We’re all used to video and audio players and their familiar Play, Pause, Forward and Backward controls. That simple interface is the model for the Player View in FontAgent,® which lets you easily play a slide show of fonts that you have selected.
Since its launch, the Player View has added robust font previewing, selection, activation and printing capabilities. In the process, it’s become super-configurable and flexible. Let’s take a tour of the most powerful previewer in the font management world.
Play Through Your Fonts
The Player View appears in the bottom pane of FontAgent’s main window, sharing that real estate with the Compare, Glyphs, and Tags and Comments Views. To display it, click the Player tab at the top of the pane.
To play a slide show of fonts, start by selecting predefined text using the pop-up the appears at the bottom-left of the Player View.
Next, select a group of fonts in the Font Catalog that appears in the top pane and press the Play button show below. FontAgent then displays your specified text set in each font you have selected, one after another in succession.
Create a Set of Favorite Fonts
As you play through your fonts, you can mark those that you like by clicking the Favorite button, which appears as a folder and a plus sign as shown above.
When you click the Favorite button, FontAgent places that font in a special set called Player Set that appears at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- After you finish playing through your fonts, select the set to view all your favorite fonts.
- To save your favorites in a named set, just rename the Player Set.
Setting Font Text, Size and Colors
To modify the size and colors of text displayed in the Player View, use the controls at the lower left of the viewer.
View ABC123 Text
The ABC123 selection displays the characters of the alphabet and selected numbers and symbol characters. You can change the size and color of the text.
View Font Waterfalls
The Waterfall selection displays a text string in increasing font sizes. You can click the gear icon to modify the water fall text, sizes and colors.
View Specimen Sheets
The Specimen setting in the Player View displays a specimen sheet for a font in various sizes and line spacing so you can see how it looks in various headline and body copy treatments.
View Paragraphs
The Paragraph selection displays a paragraph of lorem ipsum text. You can change the color and size of the text.
View Your Own Custom Text
The Custom selection lets you enter any text you want and specify its font size and color. This selection is particularly helpful in selecting fonts in logo and display design projects.
Choose Fonts Fast with the Player View
Once you familiarize yourself with the Player View, you can use it to streamline font selection. For example, rather than spending hours in a word processor duplicating text and setting it in various fonts, you can just display the Player View in FontAgent and then:
- Select the fonts you want to play.
- Specify the text, size and colors you want. optional
- Click the Play button to cycle through the fonts.
- Click the Favorite button when you see a font that you like.
When you are finished playing and selecting your fonts, try this:
- Select the Player Set at the bottom of the left sidebar.
- Select the Compare View in the lower pane to view your favorites in the text and colors you want.
- Print the Compare View as a PDF to share with your team or clients.
Use Your Imagination with the Player View
The flexibility of the Player View in FontAgent makes it great at supporting your font-selection style and speeding your creative process. With a little practice, you can harness its power and make the Player View a vital part of your everyday FontAgent workflows.