Extensis Unveils Universal Type Server

Today at MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, Extensis, makers of Suitcase and Font Reserve, as well as Suitcase Server X1 and Font Reserve Server, will unveil an all new server-based font management system. Universal Type Server (UTS) runs on Windows and Macintosh servers, connects to Windows and Mac (PPC and Intel) clients, includes all the best features of both Suitcase Server and Font Reserve Server, and is faster than you ever imagined a font manager could be.

Let me establish something right off the bat: I dig the latest versions of Extensis Suitcase–Fusion (version 12) on Mac OSX and Suitcase for Windows (version 11). They aren’t perfect, and I have my gripes. For instance choosing between activating fonts permanently or only until the system is rebooted requires remembering a keyboard shortcut or changing a preference every single time a font is activated. (Do you know how many keyboard shortcuts the average designer has to remember?! Well, yeah, I suppose you do.) Although not perfect, the current versions of Suitcase fit my font management needs better than any other font manager on either platform. For many of the publishing and production workflows I’ve optimized or consulted upon, Suitcase Server is also the best available solution.

Sure, Suitcase takes a moment or two to startup on standalone desktops and even longer to make connections with a Suitcase Server. Of course there’s an ever so slight delay between changing a preview type or size and seeing the change reflected in the preview pane. Adding more than a couple of new fonts takes time, too, naturally–sometimes quite a lot of time–but then, Suitcase is not only indexing the fonts but analyzing them as well, storing them in the Vault for protection (if the user has enabled that feature). Fonts pushed to clients from the server will get there sometime in the next few minutes. Heck, for all the little pauses and delays, Suitcase does it’s job pretty quickly. I had come to terms with that fact, with using the delays as an opportunity to rest my eyes, stretch my legs, or sip my coffee. I was comfortable with all that. I was grateful that Suitcase and Suitcase Server work as fast as they do.

Then, I saw Universal Type Server.

Faster than a Speeding Bullet Glyph

Do you remember when you upgraded from a 56k modem to broadband Internet access? Whether you logged on for that first marvelous moment at the office or home, surely you remember the awestruck grin that slowly split your face from ear to ear as the Web was suddenly just there. No waiting. No picture placeholders to eventually be replaced by pictures. One second NYTimes.com or Designorati.com or Quark VS InDesign.com wasn’t there, the next it was. If you’re like me, in that moment you felt like thrusting your fist into air and yawping in triumph, shouting to Mount Olympus: “I… have… the power!”

Oh, yeah, seeing Extensis’ Universal Type Server the first time is like that.

Built from the ground up as a whole new server/client font management system, UTS is a blazingly fast Java-based server fronting an ultra stable, light-overhead SQL database. It’s completely cross-platform, with the Universal Type Server running on Windows- or Mac-powered servers and connecting to either or both Windows- and Mac-hosted Universal Type Clients. For Macs, both UTS and UTC are Universal Binaries, running under either PowerPC or Intel processors. It’s the use of modern, open architecture technologies that enables the speed.

The client starts up instantly. No delay. It’s just there. Fonts are activated or deactivated in a blink. And font previews? Truly real time live previews. Change the preview text or point size and the preview window updates without even a fraction of a second delay. And, that’s not just fonts on the local computer. That’s with fonts from the server. Instantaneous previews across the network, without the fonts installed or locally cached. New fonts are analyzed, indexed, and added before I can find a distant object to rest my eyes upon.

I was shown a stable beta version and cautioned that it might not be as fast as the shipping release. That notion makes me laugh out loud. How much faster can you get than instantaneous?

Suitcase is a 56k dialup modem. It’s screaming fast, but only until someone builds a broadband font manager. Universal Type Server is a broadband connection. When UTS is released this spring it will break the speed limit you didn’t even know was slowing you down.

A Classically Sleek Chassis Meets Superior Handling

[Click image to zoom] Universal Type Client running on Mac OSX.

At first glance the Universal Type Client looks very much like the current versions of Suitcase. All my favorite parts are there. Multiple panes provide concurrent access to user- or administrator-built font sets, font details with configurable data columns, and the preview pane. New is the Attributes pane, which lets the user classify fonts by classification, keyword, foundry, file type, and/or style directly in the main application rather than through clumsy pop-up dialog boxes. Just select one or more fonts (contiguous or not), and check the box beside the keyword, style, or other desired attribute in the Attributes pane. Assuming that your UTS administrator has given you permission to affect font attributes, the new data is added to the SQL database and instantly reflected on the server and all clients connected to it. The font list can even be filtered and sorted by any of the attributes. Spotlight-like live search enables rapid searching of a large list of fonts for a particular name, class, foundry, or family.

Gone are the New Set, Add, Remove, Activate, Deactivate, and Attributes buttons from Suitcase’s toolbar. In their place are the three most important buttons–Activate (permanently), Temp Activate (until system restart or until disconnecting from the server), and Deactivate. Finally! Permanent and temporary activation options have been restored to one-click simplicity. The Attributes pane takes care of managing font attributes while the other functions have been moved to the menu bar. Fonts can also be added via drag and drop if enabled for the user.

Connecting to the server is simple and can be done on the local network or across the Internet, which will help remote and traveling employees keep fonts in synch with the office. Server administrators can even allow fonts to be copied to client systems so workers can use them without maintaining a live connection. (So much for relaxing on that long flight.)

UTC includes the Font Sense auto-activation plug-ins for Adobe InDesign CS2/CS3 and Illustrator CS2/CS3 and QuarkXPress 6.5/7 that have become standard with Suitcase, but there’s a new feature by popular request–auto-activation even if the UTC isn’t running. According to Extensis, many customers complain that they must keep Suitcase running in memory to maintain access to fonts. UTC no longer requires the application to be running. If non-active fonts are required upon opening a document in one of the supported applications, the auto-activation plug-in or xtension will call to the Universal Type Client, activate the needed font, and then close the client, freeing any system resources it would otherwise consume. Support for auto-activation from within Adobe InCopy is planned for a future release.

Common Server Sense

The Universal Type Client is excellent, a clean, uncluttered interface with agile steering and plenty of horsepower (I did mention it’s fast, right?). But the real difference between the UTS/UTC system and Extensis’ current font management offerings is on the server.

Suitcase Server and Font Reserve Server are applications nearly identical to their clients. They run on a server consuming system resources they shouldn’t. Does the average design or production workflow need advanced font management for use on the server itself? Of course not; no one designs on the server. Instead, a font management server should be light, easy to configure, and focused on the tasks of administering users and their access to fonts. That’s Universal Type Server.

[Click image to zoom] The Universal Type Server main interface showing workgroups, roles, users, and permissions.

UTS is a complete break from past server font managers. It’s entirely Web-based, making it accessible on the server itself as well as remotely from any authorized workstation or mobile device. An art director working on a project can create font sets and assign them to users from her own desk while the IT department keeps the server itself safely under lock and key. In fact, an administrator can access the server from anywhere in the world via the Internet. Need the intern authorized on the Acme account fonts at 11 PM? Call the production manager at home. (Managers and directors remember to turn off your cells on vacation!)

Users and user access to fonts is managed as it should be–in an intuitive interface built to administer users and access to data, not in a font management interface that happens to include user management commands.

Fonts are organized into one or more sets–by job, by client, however you like–and then sets are given to one or more workgroups. Users assigned to those workgroups automatically have access to the sets and fonts within. Workgroups become the point through which a many-to-many, fonts-to-users, relationship is managed. And, it’s all done visually via drag-and-drop from within a Web browser.

User permissions and security is role-based. Permissions like the ability to create, delete, or modify fonts and font sets, copy fonts in a collect for output or package operation, manage font licenses, and create or apply to fonts keywords, styles, classifications, and foundries are assigned to a specific role or user type. Users are then added to the role whose permissions match their job requirements. In this way each member of the team can do what she needs, but not what she doesn’t. For instance, an art director should be able to create new keywords in the Universal Type Client and apply them to specific fonts, but production designers may need to only apply existing keywords without the ability to create new ones.

UTS will ship with a selection of preconfigured roles, but these can be modified, renamed, or deleted, and new roles created with the allowed or denied rights required by your workflow and users.

In addition to roles, permissions may be modified globally according to workgroup–for example to grant all members of the “Prepress” workgroup the right to collect fonts for output. They can also be modified per user–to give only a specific individual the right to modify existing font sets, for instance.

License compliance is another major concern of type-heavy workflows, one which UTS addresses beautifully. Users lacking the specific rights to create (or add) fonts or modify existing font sets will be unable to add new fonts, protecting against unlicensed fonts creeping into the company. Proper licensing of authorized fonts is handled through a granular management system that offers the ability to limit the number of concurrent users of a specific font and even to withhold font availability on the expiration date of a license. Complete data concerning font licensing–number of seats, inception and expiration date, vendor, and more–can be stored inside the UTS database. Administrators can quickly find records according to licensing criteria, sort fonts by license criteria, and print out detailed reports for compliance and asset management officers.

The truly security conscious will be pleased to note an efficient backup system integrated directly into UTS. The entire database–fonts, sets, workgroups, users, roles, licensing information, and so on–can be backed up, downloaded, or saved to the server or network resource with the click of a button. In the event of data loss, backups can also be instantly restored just as easily. Because UTS is a Web-based interface to a SQL database, backups can be done at the server, from administrators’ desktops, from home, from the road, or from the local sports pub via iPhone. Daily or weekly automated backups can also be scheduled with a simple cron job.

[Click image to zoom] Managing client connections in Universal Type Server.

Detailed access and activity logs can be tracked, and IT personnel can manually open or close ports for JBoss HTTP / Web Service, Jetty Web App, JBoss AJP, JMX RMI Object Port, and more. During backups or server maintenance the entire UTS can be paused or restarted, and connected users manually disconnected–administrators can even push fonts down to client systems so that users may continue to work while the server is offline.

In larger workflows with more than a few users, UTS speeds the creation and management of password protected user accounts with import from LDAP Active Directory, and can even connect to external MS SQL 2005 databases.

Oh, yeah–and the server is fast. I don’t want to forget that point (again).

Small, Medium, and Large

Universal Type Server is currently still in development and will be released in Spring 2008. (Considering the confusion surrounding the 2007 release date for Creative Suite 3 due to Adobe’s fiscal year not matching up with the calendar year, I nailed Extensis down to a confirmation that UTS will release in calendar Spring 2008–that’s March, April, or May in the U.S.) The product will come in three flavors, each built for a specific workflow size.

Universal Type Server Lite allows up to 10 concurrent connections–the client can be installed on any number of desktop and laptop systems, but only ten connected at a single time. The Lite version will not include the ability to connect to external databases or LDAP/AD, and is intended as the font management solution for small workflows.

Universal Type Server Professional, which Extensis is positioning as the upgrade for existing Suitcase Server and Font Reserve Server customers, allows up to 250 concurrent client connections and includes a maintenance contract and priority 24-hour technical support. Connection to LDAP/AD and MS SQL 2005 databases will be available as an optional add-on.

Universal Type Server Corporate, the largest of the packages, automatically includes external database and Active Directory connectivity, a maintenance contract, priority 24-hour support, and connection to an unlimited number of concurrent users.

All versions of the server will include Universal Type Client, and both will arrive pre-configured for four languages–English, French, German, and Japanese. I’m very disappointed to see the lack of support for other major languages, most notably Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Cantonese. Extensis did indicate that they would entertain my suggestion to translate the server and client user interfaces into those languages, and perhaps even enable the UI for translation by third parties in a future release or patch.

Extensis has not yet set full or upgrade pricing for the three products. Customers under a current Annual Service Agreement with Extensis at the time of release will receive Universal Type Server and the clients free of charge.

System Requirements

Universal Type Server will support Mac OS X v10.4, 10.4 Server, 10.5 or 10.5 Server; G5 or faster processor; 1 GB RAM; 250 MB Hard Drive space + space for fonts; Safari 2.0 or Firefox 2.0 or higher; Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher; Adobe Reader 7.

Universal Type Server will also support Windows 2000 Server, Server 2003, XP Professional; P4 or faster processor; 1GB of RAM; 250 MB of hard disk space + space for fonts; Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0 or higher; Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher; Adobe Reader 7.

Universal Type Client for Macintosh will support Mac OS X v.10.4 or 10.5; 50 MB of hard disk space + space for fonts; 256 MB RAM; Safari 2.0 or Firefox 2.0 or higher; Adobe Reader 7.

Universal Type Client for Windows will support Windows XP Professional or Vista P4 or faster processor; 256 MB RAM 50 MB of hard disk space + space for fonts; Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.0 or higher; Adobe Reader 7; Microsoft .NET 2.0 for Windows XP installations.

Can You Be Cool All Alone?

As I said at the beginning, I was just fine with my desktop versions of Suitcase Fusion and Suitcase for Windows until I got a taste of broadband speed in UTS. Of course I had to ask: When will non-workgroup designers get a standalone desktop font manager with the speed and metadata features in Universal Type Client? Cindy Valladares, Extensis product marketing manager, merely smiled at me and said: “In a future release.” I’ll admit it: I am holding my breath.

If you happen to be at Macworld this week, stop by expo booth #1020 to see Extensis’ live debut and showcase of Universal Type Server. Tell them I said: “fast, fast, damn fast!”