Design, print and publishing businesses face many challenges managing their font workflows for consistency, compliance and efficiency. As the size of the agencies and businesses grows, it becomes ever harder to track font licenses and usage; synchronize fonts, sets and libraries; ensure font integrity; and maintain multiple libraries. To the rescue come server-based font management solutions that are typically designed to be set up and administered by the firms's IT department.

The FontAgent Pro font management system is designed with creative professionals in mind, delivering diagnostics, repair, font selection, font book creation and design tools within a single application. The Server iteration builds on this by including server-based performance and reliability, support for multiple font libraries and formats, distribution and synchronization of fonts, and the ability to administer fonts, sets, users and groups.

Suitable for large workgroups, agencies and enterprises, it features an "integrity manager" to keep corrupt and problem fonts from being added to the server, with the goal of preventing crashes and output problems across the enterprise. While it manages font synchronization, users can retain a local copy of distributed fonts, ensuring that a server failure won't result in user downtime. No dedicated server hardware is required, with the software able to run on any OS X-equipped Mac.

Version 4 adds font-usage tracking, live backup, automatic failover server access, Kerberos single-sign-on support, directory-services enhancements, and live backup services of its entire database of fonts. It now also includes a real-time font-usage manager, which shows who has access to various libraries and fonts as well as when they activate and deactivate them.

FontAgent Pro Server 4 for Macintosh is priced at priced at $1,695, with each connected user requiring a licensed version of the FontAgent Pro client, priced is $129.95 per seat. More information and a trial version are available on the Insider Software site.