Not a day goes by that there isn’t a user complaining that CorelDRAW just isn’t as fast as they’d like. There can be a variety of reasons for things going slow. Sure, it can be CorelDRAW itself. It can also be an underpowered computer. Yet one of the things that can slow down CorelDRAW and your system is having too many fonts installed.
How many is too many? The definition can vary. What is very clear is that the fewer the number of fonts, the faster the system will run. I like to use 200 fonts as a maximum. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have more fonts on your hard drive. As an example, I have at least 15,000 fonts on my computer. The key is that you install install the fonts you need at the current time. Using the Bitstream Font Navigator utility supplied with CorelDRAW can help with font management. A great alternative is the Font Expert utility that I wrote about in March 2010. Not only will you find that your system runs faster, your font menus will be much shorter so that it is easier to font the font you need.
What a great reminder. I checked and couldn’t believe that I had 850 fonts installed! I’ve trimmed it down to 300 and see a giant difference in speed. I’m blaming Font Friday for a lot of those 800. It’s so easy to install just see if I like them, and then forget to remove what I won’t be using.
Thanks
So, how does it work?
How do I use font navigator for reducing the number of fonts available in draw and change them based on what I need at the time?
I mean, can I group fonts based on what I use for a document and automatically install just those when I need them and uninstall them when I don’t?
And can I do that only for corel Draw? Meaning can I have all my fonts installed in the computer but not in draw?
Thanks for any clarification you can give, as you can imagine fonts are something I never gave much thought to.
Daniela,
You might want to read my article The Last Word in Font Management as it gives you details on how to manage your fonts. You’ll find expanded details in my CorelDRAW X4 Unleashed book and in the upcoming CorelDRAW X5 Unleashed Advanced Topics.
Thanks! Will do!
Daniela
I make a basic “group” in Font Navigator of the most-used fonts (about 100). Inevitably, over time, more and more fonts are installed for specific uses. Periodically I use “select all” and “delete” (in Font Navigator) to get rid of ALL the fonts, then drag the basic group over to the “installed fonts” window, and I’m back in business. If I open a Corel drawing that needs one of the deleted fonts, the program prompts me and then automatically installs the missing font.