users but hardly "Deluxe."
