Pica is a new font manager for macOS. With it, you can easily view, categorize, and preview your Mac’s collection of typefaces. I’ve spent a day playing with it and wanted to share my first impressions.
First, Pica is fast!
It takes full advantage of all the benefits that come with being natively written for the Mac. (This isn’t some janky Electron app.) Even the installation process is filled with whimsy and delight. Notice the beautiful attention to detail in the Installer below.
After installing Pica, you’ll be treated to series of falling typefaces that fill up your Mac’s screen. Unexpected, but delightful!
Pica lets me organize my typefaces the way I want; I can group typefaces into Serif, Sans-Serif, Display, Mono, Script or Decorative categories.
Pica offers several thoughtful customization options for viewing fonts. For example, I can view a typeface in black, white, or as any other HEX color value. This is great for designers!
I can also quickly change the background color of the app to see how it works with the typeface. With Pica, I can see what a green typeface looks like placed in front of a yellow background. (It’s not so great, as it turns out.)
Pica offers full OpenType support, one-click font activation and something called Watch Folders.
Here’s how it works: Select a folder for Pica to “watch”, and each time the folder gets a new font update, Pica will display it. Translation: Pica lets me view typefaces that are not actively loaded onto my Mac.
Why use Pica when macOS already comes with Font Book?
In a word: customizability. Pica not only lets me preview custom text across every typeface I have on my Mac, it lets me quickly adjust font size and font weight independently via two top-located sliders. Typefaces can be viewed as a grid or stacked vertically.
Font Book, by comparison, is pretty basic.
Pica extends beyond the fonts you have locally on your Mac. Click the “Discover” option and you’ll be treated to bold and unique typefaces created by some of the world’s best font foundries.
Pica is a native Mac application, which means it takes full advantage of macOS’s underlying architecture. Best of all, it’s free.
If you spend considerable time working with fonts on your Mac, Pica’s a no-brainer download.
-Krishna