Does AdobeCC have an actual Font-Management program?

Report · Jul 22, 2023

Does Adobe have an actual font-manager? I ask because I have a vast library of installed fonts, and it's a PAIN in the ( * ) to scroll through them or even make sense of them.

I've been using a font-management program called NexusFonts, which lets me tag my fonts and organize them into collections. That program does exactly what I want, but it's freeware, and so it's glitchy, and the interface leaves a lot to be desired. I can't believe that Adobe doesn't have anything comparable -- and yet, if they do, I've never seen it.

What Adobe "does" have is a really crappy "font manager" built-into the AdobeCC Desktop App. This font manager has ZERO features, and all it really does is serve as a portal to push you into downloading new fonts from Adobe's online portal. It doesn't let me tag my installed fonts, or organize them in any fashion. It only seems to be concerned with what fonts are available in the Adobe Cloud, which I really don't care about -- and even if I did, it doesn't let me organize them or tag them or make sense of them in any way. I mean, don't get me wrong, the fonts.adobe.com website has quite a variety of tools to search for exactly the right font for a project -- but then, after I choose to install that font, the font-manager in the AdobeCC Desktop App is beyond useless in helping me locate that font again when I might want it.

I'm just looking for a system which will allow me to manage my fonts -- whether they're installed on my PC, or whether they're in the Adobe Cloud. I want it to see all the fonts which will surface in any Adobe app on my PC. I want it to let me tag fonts with meaningful descriptors, and search for those tags later; I want it to let me create arbitrary "collections" of fonts (which is useful for keeping track of what fonts I've used in various projects over the years); I want it to manage what fonts are currently installed in the Windows Fonts folder, while also keeping track of fonts installed in a separate offline "fonts library." These are all very useful features, and there are other programs that do these things. Nexus Fonts is one such program, but it's glitchy. I can't believe that Adobe has never bothered to create something along those lines. Have they?

Report · Jul 24, 2023

Hi @ryand24452278 ,

Thank you for reaching us. Yes, the Creative Cloud Desktop application version 5.11 has a font management component. You could do a lot more with these components. You could add a font for use in Adobe
apps, also optionally install the font for use in non-Adobe software. You could click the fonts icon in the Creative Cloud Desktop application and view all added fonts from fonts.adobe.com to the CCD application; all installed fonts can delete the fonts. When you click on installed fonts: You will find options to view the recently expired fonts list, which you can reinstall and "expiring soon" and renew for another five months. Please refer to the below article for more details:

https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/add-fonts-desktop.html

Please let me know if this is what you are looking for.

We are here to help you. We hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you,

Neelam

Report · Jul 24, 2023

I have over 1000 fonts in an offline fonts-library on a non-system HDD. I'd like to be able to browse the contents of that fonts-library without installing the fonts. I'd like to type-in sample text and see what it would look like in any of those fonts. A real font-management program would let me do that. Will the Adobe font manager let me do that?

I'd also like to similarly be able to browse through the installed fonts in my Windows "Fonts" folder. I'd like to be able to tag them with meaningful descriptors, and search through them using those tags. I'd also like to be able to group them into arbitrary collections named after different projects I'm working on, so I can keep track of which fonts I used in which project. I'd like to be able to do all of this in a standalone font-management application, so that I can have that application open side-by-side with Photoshop or Illustrator or whatever other Adobe app I'm using.

From what I can see, Adobe has no such app. I am aware of the "very featureless" font-manager built-into the CC Desktop app, and I am aware of the fonts.adobe.com website. While fonts.adobe.com does have a number of helpful features for locating fonts that I don't have installed but might want to install -- it DOESN'T provide any way for me to assign personalized tags, or to group these fonts into arbitrary collections. So, even on fonts.adobe.com, there doesn't appear to be any real sort of font-management capability, regarding the fonts which are stored online or otherwise.

If I am wrong, and Adobe does provide something with actual font-management features (arbitrary tagging of fonts, and the ability to create arbitrary "collections" of fonts), please let me know. Thanks!

Report · Jul 24, 2023

By the way, there are numerous non-Adobe applications which might be described as "actual font management programs." The problem with those is that I'd rather use an Adobe program, if such a program exists -- and it seems like a really glaring and weird oversight by Adobe if it doesn't.

For reference, check out:
Nexus Font https://www.xiles.app/
Maintype: https://www.high-logic.com/font-manager/maintype

Both of these are programs which fit the bill of what I am talking about. Adobe has nothing which even comes close to matching their feature-set. If I'm wrong, please point me in the right direction.

Report · Aug 08, 2023

Hi @ryand24452278 ,

Thank you for the detailed feature request for Font management capability to help you browse through the installed fonts in your Windows "Fonts" folder, tag them with meaningful descriptors, and search them using those tags. Even I find it more useful if this can be added in the upcoming release/update. I would recommend you to share your suggestion to let our development team to consider it through

https://adobefonts.uservoice.com/forums/940222-adobe-fonts-feature-requests-and-feedback

We appreciate your feedback and support.

Thank you,

Neelam

Report · Jan 27, 2024

I'm not sure what others need, but I design stuff for companies who allow only specific fonts in their designs. I'd like to be able to use a subset collection of the fonts I have installed for each company. For example CompanyOne has a font list, CompanyTwo has a font list, and be able to switch between the two depending on whom I'm designing for. It's been a total pain to look through in one case thousands of supported fonts, to make sure it's acceptable, and the other has a couple hundred, and it looks sloppy if you mess up and use the wrong font. It would be amazing to have that built right into illustrator and photoshop so I could just use a subset in the actual application. If that's not possible, then being able to turn on and off collections in creative cloud would be helpful. The ones that are installed on mac I can add to a collection in the font app, but that doesn't work with the adobe fonts.

Report · Sep 16, 2024

*Illustator, Photoshop, and InDesign! It absolutely blows my mind that this isn't available already.

Report · Sep 18, 2024

The Adobe Fonts service and the Fonts section in the CC Desktop app is not an all-in-one font management app. And it doesn't need to be such a thing either. Fonts synced online from Adobe Fonts are very different from font files installed locally on a computer's hard disc drive. I prefer Adobe Fonts being a separate entity from all the "local" fonts that I have.

I am not a big fan of traditional font management applications either. They can tend to run in a very sluggish manner if they're handling a large number of fonts. They can also perform badly if they're referencing fonts that are poorly authored. The rival CorelDRAW application has a built-in fonts manager that has a Jekyll and Hyde personality. If you're scrolling through the fonts list and hit a problematic font it can freeze-up the application for several seconds or just make the app crash.

Report · Aug 10, 2023

I'm curious to know whether Adobe Creative Cloud (Adobe CC) offers a dedicated font management program. I've heard discussions about font management being a crucial aspect of design workflows, and I'm wondering if Adobe CC provides a solution for this.

Additionally, if Adobe CC does offer a font management program, could you please provide insights or guidance on how I can effectively adopt and integrate it into our website Golden Tree Roofing? I'm interested in enhancing our website's typography and design, and I believe efficient font management plays a significant role in achieving that goal.

Report · Aug 10, 2023

I'm the person who started this particular post, and I thought I'd share with you what I've learned. It doesn't seem like Adobe DOES have an in-house font-management solution. For that, I've turned to using MainType 11, which does everything I want it to do, and works really well:

https://www.high-logic.com/font-manager/maintype

I still find it a little crazy that Adobe doesn't have such a tool of their own, especially since font-management can be such a crucial part of workflow. (At least, it is for me.)

Adobe does have what I'd call a kind of half-tool for font-managment. They have their "fonts.adobe.com" website. And don't get me wrong, it's a pretty nice tool for finding new fonts you might want to use, and then installing those fonts. But it's not really a comprehensive "font management tool," because it doesn't let you browse/tag installed system-fonts, or other fonts you might have stored offline.

Report · Mar 21, 2025

Hey @ryand24452278 !

When you're working on a Photoshop design in Windows and want to add a new font to your design which is on your local hard drive, can you open (or switch over to) MainType, activate the font, and then switch back to Photoshop and see the new font in Photoshop without having to quit and relaunch Photoshop? -thanks!

p.s. Are you still using MainType in 2025 or has Adobe's built-in font manager improved enough to use that?

Report · Mar 25, 2025

I am still using MainType in 2025. Adobe has enhanced their font-handling abilities a bit here and there, but they still don't let me assign arbitrary tags to fonts. I can group "cloud fonts" into project-groups within the Adobe App, which is nice. But nothing Adobe offers allows me to easily browse my entire offline library of fonts and create custom collections, assign custom tags, and activate/deactivate fonts as I find necessary. MainType lets me do all those things.

In answer to your other question: I tested by opening Photoshop (v26.4.1), typing some text and assigning a font of "Niagra Engraved." Then I opened MainType (v12.0.0.1340 64-bit), and deactivated the "Niagra Engraved" and "Niagra Solid" fonts. Those fonts then disappeared from my list of available fonts within Photoshop. The text still appeared to be rendered in the Niagra font -- but when I selected a different font, I couldn't change that text back to Niagra. The "Niagra" option had disappeared from Photoshop, all without me having to restart the program.

So then I re-activated (re-installed) the same two Niagra fonts within MainType. Switched back over to Photoshop, selected the same text again, and tried to set the font back to Niagra. And there it was again, listed in my font menu: Niagra. I sucessfully switched back to that font. Again, without having to restart Photoshop.

To be honest, I was a little surprised that worked. I have generally been in the habit of restarting Photoshop anytime I activate new fonts, because I don't really deactivate/reactivate fonts very often.

Report · Mar 25, 2025

Thanks much for taking the time to share your testing results.

Since you often restart Photoshop when you activate new fonts, when you reopen version 26, do you still have access to the Photoshop History step-by-step back states, or do the History back states reset?

Like you, with fonts stored on a local HDD, I have many thousands of fonts stored on a non-system drive. Unlike you, a subscription holder of Creative Cloud's latest and greatest, I still design on a decade old perpetual license of Photoshop CS6 and manage all my fonts with another equally old perpetual license of Extensis Suitcase Fusion! In CS6, when you close and reopen a Photoshop file, the history states are returned as free scratch space so are reset and there's no longer any ability to use the History states to step back and make changes to the design. As Suitcase Fusion allows me to activate/deactivate fonts without needing to relaunch Photoshop, I've just stuck with what works for me. But I'm glad to hear that Maintype is compatible with current Photoshop.

I've visited the High-Logic.com website and I'm impressed with MainType. It may be time for me to move to Windows 11, get with the AI, and start a subscription to the Creative Cloud Photography plan! Can MainType also manage Adobe Cloud fonts or will I be using the fonts.adobe.com website + Creative Cloud desktop app or, whatever, for that? "Cloud" fonts will be a totally new wrinkle for this old timer so how you manage both cloud and local fonts interests me.

Report · Mar 28, 2025

I'm not sure I can answer all your questions, and I don't want to mislead you with hasty assumptions. I'm not familiar with Suitcase Fusion, so I can't speak toward how it compares wtih MainType. However, I can answer your question about the Undo history in Photoshop v26.4.1. The undo history does still get wiped when you close and re-open the program. I never really considered what a workflow issue that might be; I'm so used to saving my work as I go, or saving as various drafts, that it's no bother for me to save my current draft before closing and re-opening. I guess I probably don't use my undo history as extensively as you do.

I sympathize with your use of the legacy CS6 version. I do wish Adobe hadn't gone with a subscription-based model. To be honest, the only reason I have a license for it is because I work for a school district where Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere Pro are taught as curriculum. I'm the IT support for these classes, therefore I it's useful for me to have a subscription, so that I can offer relevant support.