Introduction - Database

MainType is a database driven font manager. This means that most of the information about a font such as the Font Name, Family, Style, Version and Foundry are stored in a database. The use of a database makes accessing font information very fast and allows for easy subselections (for example: list only the regular fonts). When you add folders to the MainType library they will be scanned for font files and the font information will be extracted and stored in the database. This process, called Indexing can take from a few minutes up to several hours depending on the number of fonts.

Introduction - Vault

MainType also makes use of a so called Vault, this is a place containing a single copy of each font you add to the library. The vault is used to ensure that you will be able to install and load your fonts, even if you no longer have a copy on disk.

Because we use a vault, there are several things you need to know:

- When uninstall a font or remove a font folder, the fonts remain available in MainType.

- When you add or edit a font in one of your font folders the changes are not automatically picked up by MainType, you need to click the “Refresh” button.

 

If you have a lot of fonts, the vault and database can take up a lot of disk space. It is possible to change the folder where the vault and database are stored through the FmsConfig utility.