For those who haven't noticed, FontLab released an upgraded version of FontLab 5 Studio today which addresses the various MacOS incompatibilities which I’ve been incessantly complaining about.
It’s true. And it is more than that. Over the last few hours, we at FontLab released updates to Mac versions of:
FontLab Studio 5 (5.1.6)
Fontographer 5 (5.2.4)
TypeTool 3 (3.1.3).
These address not only major incompatibility introduced with macOS 10.14.4, but also the 10.13/10.14 copy/paste issues for FontLab Studio and TypeTool.
I would have said more in advance, but of course it wasn’t necessarily clear how this would all turn out until we did it. I didn’t want to promise anything we couldn’t be certain of delivering.
This is wonderful news. I thank you as well, although I'm not one of your customers, because I think it is very important for such products and choices to be available.
@André G. Isaak We can confirm the issue with pasting OpenType code to the OpenType window. We will likely do another update soon that addresses this, but we want to see if any other new issues emerge first.
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I have to admit I was briefly anxious after I updated my OS to 10.14.4, and confirmed that FontLab Studio 5 didn't work worth beans in that environment. (Before we decided to try to make it work, or had it working, that is.)
Even though I have been using FontLab VI for some time now, as my primary app, knowing I could go back to 5 if/when needed was comforting.
Then I reminded myself that I really hadn’t needed to go back to 5 in almost a year. And suddenly it was a relief, like having taken the training wheels off the bicycle and realizing you aren’t going to fall over.
Of course, I am happy to have FontLab Studio 5, TypeTool 3 and Fontographer 5 updated for Mac. All good.
Well, to be clear, mac0S 10.15 will presumably come in the fall, and is not expected to work with 32-bit apps. And we have no plan to rewrite FontLab Studio 5 as 64-bit (nor retina-savvy).
But yes, other than that, running well on current macOS.
Well, to be clear, mac0S 10.15 will presumably come in the fall, and is not expected to work with 32-bit apps. And we have no plan to rewrite FontLab Studio 5 as 64-bit (nor retina-savvy).
Yes, obviously that would be too much to ask. Hopefully, though, the functionality that was loved in version 5 can eventually be achieved in version 6.
1. OpenType I/O (opening & export). The old FontLab core code used a system byte-reordering function for 25 years. There was a bug in our code but in Mac OS 9 and X it still worked fine. This bug went undiscovered until Apple changed some details in this system function in macOS 10.14.4. The Apple change was within the specs, but then our bug manifested, and FLS 5.1.5 couldn't properly open or export OTFs and TTFs. We fixed this bug in 5.1.6. This helps users of macOS 10.14.4 and newer, users of older macOS will see no change.
2. OS/2.averageWidth. In addition, the above change seems to fix a problem with "averageWidth" parameter of the OS/2 table that was incorrectly saved by earlier versions. This helps users of all macOS.
3. Copy/Paste. The old copy-paste code was based on a system API that was removed from macOS 10.13. We now updated the code to a newer API. Copy-paste from/to Adobe Illustrator using the new API also was established again. This helps users of macOS 10.13 and 10.14, users of older macOS will see no change.
4. Progress dialog. FLS was spending most resources to show and update the progress bar that appeared on many occasions, including during OpenType I/O operations. That is improved and both FLS and TT will import and generate up to 10 times faster. This helps users of all macOS.
5.1.6.7030
1. Paste of non-ASCII text into the the OpenType panel and the Edit Macro panel was improved. The text fields there were never Unicode-capable (and will not be), but pasting Unicode text in 5.1.5 was doing funny things, and in 7022 didn't work. Now it lets you paste macOS Roman characters but removes other characters.
2. Paste of Unicode text into the Metrics window (both the text bar, and content if the Text tool is active) did work in 5.1.5, did not work in 5.1.6.7022, and in 5.1.6.7030 works again the same way it did in 5.1.5.
Comments
- FontLab Studio 5 (5.1.6)
- Fontographer 5 (5.2.4)
- TypeTool 3 (3.1.3).
These address not only major incompatibility introduced with macOS 10.14.4, but also the 10.13/10.14 copy/paste issues for FontLab Studio and TypeTool.I would have said more in advance, but of course it wasn’t necessarily clear how this would all turn out until we did it. I didn’t want to promise anything we couldn’t be certain of delivering.
It now runs much better on 10.13 and 10.14.
We can confirm the issue with pasting OpenType code to the OpenType window. We will likely do another update soon that addresses this, but we want to see if any other new issues emerge first.
* * * * * *
I have to admit I was briefly anxious after I updated my OS to 10.14.4, and confirmed that FontLab Studio 5 didn't work worth beans in that environment. (Before we decided to try to make it work, or had it working, that is.)
Even though I have been using FontLab VI for some time now, as my primary app, knowing I could go back to 5 if/when needed was comforting.
Then I reminded myself that I really hadn’t needed to go back to 5 in almost a year. And suddenly it was a relief, like having taken the training wheels off the bicycle and realizing you aren’t going to fall over.
Of course, I am happy to have FontLab Studio 5, TypeTool 3 and Fontographer 5 updated for Mac. All good.
But yes, other than that, running well on current macOS.
We released a quick update, that fixes what you noted, and some related issues. Should be good now.