There was a time when just about everyone used Suitcase, for font management, and ATM was for screen crispness. As Mac OS developed Suitcase became static and eventually all but disappeared. There were compatibility problems with PowerPC, then other problems. When Adobe brought out ATM4 Deluxe that was the end of Suitcase. It was eventually taken over by Extensis, the manufacturer of many solid XTensions and plug-ins for the graphics industry. It looked like Suitcase had returned from the dead.
I have been using ATM4 for some time now, and apart from a minor incompatibility problem with XPress and Mac OS 8.5, I find it functional and easy to use. For old times’ sake I thought I would give the revitalised Suitcase a try, but I am not overly impressed.
The compatibility problems have been resolved and a couple of new features added but it is basically the same program with a cosmetic job. Sets are created in the same way, although fonts can now be drag and dropped into them from the desktop. What has been added is MenuFonts™. Previously an independent extension, it is an optional, yet integrated, feature that gives WYSIWYG font menus, font information (TT or PS) and grouping by family, as in Adobe Type Reunion. I have never found this to be a great feature. It requires ATM (non Deluxe version, obviously) to work, and surely if you have installed a font you must have a pretty fair idea of what it looks like. With today’s powerful machines speed is not a problem, but on older machines I remember having long waits while the font menu drew itself. I also find it less aesthetically pleasing than Type Reunion.
 
Also included in the bundle is an XTension for XPress that automatically opens (and closes) fonts when you open a document. It does, however, require the fonts to be in a Suitcase set. It is not enough for it to be on your hard drive or server. This feature is available in ATM and is global rather than exclusive, and the latest version, 4.5, has overcome that rather annoying habit of leaving all fonts it has autoloaded open. It even offers several options of when and how fonts/sets are activated/deactivated. ATM will even use its Multiple Master technology to simulate fonts if they are missing from our system.
The final part of the Suitcase bundle is FontAgent, a utility 
very similar to FontBox, that will scour your disk for all
fonts and sort them for you, removing duplicates and
warning of damaged fonts and missing screen or printer
fonts. It can be a great help if you work in a large studio
or repro house but use it with great caution. As they say,
‘always read the label first’. It will move ALL fonts to a
new fonts folder including those needed by the System! If
you are a lone Mac designer then a bit of careful
housekeeping is much safer, if you work in a studio then
you probably have neither the time, nor inclination, to run
this program.
 
ATM now offers Manage Duplicates a fully controllable method of managing duplicate fonts on your system, giving a variety of solutions. It will even check for matches whenever a new font is added to your system. ATM also now offers drag and drop in both directions. You can drag a Set from ATM to a removable disk and all the fonts will be copied for sending to a bureau. (The interesting thing is that in their documentation Adobe support sending fonts to bureaux, even though according to their font licensing it is illegal.) So using a pre flight program or an XTension like Font Collector (see this issue’s XPhiles) should not really be such a problem.
Also included in ATM 4.5’s bundle is an updated version of Type Reunion and 15 display fonts.
When comparing the two feature for feature and value for money I can’t really see Suitcase returning to its former position of glory. ATM 4.5 is now an even more powerful Type Manager offering all that Suitcase does, and more, but in a more tightly integrated package with a cleaner interface. Price wise they are about equal which does make ATM slightly better value with its inclusive fonts.
For those who could never quite get to grips with ATM Deluxe will welcome the return of Suitcase and its added features. A word of warning - be very careful using FontAgent, particularly if you are fairly new to the Mac.
With the timely release of ATM 4.5 Suitcase will not be go beyond being a demo version on my machine, especially as it still requires the free, non Deluxe version of ATM. If you want to test Suitcase 8 for yourself you can download it from http://www.extensis.com.
