Font Sleuth is an interesting new font browser application for Mac OS X. The first thing I noticed about this app—pretty darn fast. No font manager I have ever used is lightning fast when it comes to previewing fonts. Font Sleuth however was close. Give it a few seconds to load the fonts on screen and you’re scrolling.

Font Sleuth has a very spartan interface, focusing pretty much on the previews of the fonts. There is a slide-out drawer for creating groups where you can store collections of fonts in your desired groupings.

There’s no auto-activation plugins, no metadata sorting. This is purely a font browser. What I like most about it is the size of the previews in both the main window as well as the Groups drawer. If Font Sleuth fits your needs, $12 seems a more than reasonable price for this utility software.

Here’s an overview of the main features offered in Font Sleuth:

View And Activate Uninstalled Fonts

Select any folder of fonts and view them in their font faces. Font Sleuth can optionally display fonts contained in folders nested within the selected folder. Activate uninstalled fonts with a single click.

Create Font Groups

Create font groups visually by dragging fonts from Font Sleuth Viewer to the Groups Drawer. Group fonts according to your own criteria to make font finding even faster.

Browse Fonts Quickly

Use Font Sleuth’s display window to go through your fonts. Try different combinations of display attributes such as text color, size, alignment, and style.

Run Font Slideshows

Run slide shows of installed fonts, uninstalled fonts, and your custom font groups. Adjust duration, text color, size, alignment, style, sample text phrase, and background color even while the slideshow is in progress.

Save Favorites

Keep a list of sample text favorites and access them from any font display window.

Save and Print

WYSIWYG Font Lists

Save and/or print WYSIWYG list of installed fonts, uninstalled fonts, or your custionfontfontfoKeep a list of sample text favorites and access them from any font display window.

You can download a 20-day trial of Font Sleuth here.