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Is there any better way to manage/ organize .GSP fonts than with the "System Tray" and the URW fonts provided on the Gerber Font CD? So far my experience with the "Font Manager" is that it is not very user friendly.
Gerber does not allow us to remove their "font styles" we can only add new font styles. So the font style list gets pretty long if you add "Circus Fonts" as a style and about 15 more.
In our shop we have 4 Omega stations running. 3 cut/print and 1 design only. We are networked and share files over the network. All of our "jobs" are logged on the server by file name and archived by date folder. Our "production" station operator goes to the archived file and cuts/prints as required by the work order.
Since each machine has its own list of fonts in the GSP font folder, if one designer adds (or converts) a TTF using the Gerber TTF convertor, then that added font becomes a font on that machine only. To add to the confusion, it goes under the GSP font folder with a file name like "U1000029" (the "U" prefix tells me that we have "disjoined" the TTF font and run the "Font Designer" program to allow for full kerning of the font) Since the file "numbers" are assigned for each font set on individual computers- we have had a case where opening a .PLT on a different computer (different Omega station) would have the text set in an entirely different font than was originally used since the two different fonts had the same numbers.
When that started happening, we just decided among ourselves to make sure that no artist added a font to the system unless that same font was added to each of the other computers GSPFonts folder on the other 3 machines.
Another solution was to move all the fonts to a single location on our peer-to-peer network. By changing the GSP.ini file to direct the software to the "X" location when using or adding fonts, we could have everyone on the same page.
This worked OK except that we have about 500 fonts and it is rather slow coming over the network.
We are like most designers in that we "need" a lot of fonts "available" in order to reset type for customers logos. We probably don't use more than half of those fonts in a given year. Plus (like most "Letterhead/ Sign Fanatics) we just love the flexibility of having lots of fonts to work with.
I know that other "design programs" like CorelDraw! and Illustrator are able to use "font management" software which allows the user to "load" and "unload" fonts at will. This allows for maximum performance of the software and maximum font choices. The other thing these programs allow is to categorize all the fonts into user defined folders of like fonts with mjultiple categories available for each font. One of the programs I saw let you set your own line of type so you could see what each font would look like (i.e. "The quick brown fox" NOT)
I have contacted Gerber tech support and I really don't think this is much of a priority for them so I am about ready to learn another program for sign layout (like CorelDraw! or Illustrator) so I can have the tools that are available to the rest of the designer world available to me--- and then just import the vectors to Gerber for output.
Any suggestions?
-------------------- Al Williamson Sign Design 5851 Cloverdale Road Roanoke, Va. 24019 "In the Heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains" Posts: 6 | From: Roanoke, Virginia | Registered: Mar 2002
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Yep, Gerber's font management has historically been pretty crappy. I'm not real fond of designing in GA omega (or otherwise) unless it's somthing real quick, so I've pretty much given up on trying to make sense of their management utilites.
I've never been happy relying completely on GA for my design work and am in the habit of flip switching between multple graphics softwares. Since you guys are running Omega, it would not be a real steep learning curve to go to Corel Draw for some of your design work, there are quite a few simalarities betwixt the two packages (and Corel is a WHOLE lot cheaper ). I do probably 85% of my design work in Corel and import it into GA for output. I'd suggest spending some time with the Corel Font Navigator utillity to keep your true types in order. Once you get friendly with it, the thing's an absolute gem, especially since it comes along with the Corel suite.
You May find that certain functions in Corel will cause an excessive number of nodes which can cause problems if you are running a router, and sometimes some other wierdness occurs when importing, but these things are fairly easy to correct with a bit of practice.
-------------------- Jon Androsky Posts: 438 | From: Williamsport, PA | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Jonathan Androsky: Yep, Gerber's font management has historically been pretty crappy. I'm not real fond of designing in GA omega (or otherwise) unless it's somthing real quick, so I've pretty much given up on trying to make sense of their management utilites.
I've never been happy relying completely on GA for my design work and am in the habit of flip switching between multple graphics softwares. Since you guys are running Omega, it would not be a real steep learning curve to go to Corel Draw for some of your design work, there are quite a few simalarities betwixt the two packages (and Corel is a WHOLE lot cheaper ). I do probably 85% of my design work in Corel and import it into GA for output. I'd suggest spending some time with the Corel Font Navigator utillity to keep your true types in order. Once you get friendly with it, the thing's an absolute gem, especially since it comes along with the Corel suite.
You May find that certain functions in Corel will cause an excessive number of nodes which can cause problems if you are running a router, and sometimes some other wierdness occurs when importing, but these things are fairly easy to correct with a bit of practice.
Thanks for the feedback Jonathan. We have used CorelDraw! primarily for fonts which we may not have on Omega. For what little time I have spent with the software, I am particularly fond of the "associative dimensioning" tools. Oftentimes we are designing "monument" signs with concrete footings, brick, block, Dryvit® etc. and it would be very handy to be able to quickly detail a scale drawing for field use and/or presentation to clients. I'm pretty sure that Gerber will never go there. How do you deal with multi-spot color fills if you print to the Edge? Do you have to bring in the vectors and then bust it all apart and reassign colors in Omega?
-------------------- Al Williamson Sign Design 5851 Cloverdale Road Roanoke, Va. 24019 "In the Heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains" Posts: 6 | From: Roanoke, Virginia | Registered: Mar 2002
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). I do probably 85% of my design work in Corel and import it into GA for output. I'd suggest spending some time with the Corel Font Navigator utillity to keep your true types in order. Once you get friendly with it, the thing's an absolute gem, especially since it comes along with the Corel suite.
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