Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 2/13/2008

Question
QUESTION: I've always used Adobe Illustrator on a Windows OS, recently I purchased a Macbook Pro and can't figure out how to toggle through fonts within Adobe Illustrator.

In Windows I click in the fonts drop down, click the down arrow to toggle through the various fonts I have installed.

I have also installed Linotype Font Explorer X to manage & clean the font cache, but this has had no effect with my problem.

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Simon,

First, congrats on installing FontExplorer, you will be very happy with it.

Now, to toggle through your (active) fonts, all you have to do is click the character drop down in the options bar while in the text tool, it is the same way for a mac.

However, make sure your mouse is away from the menu or it will fight you. So click once and move away, it should stay open.

Clearing your font cache, while a good practice from time to time, has no effect on things like font menus in applications.

Thanks

Kevin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your reply, think I didn't make my question clear. I've used Illustrator for a while now, but moved to a mac. Using CS3 what im trying to do and heaven forbid I don't know why its not working is scan through the fonts using the up & down arrow keys to change my type. I have the 'text' selected, character menu font highlighted but when I use the arrow keys nothing seem to happen. Never had this problem before

I've read this thread: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Macintosh-OS-1063/Toggling-fonts-Illustrator-CS3.htm

yet my problem is not solved I know its minor but when your doing logo work you just want to quickly flick through all the fonts you have using the arrow keys without going through the menu.

Appreciate your response.

Answer
Hi Simon,

If you are talking about live preview, where your font changes on your text while you toggle, that option is not available in Illustrator CS3. Sorry. Illustrator is the only app that does not support it at this time.

What I normally do, but its not as nice as CS2, is to go to Font Explorer, and in the preview window, type in my text and toggle through in there. Also, it saves me from having a lot of fonts loaded unnecessarily.

Thanks

Kevin