Fontmatrix User Manual - The very basics - Why Fontmatrix

## Why Fontmatrix

So, what's so good about Fontmatrix in the world of Extensis and Linotype?

It works wherever you go to. It doesn't matter if you are Linux, Windows or Mac user. You can keep all of them around and still be using same app everywhere. We don't try to look too smart and tell you what system is the best (though we know :)). We just give Fontmatrix to you.

You don't need to pay for every installed copy. We don't take to masses this marketing desease of riding the gravy train. We are just and not greedy. We love great typefaces and great designs. We did Fontmatrix because we needed it for our work. So we simply share it with you. You are free in your choice of ways to thank us for that. As in the ways of not doing it at all.

We don't do marketing brainwashing. Yes, we don't use words like "best", or "cheapest" or "bargain" when we are talking to you. Our job is to be passionate about typefaces and font technologies and to put this passion to a good use. We are passionate about libre software, because this is how our team came to be, but we pass it only to the likes of us :) And we know when we see them.

On Linux this is currently the only actively developed font manager. That pretty much sums it up. There are simpler tools like FontyPython or GNOME Specimen, they still work, but are not maintained much. Which is a pity, because we'd like some sane competition.

You can actually affect development of Fontmatrix. No, we don't mean that you should immediately stop doing all the excellent designs that you are doing now for money and get to coding for fun. We do appreciate interesting ideas and bug reports. Nevertheless, if you can fix a bug or implement a new function, you know how to find us.

You can use Fontmatrix in your native language. This is exactly where free/libre software shines: both user interface and documentation are localizable. UI is currently translated into 15 languages (and counting), and we are really sorry, but this user manual is available in English only (as of v0.6.0), because it's a brand new manual and translating takes time. Since we rely on community of users and developers rather than on venture business investors, you can actually step in and contribute translations, if you really feel like doing it. It's fairly easy to do that and we are happy to assist you.