Updated Text tools

I don't think the basic text tool options have changed since v1.0. Rather than imrove them, Apple has thrown in other apps or plugins (Livetype, Motion, Boris) that force us to round-trip just to get the right typeface. I might do my titles in those others apps, or even Photoshop+AE, but it's so frustrating that I can't even make a quick lower-third in FCP with say, Franklin Gothic - Medium.

I do a lot of graphic design in other programs where I have full access to every loaded font on my system and all of it's weights (plain, medium, bold, italic, extra bold, etc.). FCP has always had crappy font support expecially with Postscript fonts; if I try to use one I often get the first font in the family -- which is usually an italic face -- and no access to the rest of the font weights. The "Style" drop-down is useless, it simply adds thickness to create a bold or slants text to make it italic, not the "true" versions in the font.

ALL of the other Studio video apps (DVDSP, Motion, LT) have complete font controls and even the most basic OSX app like TextEdit has a nice font palette built-in. FCP's text tool seems like a fossil from a previous era...

John K Wrote:
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> I don't think the basic text tool options have
> changed since v1.0. Rather than imrove them, Apple
> has thrown in other apps or plugins (Livetype,
> Motion, Boris) that force us to round-trip just to
> get the right typeface. I might do my titles in
> those others apps, or even Photoshop+AE, but it's
> so frustrating that I can't even make a quick
> lower-third in FCP with say, Franklin Gothic -
> Medium.
>
> I do a lot of graphic design in other programs
> where I have full access to every loaded font on
> my system and all of it's weights (plain, medium,
> bold, italic, extra bold, etc.). FCP has always
> had crappy font support expecially with Postscript
> fonts; if I try to use one I often get the first
> font in the family -- which is usually an italic
> face -- and no access to the rest of the font
> weights. The "Style" drop-down is useless, it
> simply adds thickness to create a bold or slants
> text to make it italic, not the "true" versions in
> the font.
>
> ALL of the other Studio video apps (DVDSP, Motion,
> LT) have complete font controls and even the most
> basic OSX app like TextEdit has a nice font
> palette built-in. FCP's text tool seems like a
> fossil from a previous era...


I second that... allthought he lower third tool i s ahndy for doing lower thirds...
the font management is a night mare... we have 1 machine, a g5 with fcp5 and
its locked onto one font permanently....Weve trashed prefs, re installed. disabled the font, trashed the font,,, no matter what it won t move off that one font...and it only happens on the basic text function.