Font manager not managing them.

[rich2005]

Nope, not going to work (did it ever work on Windows ?)

   

0.6 is the only Windows installer around and not very good reports for the resurrected version 0.9

If it is viewing fonts then NexusFont is not bad https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=731
It says font management but this is confined to
Copy/Move/Delete: - Basic file operations for managing font files. Which you can do anyway with a decent two-pane file manager.

Another for viewing and also cataloguing, (and I have found this useful in the past) PrintMyFonts https://www.sttmedia.com/printmyfonts

...but if you do not already use it, I recommend Ofnuts plugin addonCollectionManager. Which will move selected fonts in-and-out of the Gimp fonts folder.

If you want a record of fonts available to Gimp, print a fonts map. Export it as a PDF for future reference. This one all the "L" fonts (filtered by ^L)

   

[PixLab]

(04-16-2024, 08:42 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Nope, not going to work (did it ever work on Windows ?)

Oh... That's sad, I thought it was like Linux, where I have 32-bit software working (it added libraries if I recall), even an old 32-bit scanner (Canon LiDE 80) working just fine and still using it.

[Krikor]

I've been using the Ofnuts plugin addonCollectionManager for at least 3 or more years.

But having to manually disable the fonts added by the addon every session is a bit annoying.
Another annoyance is that when deactivating a font via the Addon it is automatically removed from any group of fonts to which I have added it in GIMP.

For example, if I use the Addon to load (Activate) the Tangerine.ttf font and add it to the Ex1 group, where I can find it via the use of the filter in GIMP fonts.
When I deactivate this font (which will have to be manually and GIMP needs to be restarted) I will have to remember to add it to this group (Ex1) in the filter again in the future, as it will have been removed when deactivated.

This complicates font management in GIMP. But the truth is that I haven't found anything better.

[rich2005]

(04-16-2024, 05:51 PM)Krikor Wrote: ....snip....
When I deactivate this font (which will have to be manually and GIMP needs to be restarted) I will have to remember to add it to this group (Ex1) in the filter again in the future, as it will have been removed when deactivated.

This complicates font management in GIMP. But the truth is that I haven't found anything better.

Not much you can do about keeping tags once a font is removed. It is not always necessary to restart Gimp.
This no better than other ways, just an example. A bit of a struggle to get it into a minute

https://i.imgur.com/PeNSIUJ.mp4

What it shows
Using Freecommander (there are other file managers) copy a font (right side) to the Gimp font folder (left side)
Using that font in Gimp, finish and close the file.
The font no longer needed but Windows stops the user deleting the file (file is open..message)
You can delete it in a terminal del /f name-of-font.ttf or with a wild card del /f *.ttf
The font still shows in Gimp - refresh the fonts

[PixLab]

Hi Krikor,
GIMP has an incredible management system for the font (IMHO) arguably not very intuitive in the beginning, though, but it's a good one when you get the hang out of it.
I'll try to explain how I do it, then you see by yourself if you really need a font manager  

First I always use the Fonts dialog in the screenshot below, which I did put near the Tool Options, each font can have multiple tags, separated by a comma, for example this font ➤ "Better" has 3 tags (elegant, myfonts, and outline)

   

On the Filter on top of this dialog, I click on that drop down menu to select a list of fonts that I want to use, here it's outline, thus it displays only the fonts witch have the tag outline, I know that you know  
But maybe you're not aware about this:
See the thing in Blue, it means that in the font list below, none of these fonts have that tags that I squared in blue in the screenshot, but it also means that in that list of fonts displayed, the other tags are also available.
More tags you use, narrower become your list of fonts (depending on how you did tag them, your fonts should be "multi" tagged)

   

For instance I want to use only the fonts with the tags elegant + handscript + outline, I select those 3 tags with my mouse, and it appears that I have only one font with these 3 tags, if I click on that font in this dialog, what I am actually writing, will automatically be in that font (all the text, even if you did not select the text) and is automatically transferred to the Tool Options dialog, thus if you switch to the Tool Options dialog, that font is also already selected ready to use.

   

To un-select any tags, just click on it again, it's a toggle, and the font list will change alive

Here a short video to show how I manage my fonts I just want to display > https://imgur.com/a/lGHXyiA (you can do it the same way as on the video at the bottom of this dialog ➤ to newly tag a font with an already existing tag, no need to write if the tag exist, GIMP will put the separation comma as well, then re-click on that font to confirm )

Icing on the cake, when I re-open GIMP after closing it, GIMP recalls my latest tags selection and just show what was my latest font list selection

Warning: There is something to care about, if you tag your fonts, then use the reload button (green at the bottom), all what you have tagged during this GIMP session, will vanish, I learned it the hard way
My recommendation tag all your fonts as needed, then once it's done close GIMP (it will save all your newly tagged fonts) then re-open GIMP, yeah that's not very user friendly, but it's the only safe way I found, because if you click on that reload by accident during the very same session, your newly tagged fonts are gone

[Krikor]

(04-16-2024, 07:05 PM)rich2005 Wrote:

(04-16-2024, 05:51 PM)Krikor Wrote: ....snip....
When I deactivate this font (which will have to be manually and GIMP needs to be restarted) I will have to remember to add it to this group (Ex1) in the filter again in the future, as it will have been removed when deactivated.

This complicates font management in GIMP. But the truth is that I haven't found anything better.

Not much you can do about keeping tags once a font is removed. It is not always necessary to restart Gimp.
This no better than other ways, just an example. A bit of a struggle to get it into a minute

https://i.imgur.com/PeNSIUJ.mp4

What it shows
Using Freecommander (there are other file managers) copy a font (right side) to the Gimp font folder (left side)
Using that font in Gimp, finish and close the file.
The font no longer needed but Windows stops the user deleting the file (file is open..message)
You can delete it in a terminal del /f name-of-font.ttf or with a wild card del /f *.ttf
The font still shows in Gimp - refresh the fonts

For some reason I thought I always had to restart GIMP.
Now, just by not having to restart GIMP, the fluidity of the work has improved a lot.

I watched the .mp4 preview and pondered it.
 
I thought it could be advantageous compared to having to delete the .Active in the Preferences\fonts_storage folder and then manually remove the font from the \preferences\fonts folder (which is what I need to do when using the Ofnuts Addon).

But then I realized that I can do the same just by using two Win File Explorer windows. (side by side).
On one side: Preferences\fonts_storage; A
On the other side: \preferences\fonts; B

1. To add the font from the \Preferences\fonts_storage folder to GIMP, simply move the font from window A to window B.

2. To deactivate the previously activated font, simply copy it from window B to window A. (confirm the file overlap and voilà)

I installed and tested nexusfont.
As a font viewer I liked it.
But it neither offers an option to filter by Tags nor allows for activation/deactivation in GIMP.
It was also very slow (maybe because I had it installed on a pendrive (usb-driver)).

rich2005, Thx!

---

PixLab, you practically created a tutorial with your previous post. I think it could even be added to the tutorials section of this forum. :-)

Briefly, what I can say is that I use the same method that you presented. I lacked clearer terminology to describe my steps; for example I should have used the word Tag (I used font group).

But there is one particularity that I would like to highlight:
You possibly load all your fonts together with GIMP startup.

In my case, I leave many fonts in the \Preferences\fonts_storage folder (for use via the Ofnuts Addon). I only carry them when I know I'm going to use them.

But this creates a problem that I mentioned in post #13:

Quote:"Another annoyance is that when deactivating a font via the Addon it is automatically removed from any group of fonts to which I have added it in GIMP."

In other words, when I deactivate the font loaded by the Addon, it loses the Tag it had been associated with.

In short, I can't tag the fonts added by the Addon, so I would like to have a good font manager.


The information you posted in the last paragraph of your post was indeed the icing on the cake:  

Quote:"Warning: There is something to care about, if you tag your fonts, then use the reload button (green at the bottom), all what you have tagged during this GIMP session, will vanish, I learned it the hard way Big Grin
My recommendation tag all your fonts as needed, then once it's done close GIMP (it will save all your newly tagged fonts) then re-open GIMP, yeah that's not very user friendly, but it's the only safe way I found, because if you click on that reload by accident during the very same session, your newly tagged fonts are gone"

You can't imagine the number of times I lost tags and had to recreate them. Just yesterday, one of the tags, I had to redo it three times!  
And I had no idea that that little green button was the big villain. I thought it was a bug or that I was somehow deleting the tags (but no idea how I could be doing this).

Thx!

[rich2005]

The tags for fonts (and brushes / patterns ...) are not held in the font file. They are in the User Profile, in the file tags.xml This an example entry

Code:

<resource identifier="Corpulent Caps (BRK)" checksum="(null)">
   <tag>fat-fonts</tag>
  </resource>

Obviously when the font is removed the entry is deleted by Gimp. That is why you have to re-set tags all the time.

File Managers Windows Explorer is a disgrace. Not much different from WinXP days, although I understand Win11 Explorer has (gasp) a tabbed interface. I could not exist without my linux file manager, I use it as a front-end for most things.

If you ever decide to get a better Windows file manager there are several around see: https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=9