Customer Reviews

Fontographer 4.1

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've wanted this program for 14 or 15 years, now, but being disabled doesn't pay like it once did, so I've had to do without. I eventually bought a tiny ($99) font editor that I could never get to work, so I uninstalled it and may still even have the files around somewhere.

Finally, after years of trying, I qualified for educational status for my nonprofit and tossed a copy of Fontographer into my basket with the buggy and poorly designed MX 2004 Studio. (The bug fix for the Studio is Version 8, by the way.)

I finally got my system set up the way I wanted it: new 3.4GHz screamer, four gigs of RAM (allowing me to run every application on my HDD simultaneously while downloading files and burning a CD -- no kidding!), and two 19-inch flat monitors (one for the dialogs and one for the canvas, of course). And, naturally, I did grit my teeth (too lazy to look up the *real* past tense of the verb *to grit*) and installed Windows XP (Ecccccch! Pftweeeee!, like the sound of an adolescent expectrating a gooey lunger).

That's when my troubles started, as far as Fontographer goes: No sooner did I have just the right system that would justify putting some time into creating some killer fonts of my own, Fontographer does not run on Windows XP.

Bummer.

And the new owner (the same guy who wouldn't support that $99 toy I bought years ago) is the same guy who now owns Fontographer. His official policy, when you read between the lines, is to not support the program, even if you bought it right off the shelf last week. He claims he hasn't been able to replicate the problem.

Here's a clue, dude: (1) get any computer that supports Windows XP (2) install Windows XP and patch it with SP2 (or install the SP2 version from the get-go) and (3) install the version of Fontographer that currently ships (the one that doesn't need any patching). That's it: you now have a copy of Fontographer that doesn't work. And that's not all! You've also experienced the magic of the disappearing dollars that those who fail to read AMAZON Customer Reviews know so well!

My hypothesis: I forget how many hundreds of dollars this guy's deluxe font editing program costs, but if you want to edit fonts, buying this package (from him, of course), is your only real option at this point.

My other hypothesis: He knows this, of course!

As my title suggests, I'd give this ZERO stars, for not working at all (dead out of the box, as we used to say in the consumer electronics industry), but they don't have a "Zero Stars" rating.

Take care, everybody!

The Cliff-Walking Fool
aka The Zero Card

I think it's important for anyone considering buying this program to know that this program hasn't been updated since 1995. I have been trying to use this program in conjunction with Illustrator 10 and I've had a myriad of problems. I have found it very difficult to import EPS files created in Illustrator 10. "Cut and paste" (the recommended method for importing vector data) doesn't seem to work at all. After hours of experimentation I finally figured out how to import an EPS created in Illustrator 10 (save the file as an Illustrator 5.0 document with no preview image, as a postscript version 2, and without any thumbnail) but then I couldn't get it to export a properly working font. Every time I use the font and then try to save the file in Illustrator or generate a PDF from InDesign I get a warning that states that the font can't be embedded due to be protected, even though the font permissions are set to give full access to any user. I researched the problem and found that there is a Microsoft extension module that can be installed to permit additional control over font permissions, and it apparently has solved this problem for a few people running Windows ME, but I cannot get it to work on XP. I am a huge fan of Macromedia's Flash, and I am deeply disappointed to see such a crappy product being sold for $349! Macromedia very recently lowered the price to around $300, but it's still far too much to pay for a ten-year-old program that fails to deliver on its intended purpose. I would strongly encourage anyone considering this program to look elsewhere for a product to meet their need. This product is too outdated to be of much use to modern designers.

This release has been tremendously improved and therefore remains the most suitable tool for specialists. Unluckily, the documentation is too poor and no further handbook is available in the market. It also undergoes more crashes than the previous release: this is probably intended to avoid that dangerous fonts (i.e., with major or minor shortcomings, such as point overlappings) be loaded in word processors. Therefore some defective fonts are better handled with the older release.