VTT on ARM Macs with Parallels Desktop
Kalapi Gajjar-Bordawekar
Posts: 12
I've been using VTT on my old Intel MacBook Pro via Boot Camp. I need to upgrade to a new computer soon and since Boot Camp is no longer available on the new Macs, I won't be able to continue using this setup.
Is anyone using VTT this way successfully or do you use a separate Windows machine/laptop for hinting?
Is anyone using VTT this way successfully or do you use a separate Windows machine/laptop for hinting?
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There are ways to run ARM versions of Windows on Apple Silicon Macs, such as with Parallels Desktop. What I don’t know is, will VTT run on an ARM version of Windows?
You can also run Windows in the cloud via the Windows 365 service, but that is at least $31/month (or more).0 -
You can run VTT on an Apple Silicon Mac using Wine. It's also free.
I explored hinting and VTT a few months back and wrote a few notes, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nc6FpxCu62deXBgUENadQK74mplpEYl6cHWeX-ggU48/edit5 -
I can confirm that the x64 version of VTT runs on Parallels with Windows 11 ARM on Apple Silicon.2
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I just tried to run VTT with wine, and it seems to work as well, thanks! I remember that it didn't work, possibly because for some time, wine had no 64 bit support on macOS IIRC?
VTT only works there because it bundles its own rasterizer. I remember running FontLab Studio 5 in wine, and TrueType hinting was unusable because wine can’t use the original Windows rasterizer and uses FreeType instead, which is then used also for FLS5’s TrueType hinting preview.2 -
I ran Windows for a couple of years on a Mac in Parallels and then in VMWare’s Fusion. Both were buggy in various ways, as well as being subscriptions. In the end, I canceled and bought myself a PC laptop for less than $800 Canadian. It is much more reliable than any emulator I have tried.2
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For my Windows needs, I bought a small Lenovo ThinkCentre office PC a couple of years ago. It cost €500, and you can get a refurbished one for less than €100 incl. Windows 11 Pro now. It has an SSD and is quiet, and fast enough for all practical concerns (of course it's not a gaming machine).
I hooked it up to a TV once to set it up, and now it is just connected to my router, and I use Remote Desktop to connect to it when I need it. It's so small I can easily pack it and take it along whenever I work from another place for some time. Works out of the box whenever there's a DHCP server on the network. When I need to connect to the office network, I use the WireGuard VPN client.5 -
Thank you everyone for all the recommendations! I will probably go for a mini Windows PC (either Intel NUC or the ThinkCenter). I have very little desktop space, so that's a major consideration for me.0
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John Hudson said:I ran Windows for a couple of years on a Mac in Parallels and then in VMWare’s Fusion. Both were buggy in various ways, as well as being subscriptions. In the end, I canceled and bought myself a PC laptop for less than $800 Canadian. It is much more reliable than any emulator I have tried.
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From that site:Customers who use Fusion and Workstation at/for work require a paid commercial subscription...The free personal use license doesn’t cover the kinds of uses for which professional font developers would be likely to use the software.
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