Insider Software on Thursday announced the release of FontAgent Pro Server 2.0, a new version of their font management software for workgroups. FontAgent Pro Server 20 costs $1,695; each user is also required to have a licensed copy of FontAgent Pro, which costs $129.95.
FontAgent Pro Server helps workgroups synchronize fonts, sets and libraries, and also helps ensure that fonts are working properly. The software maintains multiple font libraries and can work connected or disconnected from the client. It also helps you administer font licenses.
New to the 2.0 release is a new multi-threaded architecture that Insider claims results in a five to tenfold increase in font server speed and scalability on Intel-based Macs. This expands FontAgent Pro Server’s capacity to tens of thousands of fonts and also dramatically increases the supported number of users.
A new license manager more effectively tracks license usage and will send warnings to administrators if license limitations are exceeded. The software also performs “smarter” incremental updates of font libraries on both the client and the server, reducing bandwidth usage and increasing speed.
The 2.0 version now uses a more efficient transport layer based on XML and TCP/IP — this means that administrators can automate disk-image distribution of FontAgent Pro software across the network and use custom ports for tighter security.
FontAgent Pro Server 2.0 requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later, 30MB of disk space and 256MB RAM. No dedicated server hardware is needed.
Insider Software’s Web site had not been updated with information about the 2.0 release as Macworld posted this article.