Extensis has announced Universal Type Server 3, an upgrade to its server-based font management software. This new release, which features updated font reporting technology, is designed to help companies oversee their font usage while guarding against the font misuse and license infringements that can lead to lawsuits. The product underscores the fact that font license agreements are just as strict as software licenses, and that companies can be sued—and incur heavy penalties—for font license violations.
“Our customers are hearing more and more about font compliance vulnerabilities and looking for a reliable way to protect themselves,” said Chris Meyer, senior product manager at Extensis. “They need to track, and in some cases lock down, font usage across the organization. Universal Type Server 3 ensures companies are safeguarded, while still fostering the creative process.”
Universal Type Server 3 lets organizations distribute licensed fonts to an entire work group, keep unlicensed, so-called “rogue” fonts out of the workflow, track font usage, alert administrators when font use exceeds licensing, and maintain font compliance across all systems.
It also features protection against power interruptions, various client creativity tools, and plug-in support for Adobe InCopy and Adobe Photoshop.
Universal Type Server 3 is Web-administered, and additional new features include the following: an updated interface; font snapshot previews to aid in client collaboration; the ability to create sets from selections; font cache cleaning on the Mac; QuickMatch to help find fonts with similar glyphs, and more. A universal Type Core Client program, which has no interface, can be installed on any machine so that administrators can monitor font compliance remotely.
Universal Type Server 3 will be available in June. It works on Macs running OS X 10.5 and 10.6. Pricing has not yet been released.
Universal Type Server 3