Printer's Apprentice 7.5 - Version History

Listed below is detailed information about changes made in recent Printer's Apprentice releases.

This list is also available as an RSS feed from the following URL:  rss-pa75changes.asp. Add the feed (http://www.loseyourmind.com/rss-pachanges.asp) to your feed reader and you will always know when a new version is released!

The latest version of Printer's Apprentice can be downloaded from this link: PrintersApprenticeSetup.exe.

We also maintain a blog at http://blog.loseyourmind.com. The blog contains news about upcoming versions of our products.

 

• Added ability to print line numbers on font catalogs. This is enabled via a new switch in the PA.INI file. To enable line numbers, use this entry:
  
  [Inventory]
  PrintLineNumbers=1
   
  
• Added "Select Printer" to the File menu.
• Eliminated the floppy drive check that resulted in the "floppy grind" noise on startup.
• The screen font is now "Tahoma" by default. This can be changed by editing an entry to the PA.INI file
  
  [PA]
  FormFont=Fontname
   
  
• Minor cosmetic tweaks throughout the system
• Fixed a bug that would cause the "Print All Fonts In Folders" option to crash before the dialog box opened.

• Printer's Apprentice determines what OS you are running on and uses an interface based on the OS. Menus, toolbars, icons, etc. either use the XP style or the traditional style. You can also change the UI setting via the Options dialog box.
• Added horizontal splitters so the panels on the Uninstalled tab, Both tab and Font Groups sections can be resized. The splitters have "gripper" bars to indicate where resizing is enabled.
• The Options dialog box has been completely redesigned. The dialog box is also now resizable.
• Redesigned the Font Information tab for easier reading. Text is now black on a white background.
• The progress dialog box used when reading a folder full of now has a cancel button.
• When reading folders of font files, additional feedback is provided.
• Great improvements to the printing engine. We ran "torture" tests on a variety of commercially available font CDs to make sure Printer's Apprentice could print the entire contents of these CDs without error.
• Core routines for reading TTF/OTF files are greatly improved.
• If the Installed Fonts list has the focus, pressing the DEL key now triggers the "Uninstall Fonts" dialog box.
• If the Uninstalled Fonts list or Font Groups list has the focus, pressing the DEL key now triggers the "Uninstall Fonts" dialog box.
• The Notes dialog box is now resizable and has a "gripper" in the lower right hand corner.
• Uninstall operations are faster.
• Added an option to turn the font information tooltip on or off.
• Added Support for reading installed TrueType Collection (TTC) fonts, mainly used in Far Eastern versions of Windows. These fonts can also be uninstalled.
• When printing font catalogs, the Print dialog now shows more feedback with "Printing font xx of yy" messages.
• There is now a checkbox option for not printing the "Font group and folder titles" when printing from the "Print All Fonts In Path" or "Print Font Groups" menus. This new option can be found at the bottom of the Font Catalogs tab of the Options dialog box. (Tools > Options).
• Fonts added to the GDI temporarily for rendering (previewing uninstalled fonts for example) are now *not* visible in other applications. (Win2000/XP only)
• Updated the default sample paragraphs. The original sample paragraph was from the introduction to the Windows 95 User Guide. To me, that seems a bit dated. So now the default text is some standard "Lorem Ipsum" text generated using the tool at http://www.lipsum.com>.
• Fixed a major issue with using the "Uninstall All Fonts In Group" entry on the font group context menu (right click). It was not uninstalling Type 1 fonts.
• Fixed a startup problem. If the root of your Font Groups folder contained any fonts, you would see a "Reading fonts..." popup message flash by very quickly. This has been resolved.
• Fixed some issues with the Registry entry written when installing OpenType fonts.
• Fixed issues with the drive labels in the Font Files tab.
• Fixed some nagging bugs with the mousepointer cursor.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the application to crash when switching to the Keyboard tab.
• When browsing OpenType fonts via the Font Files tab, a problem prevented the font name from being displayed in the font list. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a bug in the Sample Text tab - carriage returns embedded in this text are now saved and restored correctly from the PA.INI file the next time you start PA.
• Fixed messages on the Uninstall fonts dialog when copying/moving fonts to a font group. Regardless of whether you were copying or moving the fonts, the status message always read "xx fonts will be uninstalled." This message was incorrect and has been fixed.
• Fixed some bugs in the font file renaming functions. Type 1 and OpenType font files can now be renamed.
• Fixed an issue with deleting font groups. If you right clicked on a font group whose folder had the "read only" flag set, Printer's Apprentice would not delete it. This has been fixed.
• When using the "File|Print All Fonts In Folder" option, fixed an issue that mangled font names with special characters in their names, such as TM, in the Print dialog box.
• Fixed a problem in the font copy routine that resulted in a "0 fonts copied" message.
• Fixed a problem in the printing engine - if a bold/italic/etc font was selected before printing, the regular (non-bold, non-italic) version of the font would not be printed correctly.
• Minor changes to the Help file. (Someday this will get a total overhaul.)

• Fixed a minor bug that would cause the application to crash when printing certain types of uninstalled TrueType fonts.

• Added new tooltip balloon that provides additional information about a font file. The tooltip is activated when you hover the mouse over an item in the Installed Fonts list, Uninstalled Fonts list, or the font list below the Font Group listing.
• Fixed a problem with the Font Information tab. If no font was currently selected, it was still displaying data. This is fixed. It is now cleared if no font is selected.
• If no font is selected, Printer's Apprentice displays a small, yellow message that reads "No font is currently selected." On occasion, this message box would appear not centered on the screen. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a problem with the message box at the end of uninstall operations. It now reports the number of fonts uninstalled, copied or moved with improved reliability. (Under some circumstances, it would report "0 fonts uninstalled.")
• Updated our mailing address throughout the program and documentation.

• Better support for word wrapping Font Information tab.
• Fixed a problem where the software would crash on loading if the last time you exited the program, you had the Keyboard tab selected.

• The application now "remembers" which tab was selected the last time you ran PA and restores it when you start the application. i.e. If you exited the app with the "Character Set" tab selected, it will be selected the next time you start PA.
• Fixed a problem where Printer's Apprentice would crash on startup if fonts listed in the Windows Registry are not available. For example, if a font is listed in the Resgistry as being "x:\fonts\somefont.ttf", and X was a CD-ROM and the CD was not in the drive, then PA would crash on startup. This has been fixed.
• Other minor bug fixes.

• Updated the URLs in the paurl.ini file. I have deleted links to sites that are no longer active and updated others.
• Added links to the Tools menu for http://www.fontface.com & the FontFace Free Font of the Day.

• Fixed a bug that caused some fonts to not display correctly on the Sample Text tab. It looks like this was mainly on Windows 9x machines and not 2000 or XP boxes.
• Help > Frequently Asked Questions menu item now opens the FAQ page on our web site.
• Fixed a major problem that caused installed an "ATMLIB.DLL file not found" error if you tried to print a list of fonts that included one or more Type 1 fonts.

• First public release