[CREATE] Font Select Dreams

[Dave Anderson]

An idea struck me and I'd like to get some feedback on it.

There 2 main concepts in the idea
1. Make font selection easier by allowing a way to filter font-families.
2. Enable an easy way to query, preview, and install open fonts.

Here is a possible extrapolation of these concepts -- my dream of how 
cool font selection could be:

1.a. Font Select adds a Tag drop-down box.
Selecting a tag filters which font-families are chosen for preview and 
selection.
An "All" tag shows all installed fonts, as they are now.
There is also special tag, "Currently Used", for which the app provides 
a list of all the fonts currently used in its working document.
An app may set the default working tag.  So, an app can remember the 
last selected tag associated with a document and set as the working tag 
next time the document is open.

1.b. Font Select adds a Manage Fonts button.
Selecting the Manage Fonts button brings up a user-preferred 
font-manager.  The font-manager provides tag management.

2. Font Manager acts as interface with open-font libraries
The Font Manager allows for querying available fonts from an open-font 
repository. Available fonts can be displayed intermixed with installed 
fonts or separately.  There is an install font button when an available 
font is selected.  (Installing would automatically populate the open 
Font Select dialog.)
The open-font repository offers an api to support queries and gather 
information such as common tags, ratings, reviews, similarities to other 
fonts, and other properties.  I imagine the popularity, ratings, tags, 
similarity information are especially useful when exploring available fonts.

Summary
The grand vision from an end-user's point of view is that font selection 
is a pleasure and a joy.  Looking for an appropriate font in the Font 
Select dialog is enhanced by a filter: rather than being overwhelmed by 
a list of all my fonts, I quickly skip through a small candidate list. 
When I need more powerful tool, asking for help is just a Font Manager 
button away; there, I have the entire world of open-licensed fonts for 
my convenient perusal and font augmentation.

How do these thoughts strike you?