Scanfont and Lion

[Evertype]

It looks as though Scanfont will be disabled with Lion. Are there plans to upgrade it?

[Evertype]

Please make this the next one you upgrade. It is a very useful program.

[Evertype]

Can you let us know which of your Rosetta programs you will be upgrading first?

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

I've heard TransType Pro will be the first.

[rtranmer]

Scanfont is truely a one-of-a-kind app... my business (and family) depend on it (I would pay yearly to upgrade/use it).  I, too, hope that lion has not killed any further development. I'd rather have scanfont than lion, but as years and operating systems come and go I fear I'll need to find a replacement.

If so, is there anything else out there that will easily export several paths/glyphs to typetool or fontlab in a couple clicks (vs. cutting and pasting each path/glyph individually from illustrator)?

[empireoflight]

I wish there was; since I haven't been able to use scanfont my production has dropped significantly. Copy/pasting 100 glyphs is just too daunting. Fontlab, if you're reading this, please upgrade Scanfont.

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

We are reading but unfortunately our resources are too limited to rewrite all products quickly. 

[Evertype]

Yes, Alex, but can you please make ScanFont the next one to upgrade after TransTypePro? ScanFont is a unique and important app.

[jgowrie]

See the thread on using the WINE version of Scanfont... it works quite well and works under LION so you can finally upgrade if you have been holding back.  I think you need to contact Customer Service with your registration details for SF and they will send you the WINE package. 

I find it an INCREDIBLY important piece of software and without it, I would not be able to develop certain projects for my customers.  It should be updated at some point because it is unique.  I imagine my use for SF is quite different from most users so I wanted to just post an example of what SF let's me do.  I'm a woodworker and I use a particular CNC machine to create carvings/engravings for my customers.  Many of my projects contain complicated Family Coat of Arms and other similar line drawings.  I used to have to make serious concessions on the level of detail I could include prior to finding TT and SF.  Since my CNC machine will take a font and engrave that font using a V-carve bit, I have been able to place these images into a font file and then bring them into my CNC software and enlarge them to whatever size I need.  I'm still amazed at how complicated of an image SF has been able to import for me.  Here is one example of why this piece of software is so unique... This is a very complicated image ( split in half ) that was flawlessly imported by using SF.  It took about 1 second for the WINE version of SF to create the outline... 

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

What is the source image format? Was it ScanFont who traced this?

[jgowrie]

It is a PNG created with Gimp.  This trace was done solely with ScanFont5 ( wine )

[Alex Petrov (FontLab)]

Super!