Using FontAgent to Detect Duplicates

Handling duplicate fonts is among the most common font management problems. A good part of the challenge starts with understanding what constitutes a duplicate.

Technically, to be duplicates fonts must be bit-for-bit identical. Any small difference between fonts makes them unique – including different font names, family names, styles, weights, font formats, foundries, designers, file sizes, version numbers, copyrights, even manual modifications to individual glyphs.

However, many designers have their own definition of duplicates, often involving the shape of glyphs and the appearance of kerning pairs. Sometimes they are willing to ignore the fonts’ metadata or even their foundries. In other words, the decision of which fonts are duplicates comes down to individual choice.

Finding Duplicates Using Smart Searching

To help you discover and resolve the differences among font files, FontAgent includes a Has Duplicates operator in its search facility. To perform a new search, follow these steps:

• Click the binocular icon appearing in the top-right of the FontAgent toolbar as shown below.
• Select Has Duplicates from the pull down menu shown on the left below.

Next, check the attributes you require to consider fonts as duplicates as shown and explained below.

Font Name Matches
Check this box to require fonts to have identical font names (e.g., Deering Bold Italic) in their metadata to be considered as duplicates.

Format Matches
Check this box to require fonts to be of the same font format (e.g., OpenType, TrueType) to be considered as duplicates.

Version Matches
Check this box to require fonts to have identical version numbers (e.g., 1.7) in their metadata to be considered as duplicates.

Using these straightforward comparisons you can identify fonts that are either identical or close replacements for each other. You can also define your own searches for duplicates using FontAgent’s search facility.

To further inspect similar fonts, use the Table View and Properties Inspector in right sidebar of FontAgent.