Your Script Doctor

(Notice the size input box in the top right corner, for setting the size of the text displayed.)

Best of all, Font Book allows you to set up font collections that can be used to display a subset of your fonts based on a given criteria. For instance, I have created collections in Font Book based on style classification, such as Sans Serif, Traditional, Classic, Old Style, and so on. (A collection named Fixed Width is provided by default.) Now, when I want a slab serif font, for instance, I click on the Slab Serif collection in Font Book to see a full-font listing of the fonts in that collection.

And for those who write scripts (Applescript, of course), Font Book is scriptable. In fact, if you have the Script Menu installed for your machine, Apple provides a small collection of Applescript scripts for working with Font Book (see below). One script of mention is Create Font Sample. Select the fonts you want to proof in Font Book and run the script. A sampling of the fonts selected is displayed in TextEdit for comparison.

QUICK AND EASY

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to get a display of type fonts for comparison, you may want to experiment with the script below. It assumes you have set up collections in Font Book. Copy the code into ScriptEditor and save. Install the script in your Script Menu (see below). Now you have a quick and easy way to compare type fonts within a selected collection without having to open Font Book. In fact, you don’t have to open any application, but you do need TextEdit installed on your machine.

set choicePrompt to "choose fonts from list to proof"
try
   collectionName to getCollectionName()
   tell application "System Events"
      set wasTextEditRunning to (name of processes) contains "TextEdit"
   end tell
   set postScriptNames to {}
   set totalFaces to 0
   tell application "Font Book"
      set testCol to font collection collectionName
      set fontList to name of every font family of testCol
      set userChoice to my getUserChoice(fontList, choicePrompt, true)
      set numFamilies to length of userChoice
      repeat while userChoice is not {}
         set thisItem to first item of userChoice
         set familyName to thisItem
         set thisFamily to font family familyName
         set members to typefaces of thisFamily
         set memberList to {}
         repeat with eachMember in members
            if family name of eachMember is familyName then
               set the end of memberList to PostScript name of eachMember
               set totalFaces to totalFaces + 1
            end if
         end repeat
         set end of postScriptNames to {familyName, memberList}
         set userChoice to the rest of userChoice
      end repeat
   end tell
   doDisplay(postScriptNames, wasTextEditRunning, numFamilies, totalFaces)
on error errStr
   activate
   display alert "Error: " & errStr
end try
on doDisplay(postScriptNames, wasTextEditRunning, numFamilies, totalFaces)
tell application "TextEdit"
   if wasTextEditRunning then
      make new document at the end of documents of it
   end if
   tell the front document
      set size to 18
      set paraIndex to 1
      set paragraph paraIndex to "Font Samples - " & numFamilies & " families  " & totalFaces & " total typefaces" & return & return
      set font to "LucidaGrande"
      set size to 14
      set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1
      repeat with i from 1 to length of postScriptNames
         set familyName to item 1 of item i of postScriptNames
         tell paragraph paraIndex
            set font to "LucidaGrande"
            set characters to familyName & return & return & return
         end tell
         set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1
         set theMembers to item 2 of item i of postScriptNames
         set chars to ""
         repeat with j from 1 to length of theMembers
            set psName to item j of theMembers
            tell paragraph paraIndex
               set font to psName
               set characters to tab & psName & return & return
            end tell
            set paraIndex to paraIndex + 1
         end repeat
      end repeat
   end tell
end tell
end doDisplay
(*User chooses collection for fonts*)
on getCollectionName()
   tell application "Font Book"
      set colNames to name of every font collection
   end tell
   set userChoice to choose from list colNames with prompt "Choose font collection" without multiple selections allowed
   if userChoice is false then
      error "User cancelled"
   end if
   return item 1 of userChoice
end getCollectionName
(*User chooses fonts to proof*)
on getUserChoice(theList, choicePrompt, doMulti)
   set userChoice to choose from list theList with prompt choicePrompt multiple selections allowed doMulti
   if userChoice is false then
      error "Selection required"
   end if
   return userChoice
end getUserChoice

For convenience, install the script in Script Menu and run it from there (see below).

When you run the script, it displays a list of your Font Book collections.