By Designers For Designers: Fontbase Organizes Your Fonts For Free

Straightforward font management is a must in the workspace of every designer. The free Fontbase provides just that and even has a couple more ideas to offer.

Universal Tool for the Three Main Operating Systems

The reasonably new tool Fontbase is available for free on your Mac, Windows, or Linux device. Originally, Fontbase was made to simply manage your system fonts. Soon after, the option of folder synchronization was added. This allows you to synchronize project-related fonts, and remove them after the project's completion. [caption id="attachment_85416" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Fontbase Organizes the Installed System Fonts. (Screenshot: Noupe)[/caption] With the new version 2.2, which has been out for a couple of days now, Dominik Levitsky, the Ukranian developer behind the tool, added the broad portfolio of Google Fonts to the synchronization option. Google Fonts is only the first font provider that can be used via Fontbase. There are more to come. A Discover function for newly released fonts is said to be in the works as well.

Fontbase: Very Simple Integration With Google Fonts

The integration with Google Fonts can only be described as perfect. A single click on any font of Google's massive portfolio activates the respective font in your system. When you're done, you can remove it using the same method. There is also the option to deactivate all active Google Fonts at once, with a single click. [caption id="attachment_85417" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Fontbase Accesses All Google Fonts. (Screenshot: Noupe)[/caption] To test which fonts work well together, or which ones you can integrate into your layout ideas, use the function Preview. It allows you to adjust different text parts with varying parameters of design. Fontbase is a software that you need to install on your computer. It's not a web app. There's no web-based version either. Fontbase supports the three major operating systems macOS, Windows, and Linux by default. [caption id="attachment_85415" align="alignnone" width="1024"] In the preview, you get to work on the look. This one is unfit but bold. (Screenshot: Noupe)[/caption]

Fontbase is Free But Can be Supported

Fontbase is free. However, the developer also offers a so-called Awesome version. It costs 3 USD a month, or 29 USD a year, and is supposed to offer an additional set of features. I couldn't find out which features that could be. It seems like the only thing exclusive to paying subscribers is the display of the fonts as a grid, rather than a list. Nonetheless, it is fair to pay the three bucks a month, if you integrate Fontbase into your daily routine. Dominik's motivation is sure to increase proportionally to the number of subscribers. And when it comes to a tool this important, that alone makes it worth it. Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash