Is there a way to sort fonts inside Photoshop, as “serif,” “sans-serif,” “script,” etc.?

Question

In my years as a graphic designer (and now web designer and developer,) I've acquired a great number of fonts; inasmuch as backing them up was a responsibility paramount attendant upon formatting my computer.

I've deleted quite a few (leaving a lot in stored .zip files,) but I still have over 800 fonts. Needles to say, I don't use upwards of 70% (if not more) of them.

. . .

I'm looking to delete a lot of my fonts, and a way to organize (inside Photoshop) the ones that remain as:

• Serif
• Sans-serif
• Script
• etc...

I'm curious if this is possible--or if I going through my fonts directory and renaming all the files is an option (eg. "Serif - Times New Roman," "Serif - Georgia," "Sans-serif - Arial," etc.)

(I imagine there might be some consequences with the operating system if I rename key fonts...)

I'd appreciate any insight--thank you!

Edit: I initially asked this question as a Windows user. I ended up using Font Explorer X Pro after moving to OSX, where I now manage a much smaller collection.

I'd still love a way to label/sort fonts serif, sans-serif, slab, script, et al. inside photoshop!

Answer 1

Photoshop organize fonts into a convenient alphanumerical listing,as our window do,if you want to sort fonts the way you like, you have to get a Font management software such as extensis suitcase, you can organize your fonts into folders / categories or whatever and then use them.

where ever i know there's still no way to organise within programs.

Answer 2

"but I still have over 800 fonts"

Think like a craftsman. Consider yourself a fine woodworker. You need tools. You may have saws for cutting.

Should you have 800 of them lying around? Likely no, as that would be expensive, and overkill and just trying to organize 800 saws would be a nightmare.

You'll likely have a few cross-cut saws, a few ripping saws, a coping saw or two, maybe a hack saw. Then on occasion you'll have your set of Japanese saws, a dovetail saw. And then the odd extra few that you purchased for those rare needs or just because you liked the look of them.

Graphic design isn't a whole lot different than that. We need tools, typefaces being one of the more important ones. Over the years as a graphic designer, you likely will have found that you probably go back to a few dozen of work horse typefaces for a majority of your everyday type needs. Those are likely the only fonts you should have installed.

Granted, there's always a need for a this or that special typeface, but those you likely aren't using every single day. So put those in storage = a font manager. There you can catalog and categorize to your hearts content, but they are put nicely out of the way and aren't cluttering your work bench.

Answer 3

I don't use it as a primary Font Manager (I use Linotype FontExplorer), but TypeDNA has a lot of features which will allow you to filter through the fonts on your system. I use it all the time for this purpose. You can filter by serif/sans-serif, symbol/non-symbol, weight, obliqueness and several other attributes. They have a free unrestricted trial http://typedna.com/. (EDIT: It is also the only font manager I know of that plays well with other font managers. You can use it alongside pretty much any other font manager, as long as you don't use it to activate fonts.)

It comes with a Photoshop Panel extension that allows you to see all your fonts (even "de-activated" ones) in a Photoshop panel, and use all of the built-in font filters. For more specific criteria that the program can't filter for, you can just create your own groups and put the fonts you want in those.

Here's a screenshot of the Photoshop Panel with the panel set to filter my "Google Fonts" group by serif-only: