Lose Your Mind Development

We have added a new header bar to each of the font display tabs. This provides room to provide the following pieces of information:

• Font name
• Font file format (TrueType, OpenType or Type 1)
• Font file name and size
• Installation status
• A link button for installing or uninstalling the font

The font name list (down the left side of the screen) also display this information. But the new header bar really makes the information stand out for the currently selected font.

Check out some screen shots below.

Drop us a line at helpdesk at loseyourmind.com if you are interested in being a beta tester.

I’m currently working on streamlining the look and feel for the dialog boxes in Printer’s Apprentice. (See the previous post about the Options dialog.) The splash screen looked like something that shipped with Windows XP. So I went back to a plain background with a simple curved border.

The old splash screen.

The new splash screen. This is just a draft and may change a bit more.

What do you think?

A while back I received a feature request from a user. At the time, it seemed pretty easy to implement and I added it to the To Do list.

The user simply wanted a way to increase the font size of the ANSI/Unicode values that are in the upper right hand corner of each cell in the Character Set tab.

Adding the code to change the size was easy enough. The next step was to add the font size selection drop down to the Options dialog. It would look something like this:

I have not really looked at the Options dialog in a long time. But the new option didn’t seem to fit on any of the existing pages. And the more I looked at the Options dialog, the more dated it looked.

So I took the opportunity to redesign the Options dialog. Instead of the tabs, option groups are listed down the left side of the form. This allows me to easily add additional option groups as needed.

I don’t have a release date for the next version – there are still a couple of other things I’m working on. But I welcome any comments or questions you might have. Contact me at helpdesk at lose your mind dot com.

I’ve always had a particular interest in the fonts that ship with various operating systems. The latest member of the OS club is Roboto, a sans serif typeface for Android 4.0.

Typographica.com just published a review of Roboto and calls it a “four-headed Frankenfont” among other things. Hopefully Android 4.0 fares better in the reviews.

You can also download Roboto from the Typographica review and try it out yourself.

As noted in the recent "what we are working on" post, I’ve been busy with new code for Printer’s Apprentice.

One of the most requested features is support for non-US keyboard layouts. Printer’s Apprentice has a nice keyboard tab that displays the location of font characters on your keyboard. You can also print keyboard layouts. This is very helpful for symbol fonts such as Wingdings.

However, the keyboard layouts have been hard-coded for a US QWERTY keyboard. So this function is really only useful for users in the US. This is a big oversight and many users have requested a fix.

I’m pleased to announce that a fix for this will be released in the next version. The screen below shows the new Keyboard tab with support for multiple keyboard layouts.

By default, the keyboard will display the layout based on the current input language you have set with the Region and Language Control Panel in Windows. Any additional input languages you have installed are displayed in a dropdown menu in the upper right hand corner. So you can toggle through a variety of layouts.

Support for non-US layouts is also included in the printing functions. When you select Print from the File menu, the printouts will use whatever keyboard you have selected.

I hope to get the new version out the door soon. The first draft of the code was finished today and I need to compile a version for our beta testers. If you want to test out Printer’s Apprentice, send an email to helpdesk at lose your mind dot com.

Printer’s Apprentice – Font Manager for Windows 7, Vista & XP
Better support for A4 sized paper… non-US keyboard display and printouts… new warnings when you move or uninstall system fonts… font counts in the folder and font groups view…many small bug fixes and improvements.

Virtual Font Folder – Synchronize your fonts for Windows 7, Vista & XP
Split application into a separate Windows service and controller program… does not need to be running in the System Tray… improved reporting via log files…no longer requires administrator access.

Any other requests or ideas? Contact us at helpdesk@loseyourmind.com.

Have you been using Printer’s Apprentice for a while? Tired the splash screen delay and water marks on your printed font catalogs? Sounds like you need to get your Printer’s Apprentice license key!

Through the end of September, you can get a Printer’s Apprentice license key for $11.99 – that is a savings of over 50%!

Use the links below to place your order today.

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for $11.99 (use your credit card)

Purchase Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for $11.99 (use your PayPal account)

Got questions? Shoot us an email at helpdesk@loseyourmind.com.

Mark your calendar! On Tuesday, August 23, 2011 we will be offering Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for US$11.95. That is 52% off our regular price!

To take advantage of this exciting offer, visit the Printer’s Apprentice page at Bits Du Jour on Tuesday, August 23, 2011. Place your order using our partner, Bits Du Jour, and you will receive a license code for Printer’s Apprentice.

It is very easy to take advantage of this offer. The Printer’s Apprentice page at Bits Du Jour links directly to our standard, secure order form. There are no popups or full screen ads. And the license code you receive is for the latest, full version of Printer’s Apprentice 8.1.

This offer is good for one day only. So mark your calendar and bookmark the Printer’s Apprentice page at Bits Du Jour now!

Printer’s Apprentice 8.1.20, our innovative font manager for Windows 7, Vista & XP, has been released and published on the Lose Your Mind Development web site.

Printer’s Apprentice is always available as a free download directly from our web site. If you like the software, we urge you to purchase a license.

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

This upgrade includes the following changes:

• NEW: The Font Files tab now remembers the last folder you were browsing and selects this folder the next time you restart Printer’s Apprentice.
• NEW: Speed improvements in the routines used to read uninstalled TTF/OTF/PFM files in the Font Files tab.
• NEW: When the product loads, it now queries our web server for the latest pricing and promotions.
• NEW: Various cosmetic changes to the shareware splash screen and panels used throughout the software.

Printer’s Apprentice 8.1.19, our innovative font manager for Windows 7, Vista & XP, has been released and published on the Lose Your Mind Development web site.

Printer’s Apprentice is always available as a free download directly from our web site. If you like the software, we urge you to purchase a license.

We have a special offer available during the month of June. Use the link below and you can get Printer’s Apprentice 8.1 for $11.99. This is a 50% 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 – 50% discount

• This upgrade includes the following changes:
• NEW: Added Upper/Lower/Mixed Case toggle to Sample Text tab.
• FIX: Fixed up code to ensure default Font Groups folder is created. This was not working in some cases on Windows 7.
• FIX: Font Groups folder now defaults to My Documents rather than Application Data.
• FIX: Added additional intelligence to whether or not the progress dialog is displayed
  when reading files on the Font Files tab. When "Read sub folders" was checked, the progress dialog would always display. It now only displays if there are sub folders or     the total number of fonts in the folder is over the threshold.
• FIX: Added error checking code for "ArgumentOutofRangeException" errors when when reading files in the Font Files tab.