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Add to SafariWhen comparing FontBase vs aText, the Slant community recommends aText for most people. In the question“What are the best text expansion apps for macOS?” aText is ranked 6th while FontBase is ranked 7th.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro It saves you from having to install fonts
Pro Works fast with a lot of fonts
Pro Free to use
FontBase is free.
Pro Wonderful minimalist interface with good choice of controls
Pro Get Google Fonts on your system in a few seconds
Pro Syncs font database from Dropbox easily
Fontbase allows you to easily set up watch folders allowing you to sync your font libraries directly from any cloud-based storage provider.
Pro Regular free updates
Pro Affordable upgrade option
Pro No Update
Pro A snippet can be expanded to plain or styled text and include pictures
Pro Has built-in snippets for common typos
Pro Cheaper than competition
$4.99, cheaper than textExpander ($35)
Pro Compatible with TextExpander snippets
TextExpander snippets can be imported into aText
Pro Works with VMs
Pro Imports from most alternative text expansion apps
aText can import data from TextExpander, TypeIt4Me, SpellCatcherX, Automaton and CSV file.
Pro Has common HTML & JS snippets built-in
Pro Snippets can include editable fields
Pro Data can be synced through cloud storage services
Pro Snippets can include a wide variety of variables
Possible variables include date, time, other snippets, clipboard content, etc.
Cons
Con Must open it everytime to activate fonts
FontBase's main pro is its main drawback - not needing to install fonts is great, but opening files using fonts not installed may not show them properly unless FontBase is also opened.
Con Crashes with many fonts
Con It doesn't grab fonts when using the package features in Adobe software
You will have to manually grab the font folders from your library. As the fonts aren't actually installed locally, Adobe software can't see the font nor export it with your project.
Con Virtually non-existent support
Generally get one response and then dead silence.
Con Does not display all fonts, and there is NO support at all
No help/support, no spec, no tech page or forum.
Con It doesn't make adding, activating or sorting through fonts any easier
When dragging font and font folders into the library you will still need to search for them and manually activate. The ability to search and sorting fonts is very limited.
Con Makes Adobe programs run slow and crash
Con Ask to buy
Search filter is need to buy.
Con Doesn't work in Mojave
The current version, with no issues. In fact, I've never had any issue with it with Mojave, so I assume when Mojave was released, aText was already up to date for it.
Con Frequent crashes in MacOS Sierra
aText crashes frequently, and the developer is unresponsive. Not clear if app is supported or under current development: last update was in 11/15; last post to aText Facebook page 10/15.
Con Long time no update
Seems to be abandoned.
