To automatically activate precisely the correct fonts used in documents, Connect Fonts includes plug-in software modules that use the Extensis Font Sense technology.
The Connect Fonts desktop app includes plug-ins for recent versions of Adobe After Effects, InCopy, InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop, and Sketch. (Sketch, from Sketch B.V., is only available for macOS.)
The plug-in saves Font Sense metadata—information that uniquely identifies fonts—with your documents, and then uses that metadata to automatically activate the correct fonts when you open a document.
Installing plug-ins
When you first start the Connect Fonts desktop app, it searches your computer for compatible applications, and then:
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If this is a new installation, the setup wizard will give you the option to install plug-ins for the applications it found.
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If this is an upgrade from an older version, the desktop app will alert you to missing or incompatible plug-ins and offer to install newer versions for you.
If you have installed a new application and the Preferences window does not allow you to install the new plug-in, you can force the Connect Fonts desktop app to re-scan for applications by quitting and re-starting the desktop app.
Your design application will not recognize the new plug-in until you quit and restart it.
Updating plug-ins
Occasionally, Extensis will update an auto-activation plug-in, to fix a bug, add new functionality, or to correct an incompatibility due to a software update.
Plug-in updates are distributed as part of the Connect Fonts desktop app update; if you don’t have automatic update checks enabled, then you should perform a manual update check regularly.
Each time that you start the desktop app, it checks whether it has newer plug-ins for your software and will offer to update them for you.
If you choose to skip the update, you can update the plug-ins manually through the Preferences window.
When you update a plug-in, be sure to quit and re-start the design application to have it recognize the update.
Accessing the plug-in
There are some differences in how you access and use the Extensis auto-activation plug-ins between design applications.
Adobe After Effects and Photoshop
In After Effects and Photoshop, you access the auto-activation features of the Extensis plug-in through a dialog.
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To access the dialog from After Effects, choose Window > Extensis.
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To access the dialog from Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis.
To perform any of the functions of the plug-in, open the Connect Fonts dialog, perform the function, then click OK in the dialog.
Adobe Illustrator, InCopy, and InDesign
In Illustrator, InCopy, and InDesign, the auto-activation features are available from a sub-menu. Choose Type > Connect Fonts > (function), where (function) is the desired auto-activation feature.
Sketch
The auto-activation plugin for Sketch does not have any user settings.
You can enable or disable the plugin from within the Sketch application; choose Plugins > Manage Plugins.
Plug-in settings
The plug-in for each Adobe application allows you to set preferences for whether auto-activation is enabled and how it behaves. The settings available are:
| SETTING | APPLICATIONS SUPPORTED | DEFAULT | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable Connect Fonts Auto-Activation | All | On |
This setting allows the plug-in to communicate with the Type Core and activate fonts when you open a document. With this setting turned off, the application can only use those fonts that are activated manually (including those activated from within the Extensis Font Panel). |
| Enable Font Sense Support | All except After Effects | On |
This setting allows the plug-in to save Font Sense data with the document. If this setting is disabled, the plug-in tries to determine the fonts used by font name information alone, which may result in the incorrect font being activated. |
| Pick the best match when original is missing | All except After Effects | On |
If this setting is enabled and the original font as determined by the plug-in is not available, the plug-in will use a smart algorithm to determine which font to activate. If this setting is disabled, control over what to do about a missing font is turned over to the application. |
| Activate fonts in embedded objects | InCopy, InDesign | On |
If a document includes an embedded graphic, the plug-in will attempt to activate fonts used in that object. If an embedded object is an Illustrator EPS or Photoshop PSD with unrasterized font layers, the plug-in will look for FontSense metadata in the embedded graphic and use that. Otherwise, the plug-in identifies fonts used in the embedded object by name. |
| Activate entire font family | All | Off | If this is enabled, then the plug-in will activate an entire family rather than one face. |
| Close opened fonts: When <application> quits |
All | On | If this is enabled, the plug-in will deactivate fonts that were activated by the application when you quit the application. |
| Close opened fonts: On document close |
All except Photoshop | Off | If this is enabled, the plug-in will deactivate any fonts that it activated when you opened the document. |
Using the plug-ins
When you open a document that contains Font Sense metadata, the auto-activation plug-in reads the metadata to see what fonts are used, and then automatically activates precisely those fonts (provided the fonts reside in the selected library). The following fonts are considered to be “used” in a document:
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Fonts applied to text.
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The font specified in the application’s Normal style sheet.
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Fonts applied to text on master pages, whether or not the master pages are applied to document pages.
Sketch
The auto-activation plugin for Sketch does not have any user settings.
When you save a document with Sketch, the plugin saves Font Sense metadata with the document.
When you open a document that contains Font Sense metadata, the Connect Fonts desktop app will automatically activate the exact font (if it is available on your system).
When you open a document that does not contain Font Sense metadata, the desktop app will use “best match” rules to determine which fonts to activate.
If a font is unavailable on your system, Sketch will display a message in the top right corner of its window; you can click this message for more information.
Plug-ins and libraries
The auto-activation plug-ins can be configured to activate fonts from all libraries (the default) or from a single library.
If you need to create documents with fonts from a single library (for instance, if you have all of a specific client’s fonts in a separate library), you can use just that library.
When you open a document, the plug-in activates fonts in the document from the selected library.
If fonts are reported as missing, you may have the wrong library selected; switch libraries and check the document’s fonts.
You can change libraries at any time, even while a document is open and fonts are active.
To change library settings:
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In Adobe After Affects, choose.Window > Extensis to open the Extensis dialog, then select a specific library or All Libraries from the Select Library pop-up menu.
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In Adobe Illustrator, InCopy, or InDesign, chooseType > Connect Fonts > Select Library, then select a specific library or All Libraries.
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In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis, then select a library from the Select Library pop-up menu.
Checking the fonts in a document
Any time you want to ensure that all the fonts used in a document are active, you can use the Check Document Fonts command.
For example, if you drag an InDesign snippet onto a page, the fonts used in the snippet may not be active. Or, if you apply a previously unused style sheet to text, a font specified in the style sheet may not be active.
To check document fonts:
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In Adobe After Effects, choose Window > Extensis, then click Check Document Fonts.
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In Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, or InCopy, choose Type > Connect Fonts > Check Document Fonts.
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In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis, then click Check Document Fonts.
Creating a set from an open document
The auto-activation plug-ins add a Create Document Set command directly to the application.
This creates a set consisting of all the fonts applied to text on printing pages in the active document (or layout).
For example, a 20-page newsletter created using InDesign might use many diverse fonts. You may wish to use these same fonts in future newsletters. Creating a set in Connect Fonts and then locating and adding each font to it would be time consuming. The auto-activation plug-ins can find the fonts and create the set automatically. The set will be built from the fonts available in the current library.
To create a set from a document:
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Open a document and make sure all the fonts are active.
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Select the desired library:
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In Adobe After Effects, choose Window > Extensis then choose a library from the Select Library pop-up menu.
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In Adobe Illustrator, InCopy, or InDesign, choose Type > Connect Fonts > Select Library then select a library.
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In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis and select a library from the Select Library pop-up menu.
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Create the set:
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In After Effects, choose Window > Extensis, then click Create Document Set.
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In Illustrator, InCopy, or InDesign, choose Type > Connect Fonts > Create Document Set.
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In Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis, then click Create Document Set.
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Type a name for the set and click OK.
If the fonts in the document change, be sure to recreate the set or add the new fonts to the set manually.
Collecting fonts from within design applications
When a document is finished and ready for delivery to a service bureau, you can collect the fonts used in a document to include with the delivery.
The Collect Fonts for Output feature creates a copy of all the fonts applied to text on printing pages in the active document or layout.
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Open the document or select the layout and make sure no fonts are missing.
The plug-ins cannot collect missing fonts.
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Collect the fonts:
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In Adobe After Effects, choose Window > Extensis, then click Collect Fonts for Output.
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In Adobe Illustrator, InCopy, or InDesign, choose Type > Connect Fonts > Collect Fonts for Output.
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In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Extensis and click Collect Fonts for Output.
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Navigate to the location where you want to save the collected fonts, type a name for the folder, then click Save.
The Connect Fonts desktop app copies the fonts to the new folder.
Collecting document fonts from within the Connect Fonts desktop app
If you are using the document tracking feature of the Connect Fonts desktop app, you can collect the fonts that are used in a tracked document directly from within the desktop app, without having to open the document.
To collect a document’s fonts, right-click on the document, then choose Collect for Output from the shortcut menu.
To learn more, see Collecting documents.