Printer’s Apprentice is always available for you to try directly from our web site. And if you like the software, we hope that you will purchase a license. Use the link below and you can get Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for $20. This is a 20% discount off the regular price

Download Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for Windows 7, Vista & XP

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for Windows 7, Vista & XP – 20% discount

This is a major upgrade and includes the following changes:

• This version uses a new installer. Instead of the setup tool built into Visual Studio,  we are now using Advanced Installer Professional from Caphyon Ltd.
• Added new behavior for Windows 7. By default, fonts set as "hidden" in the Windows 7 Control Panel > Fonts window will also be hidden in Printer’s Apprentice.  A new "Show fonts hidden by Windows 7" checkbox in the Options dialog can override this behavior. If fonts are hidden, but visible in Printer’s Apprentice, then the Installed Fonts tab will show them in grayed out text (just like the Windows 7 Fonts folder).
• Added protection for Windows system fonts to prevent accidental uninstallation. If you try to uninstall a font that ships with your version of Windows, Printer’s Apprentice will alert you to the fact with a new dialog box. This can be turned off using the new  "Warn before uninstalling Windows fonts" checkbox in the Options dialog. The list of fonts shipped with each version of Windows can be found at the following URL:

  http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/product.aspx

• Uninstalling fonts – Under Windows 7 and Vista, some fonts are protected by the OS through the TrustedInstaller account. These fonts cannot be uninstalled, even by an administrator. If a font is protected by this account, it is now noted in the  log_uninstall_fonts.txt file.
• Startup speed has been improved. The software now uses a background task to read the fonts installed.
• The Character Set tab has been optimized so there is not so much flicker present when resizing the main Printer’s Apprentice window.
• Options set on the Print dialog, such as Catalog, Sample Sheets, etc are now saved and restored when you reopen the Print dialog.
• Added additional information to install fonts and uninstall fonts logs for debugging purposes.
• Fixed a problem with printing catalogs of Postscript based fonts. The rendering engine was not drawing the lines of text property.
• Updated the Help file. The Options reference section is now up to date.
• Fixed the "Check for New Version" dialog so it no longer appears in the Windows Taskbar.
• Fixed an Object Not Found bug in the Copy Fonts dialog.
• Fixed a bug that could lead to an "Length of argument ‘String’ must be greater than zero." crash on startup.

Printer’s Apprentice is always available for you to try directly from our web site. And if you like the software, we hope that you will purchase a license. Use the link below and you can get Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for $20. This is a 20% discount off the regular price

Download Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for Windows 7, Vista & XP

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for Windows 7, Vista & XP – 20% discount

This is a major upgrade and includes the following changes:

• Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 works great with Windows 7. There are many cosmetic enhancements in the application for better integration with both Windows 7 and Vista.
• Printer’s Apprentice now queries the system to determine the correct font used for drawing dialog boxes. This font is then used to render the various screens in Printer’s Apprentice. In most cases this is Segoe UI.
• New Menus & Colors tab on the Options dialog. On this screen you can change menu, toolbar & icon styles. You can also change the color of the accent bars used across the top of the main screen.
• Font Files and Font Groups tabs use a new tree control. This should eliminate the "object not set" errors that could pop up with the old control.
  The old control, exptreelib.dll & .pdb, will be replaced with the new logicnp.folderview.dll when you run the Printer’s Apprentice setup program.
• Added a "Make New Folder" button to the Copy / Move Font to Folder dialog box.
• Added a "Make New Group" button to the Copy / Move Font to Font Group dialog box.
• Fixed a bug with installing Type 1 fonts. If the registry key SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Type 1 Installer\Type 1 Fonts did not exist, then the install would fail.
• When installing multiple fonts, and one or more of them is already installed, a dialog box would popup showing you the number to be installed and the number already installed. This now uses a message box with Yes/No buttons instead of just OK.
• Fixed a bug in the OpenType font reading routines. Some fonts were being ignored if they had invalid strings in the OTF NAME table.
• When no font is selected, the Character Set and Keyboard tabs no longer display a font. This is more consistent with the behavior of other tabs.
• Fonts that are in use, locked by Windows or protected by file permissions often cannot be uninstalled. Additional text has been added to the "0 Fonts were uninstalled" message box explaining why fonts can’t be uninstalled.

A complete list of changes can be found in the Printer’s Apprentice Version History page.

Any comments or questions? You can send them directly to the developer behind the software via helpdesk at lose your mind dot com.

Designi1.com

Printer’s Apprentice review at Designi1.com

Thanks for the review, José!

Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 is slated for a mid-December 2009 release. If you are interested in participating in our beta program, please send an email to helpdesk@loseyourmind.com.

• Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 works great with Windows 7. There are many minor cosmetic enhancements in the application for better integration with both Windows 7 and Vista. For example, the toolbar will use Windows 7 icons and listboxes support hover highlight effects.
• Printer’s Apprentice now queries the system to determine the correct font used for drawing dialog boxes. This font is then used to render the various screens in Printer’s Apprentice. In most cases this is Segoe UI.

  

• New Menus & Colors tab on the Options dialog. On this screen you can change menu, toolbar & icon styles.  You can also change the color of the accent bars used across the top of  the main screen.

  

• Font Files and Font Groups tabs use a new tree control. This should eliminate the "object not set" errors that could pop up with the old control.  The new control is FolderView.Net, provided by LogicNP Software.

  

• The old control, exptreelib.dll & exptreelib.pdb, will be replaced with the new  logicnp.folderview.dll when you run the Printer’s Apprentice setup program.
• Added a "Make New Folder" button to the Copy / Move Font to Folder dialog box.
• Added a "Make New Group" button to the Copy / Move Font to Font Group dialog box.
• Fixed a bug with installing Type 1 fonts. If the registry key 
  SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Type 1 Installer\Type 1 Fonts did not exist, then the install would fail.
• Fixed a bug in the OpenType font reading routines. Some fonts were being ignored if they had invalid strings in the OTF NAME table.
• When installing multiple fonts, and one or more of them is already installed, a dialog box would popup showing you the number to be installed and the number already installed. This now uses a message box with Yes/No buttons instead of just OK.

Printer’s Apprentice is always available for you to try directly from our web site. And if you like the software, we hope that you will purchase a license. Use the link below and you can get Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for $20. This is a 20% discount off the regular price

Download Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for Vista & XP

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for Vista & XP – 20% discount

This is a minor upgrade and includes the following changes:

• Updated web links to various pages at loseyourmind.com
• Improved startup splash screen.
• Various minor bug fixes.

A complete list of changes can be found in the Printer’s Apprentice  versionhistory.txt file on the web site.

Any comments or questions? You can send them directly to the developer behind the software via helpdesk at lose your mind dot com.

To take advantage of the discount, visit the link below on Wednesday, August 5, 2009.

Get Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for $11.95 One Day Only Wednesday, August 5, 2009 http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/printers-apprentice-80/

We are doing this through our partners at Bits Du Jour. Visit them everyday for discounted deals on great software.

Printer’s Apprentice is always available for you to try directly from our web site. And if you like the software, we hope that you will purchase a license! Use the link below and you can get Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for $20. This is a 20% discount off the regular price

Download Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for Vista & XP

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.0 for Vista & XP – 20% discount

Here is a closer look at a few of the new features.

Speed! – Printer’s Apprentice now caches the information read from uninstalled TrueType, OpenType and Type 1 fonts. The data is stored in an xml file to make subsequent reads of the same fonts much faster. A past blog post examines the data storage structure and includes a performance table showing initial read versus subsequent reads.

Missing PFM / PFB Detection – One of the most frequent questions emailed to us is “Why can’t I view Type 1 fonts out of the Adobe Type Manager folder?” By default, ATM stores PFM and PFB files in separate folders. To view uninstalled Type 1 fonts, Printer’s Apprentice needs the PFM and PFB files in the same folder. Version 8.00.32 now displays this message box if missing files are detected in a folder.

Full Screen Toggle – Need to see more fonts? Use the full screen toggle button!

Sorting Arrows in Font Lists – Like Windows Explorer, Printer’s Apprentice now uses the built in sorting arrows in all the font lists throughout the application.

A complete list of changes can be found in the Printer’s Apprentice  versionhistory.txt file on the web site.

Any comments or questions? You can send them directly to the developer behind the software via helpdesk at lose your mind dot com.

The next  update will have a pair of “fit & polish” features. These are nothing too serious. And they certainly did not take long to implement. But they simply make the application better.

Full Screen Toggle – This button simply maximizes Printer’s Apprentice to fill the full screen. The top title bar is hidden and the Printer’s Apprentice window covers the Windows Taskbar. The hotkey to toggle full screen mode is F11. (Microsoft Office and FireFox also use F11 for full screen modes.)

This feature is great for when you really want to see your fonts blown up large. Or for when you are working with a client on font selection over a shared monitor.

Sorting Glyphs (Arrows) – Like Windows Explorer, Printer’s Apprentice now uses the built in sorting arrows in all the listviews throughout the application.

This should have been in the application a long time ago. However, the .NET listview control does not expose the arrow functionality directly. So the implementation uses Windows API calls. The code was not difficult at all. But it kept getting bumped down on the To Do list.

Most of the Windows 7 material is focused on UI and API changes. But occasionally we get an article related to fonts. Today, the Windows 7 team posted this article about the ClearType technology in Windows 7.

Engineering changes to ClearType in Windows 7

And back in February, there was a post about typography and text rendering in Windows 7.

Advances in typography and text rendering in Windows 7

Here is a non-Microsoft article that looks at the font management UI in Windows 7. It is from the I Started Something blog.

Improvements to fonts in Windows 7

It is great to see that Microsoft is not ignoring font in Windows 7. If you have come across any other Windows 7 font articles, feel free to forward them to helpdesk at lose your mind dot com and I will get the links posted.