These basic concepts provide a firm foundation for understanding the operation and administration of FontAgent® Server.
What is a Font Server?
A font server builds a centralized catalog of your organization’s fonts, and provides tools to control their distribution, manage users and track font licenses and usage.
FontAgent Server is available in three editions. The CloudServer™ Edition is hosted by Insider at an internet data center, and the TeamServer™ and Enterprise Editions are hosted by you on your own networked hardware. This documentation applies to all three server editions.
FontFlex Object-Based Power and Simplicity
FontAgent Server is built using FontFlex™ object-based technology, which integrates the basic elements of font management fonts, sets, users, groups, tags, font licenses and enterprise directories.
FontFlex objects automatically interact with each other as you import fonts, add users and assign fonts to them, simplifying your administrative tasks significantly.
Fonts and File Formats
- A font is a selected style of a specific typeface, such as Minion Pro Italic.
- A font family is a collection of font styles (e.g., Regular, Italic, Bold) that are based on the same base font outline such as Bodoni.
- Fonts are available in several file formats including OpenType, Mac TrueType, Windows TrueType, PostScript Type 1 and dfont. macOS can read all of these formats, but Windows reads only OpenType and Windows TrueType files.
FontDNA Integrity and Metadata Engine
To validate fonts and unlock their metadata, users import them into FontAgent client software running on macOS or Windows.
FontAgent’s FontDNA™ engine uses font characteristics to create digital fingerprints of uploaded font files, to test their integrity, and to discover their metadata.
To view font metadata, users can select a font and view its associated metadata in the right sidebar of the FontAgent client.
Metadata includes font metrics and descriptors including family name, foundry, version, file format, style, width, creation date and scores of other characteristics.
Users, Authentication and Permissions
- Users of FontAgent clients can connect to the server after being invited by the font server administrator.
- Users connect by authenticating via their email address and password.
- When users connect, the server performs a two-way operation that syncs the fonts and sets on the server with those on users’ computers.
- The server-sync process uploads, downloads and remove sets and fonts according to sharing permissions specified by administrators.
Groups of Users
- Groups are logical associations of users and can be used to define teams, roles, departments or any other group of users.
- Groups are used by admins to streamline the assignment of font-access and administrative permissions.
Fonts, Sets, Tags and Comments
- Sets are logical associations of fonts.
- Sets can be used to associate fonts by project, client, file format, vendor, foundry, license—whatever is required by your workflow.
- Users can define sets locally in their personal FontAgent databases.
- Font admins and users can assign searchable keyword tags to fonts to describe their properties, projects and usage.
- When the Server distributes fonts to users, it also distributes associated tags for the fonts.
- Users can add comments to their fonts and search those comments later.
Uploading Fonts and Sets
- Font admins can upload sets of fonts to the Server from FontAgent Connected Clients.
- The Server uses FontDNA fingerprints to eliminate duplicate fonts and enforce consistency across projects, output and corporate standards.
- The Server stores both fonts and sets, and shares them with users as you specify.
Font Server Administration
- You must designate at least one person to act as a FontAgent Server administrator.
- The server admin invites users to join the server.
- The server admin can allow selected users to add and delete server fonts and sets.
- Server admins use the browser-based FontAgent Server Manager to administrate users, groups, fonts, sets, permissions and font distribution rules.
Font Usage and Compliance
- FontAgent Server let you store license details for your fonts, including terms of use, number of license users and any specific limitations.
- The Server Manager provides real-time insight into font usage by users, groups and machines.
- After you enter font license information, FontAgent Server provides up-to-the-minute details on license compliance.
Distributing Fonts to Users
- The two basic models for distributing fonts are: (a) distributing all available server fonts to all your users, or (b) selectively controlling which fonts are distributed to which users.
- Admins assign fonts and sets to users and groups to specify which users are authorized to use which fonts.
- As server fonts and sets are modified, FontAgent Server automatically syncs those changes with users’ computers.
End User Considerations
- End users run FontAgent clients to connect to FontAgent Server, and automatically receive all fonts assigned to them when they connect.
- End users cannot delete or modify fonts and sets residing on the server unless the server admin grants them such permissions.
- Users can access their fonts whether they are connected to FontAgent Server or not, even if the server is offline.
- Server admins can enable or prohibit end users from adding fonts to their personal FontAgent database.