Windows Font Manager - Printer's Apprentice 7.0 FAQ

Printer's Apprentice 7.0 FAQ

This FAQ file covers Printer's Apprentice 7.0 and was last updated on 5/8/2000. The current version of Printer's Apprentice is 7.58, released on May 4, 2006. Please see the current FAQ page for more recent support topics.

1. When will Printer's Apprentice 7.0 be released?
Printer's Apprentice 7.0 was released on January 1, 1999.

2. How much will the upgrade for Printer's Apprentice cost?
If you are a registered user of Printer's Apprentice 6.5x, the upgrade will be free. You can get the software from our download page. Your registration key from PA 6.5 can be used to unlock PA 7.0.

If you are a registered user of PA 6.1, 6.0 or earlier, the upgrade will cost $12. We will deliver via email a registration key so you can "unlock" the downloaded copy of Printer's Apprentice. To get your registration key, send a check payable to Lose Your Mind Development, P.O. Box 184, Berwyn, PA 19312-0184. If you have questions about the upgrade, send email to salesinfo@loseyourmind.com.

3. What changes are included in Printer's Apprentice 7.0?
Please see the Printer's Apprentice Product Sheet for information regarding new features. A list of changes in the development version can be found in this text file changes.txt.

4. How can I submit an idea for Printer's Apprentice?
If you have an idea for Printer’s Apprentice, please feel free to forward it to one of the addresses in the Technical Support section. All requests are carefully evaluated for possible use in upcoming versions. If more information is needed, we will get in touch with you, so please include your contact information.

5. Why can't Printer's Apprentice read uninstalled Adobe Type Manager (Type 1) fonts?
At this time, Printer's Apprentice can only view and print installed ATM fonts. We expect to address this in a future version of the software.

6. Why can't Printer's Apprentice read Adobe Type Manager fonts on Windows NT?
Printer's Apprentice 7.09, released 5/5/99, added the ability to view Type 1 fonts installed with Adobe Type Manager under Windows NT. If you are using an earlier version of the software, please visit our download page to upgrade your copy.

7. When loading Printer's Apprentice, it crashes with this error message: Run-time error '453': Can't find DLL entry point InitCommonControlsEx in Comctl32.dll.
To fix this error, you need to download an updated version of the Windows Common Controls. Download and install COM32UPD.EXE from Microsoft. Then restart Printer's Apprentice.

8. Printer's Apprentice hangs or crashes when I start it. What can I do?
If the software hangs or crashes on startup, please try the following -.

1. Shut down your computer, then reinstall Printer's Apprentice.
2. Make sure the Arial Truetype font is installed. If Arial is not installed, PA 7.11 and earlier will crash on startup with an "Invalid Page Fault" error. With PA 7.12 and later, you need to have either Arial, Verdana or MS Sans Serif installed.
3. If the software still does not run, you need to enable a special "logging" feature of Printer's Apprentice. This will create a log file to send to our Technical Support people. This log file will help us determine the source of the problem.

To enable the startup log
1. Open the Printer's Apprentice folder with Windows Explorer. This is usually c:\program files\printers apprentice
2. Locate the PA.INI file and double click it. The file will be opened in Notepad.
3. Find the line that reads LOGGING = 0.
4. Edit the line so it reads LOGGING = 1.
5. Save and close the file.
6. Start Printer's Apprentice.
7. After it crashes, locate the PALOG.TXT file in your Printer's Apprentice folder.
8. Send this file to helpdesk@loseyourmind.com. Also, please detail the contents of any messages that are displayed when you try to run Printer's Apprentice.

9. Printer's Apprentice seems to install correctly, but when the software is started it displays a "Component Checker" dialog box. What is this and how do I get rid of it?
On startup, Printer's Apprentice does a system check to make sure necessary DLL and ActiveX (OCX) components are up to date. If an older or duplicate DLL/OCX file is found, the Component Checker dialog box is displayed.

Printer's Apprentice uses several OCX and DLL files. The files used and their version numbers are listed in the PA readme.txt file that ships with the product. There are two situations that can trigger the Component Checker dialog box.

An older DLL/OCX file exists in the windows\system folder.
If this occurs, the Component Dialog will be displayed. Look in the Detail box to determine which DLL/OCX file is causing the problem. Another software program may have installed an older version of the file in the windows\system folder. Rerun the Printer's Apprentice setup program to reinstall the most recent copy of the file.

--or--

A older, duplicate version of the DLL/OCX file exists in the windows folder.
If you have copies of the file in both the windows and windows\system folder, the Component Checker dialog will be displayed. For example, you might have version 1.0 of a file in the windows folder and version 1.1 in the system folder. The Component Checker will find the older version in the windows folder first and the dialog will be displayed. To fix this, delete the questionable file file (specified in the component checker dialog) from the windows folder, then rerun the Printer's Apprentice setup program to make sure everything is set.

If Printer's Apprentice still does not run, click the 'Save...' button in the Component Checker dialog. Email the created text file to helpdesk@loseyourmind.com.

10. Does Printer's Apprentice include an uninstall utility?
Printer's Apprentice includes an uninstaller that can remove the software from your computer. This includes deleting both application and system files, INI files, removing directories and Start menu items. To run the uninstaller, select "Uninstall Printer’s Apprentice" from the PA group on your Start menu. The uninstaller will ask you if you wish to use Automatic or Custom modes. We suggest using the Custom mode so you can review files and other items that will be deleted.

11. How can I manually uninstall Printer's Apprentice?
Follow the instructions below to manually uninstall Printer's Apprentice -

1. Open the Printer's Apprentice readme.txt file. This is located in your PA folder.
2. At the bottom of the file is a list of OCX and DLLs used by Printer's Apprentice. Delete the following files from your windows\system folder - dwcbk32.ocx, dwvstp32.ocx, threed32.ocx, dwspy36.dll. Other files are listed in the readme.txt file, but these files are commonly used by Microsoft applications. It is not recommended that you remove them.
3. Delete the Printer's Apprentice folder.
4. Delete the Printer's Apprentice group in your Start Menu.

12. I am having difficulty printing catalogs and sample sheets on my Hewlett Packard printer with 1MB of memory. What can I do to remedy this?
This software was developed using the Hewlett Packard LaserJet 5L. Like many low end printers, this model only has 1MB of memory. Because Printer's Apprentice often builds complex pages made up of many different fonts, it is easy to send too much data to the printer and get a Memory Overflow error. Changing the printer settings will often get around this problem. Listed below are settings for an HP 5L or similar printer that can affect printing.

Resolution - Printing at 600 DPI takes much more memory than 300 DPI. Lower your resolution to use less memory when printing.

Graphics Mode - On many HP printers, you can send graphics as Raster images. According to the HP help files, complex pages will print faster in graphics mode.

Text Mode - Most HP drivers give you the option of sending text as a bitmapped soft font or as a graphic. It is our experience that sending Text as Graphics greatly enhances the ability of Printer's Apprentice to send multiple pages of fonts to the printer.

You can find these settings by opening the Printers folder from the Control Panel. Right click on your HP icons and select Properties. Click the Print Quality tab. Click "Manual Settings", then the Settings button. Your driver may have the settings located differently then the HP 5L driver. Please note, these instructions are for the HP 5L and other HP printers. If you have an HP compatible printer, there is a "Print TrueType as Graphics" option buried in the various printer settings dialog boxes.

Printer’s Apprentice also has an option to reset the printer every few pages. Basically, Printer’s Apprentice will break a large print job into several smaller jobs. Each smaller job is made of a user definable number of pages. To change the default, open the Font Catalogs tab in the Options dialog. If you are having difficulties printing more than a few pages with the software, please contact us for technical support.

13. Why does the number of fonts being read by Printer’s Apprentice differ from the number of fonts Windows tell me are in my Fonts folder?
The number of fonts reported by Windows in the status bar of the Fonts folder is the number of font families installed. This includes TrueType, Adobe Type 1 and selected "device" fonts. A font family defined as a group of similar fonts. For example, "Arial" is a font family. This family might include four individual fonts, such as Arial Roman, Arial Bold, Arial Italic and Arial Bold. Depending on the print driver installed, the number reported by Printer's Apprentice may or may not include device fonts such as MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, fixedsys, etc.

14. There is a font called “Marlett” on my computer. What is the significance of this font?
Do not remove this font! Marlett is a vital system font used by the operating system to display window control elements such as resize handles, the minimize, maximize, restore and close buttons and other objects. On most systems it is not possible to uninstall this font with Printer’s Apprentice.

Marlett does not have an entry in the Windows Registry. So the font file for this is indicated as "unknown." However, the font name is marlett.ttf. We just don't want you to be able to move this font around. Uninstalling it can cause Windows to really get messed up.

15. While reading a font CD-ROM, Windows displayed an “Invalid TrueType font encountered” and then crashed. What does this mean?
Not all fonts found online and on CD-ROM collections are valid font files. Fonts can get corrupted by being run through conversion utilities, being transferred from other operating systems, etc. Invalid fonts can crash the Windows TrueType font engine. If you get this error, you should reboot Windows and delete or avoid using this font. For more information, see Known Issues.

16. Why does my printer take so long to print catalogs and sample sheets? Why are the print jobs so large?
Depending on how you have your printer driver setup, fonts can go to the printer as downloaded softfonts, bitmapped fonts or plain bitmaps. Either way, fonts take up lots of space. Newer Windows print drivers have memory compression built in, causing less data to be sent to the printer.

The print drivers are also smart enough to send only the font characters used by the document. But the sample sheets sent by Printer’s Apprentice frequently use all characters in the font, so there is a great deal of information being sent to the printer. We strongly recommend lowering your resolution from 600 dpi to 300 dpi. This cuts the amount of data being sent to the printer while retaining the detail in the fonts.

17.Some fonts display with jagged or "stairstep" text. What is wrong?
If a font displays incorrectly or with big, blocky pixels, you might have a entry in the Registry for the font, but the physical font TTF file is missing. This could happen for any number of reasons. To fix the problem, you can do a few things -

Reinstall the font
1. Using the Windows Explorer, locate a backup copy of the font.
2. Drag it into the Windows Fonts folder. This will force Windows to recopy the TTF file to the fonts folder.

-- or --

Remove the Registry entries for the font
1. With Printer's Apprentice 7.11 or later, select Font Registry from the Tools menu.
2. Registry entries that point to non-existent font files are marked with a red symbol.
3. Open the Windows Registry editor (regedit.exe) and navigate to one of the following keys "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Fonts" under Windows 98/98 or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts under Windows NT.
4. Use the Registry editor to remove any entries that point to TTF files that don't exist.

A future version of Printer's Apprentice will have a tool to automatically repair invalid font Registry entries.

18. How to confirm all Printer's Apprentice support files are correctly installed.
Printer's Apprentice requires several OCX and DLL files to be installed in the windows\system (Win95/98) or winnt\system32 (NT) folder. The Printer's Apprentice setup program copies these files for you. Many of our support files are produced by Microsoft and other companies. We always include the most recent version of these files when our software is compiled and shipped.

When our setup program runs, it will not overwrite any newer files that already exist on your machine. It is important to note that "newer" does not mean date. Most DLL, OCX, VDX, EXE and other Windows binary files contain an internal version stamp. We use the version stamps to determine if an existing file is older than a file to be installed. Using Windows, you can view the version stamp for a binary file -

To view internal version information
1. In Windows Explorer, right click an EXE, DLL or OCX file.
2. Select "Properties" from the pop up menu.
3. In the Properties dialog, click the Version tab. The internal version information is listed here.

However, other applications may overwrite existing DLL and OCX files with older versions. If Printer's Apprentice fails to start or crashes, this may be the cause of the problem. The best idea is to reinstall the software. If this does not work, you should manually check that all support files are installed. However, duplicate OCX/DLL files can also cause problems. Follow these steps to confirm all support files are correctly installed if Printer's Apprentice won't start.

1. Close all applications and reboot your computer.
2. Open the readme.txt file located in the Printer's Apprentice folder.
3. At the bottom of the file is a list of support DLL and OCX files used by our software. These files are all shipped with our software. The version number for each DLL/OCX file is also noted.
4. Using Windows Explorer, locate the first file in the windows\system folder. Make sure the internal version stamp is the same or newer than what is listed in the PA readme.txt file.
5. If the file does not exist, reinstall Printer's Apprentice.
6. If the file does exist, make sure there is not a copy in your Windows folder as well.
7. If the file is located in both the windows and windows\system folders, keep the one with most recent version number and store it in the windows\system folder.
8. Follow steps 3 through 7 for each DLL/OCX listed in the readme.txt file.

The rule of thumb is as follows - You should have only one copy of each DLL and OCX on your system. These files need to be stored in the windows\system folder. The version of each file needs to be the same as or later than the version number listed in our readme.txt file.

If you need any help with this, don't hesitate to drop us an email at helpdesk@loseyourmind.com.

19. What fonts should I not delete when cleaning out my system?
Reducing the number of fonts installed can increase your startup speed. If you want to clean out all fonts on your system, here is a list of fonts you generally should not remove.

Marlette - This is the font used for the minimize, maximize and close buttons on your window borders. Don't remove this!
Arial (TrueType)
Times New Roman (TrueType)
Courier New (TrueType)
Any .FON files. These are fixed size fonts used for MS-DOS windows and other some dialog boxes.

20. How to report a problem with our software.
We strive to produce the best software possible. However, problems can and do occur. In order to help you quickly, you need to provide as much information about the situation as possible. Otherwise we will not be able to help you.

Please use our web based information form when contacting us about a problem with Printer's Apprentice.

Again, we can't stress how important it is to include as much information as possible. Thank you!

21. Is there a version of Printer's Apprentice for the Macintosh?
There is currently no version of Printer's Apprentice for the Macintosh. You might want to take a look at Suitcase from Extensis.

22. Why are some fonts listed with an "unknown" filename?
In some cases, Printer's Apprentice does show "unknown" for fonts. This usually happens when a software setup program installs fonts and enters the incorrect entry in the Registry. PA reads installed fonts from memory using a Windows API call. It then tries to make a connection with the registry entry to determine the font name.

For example, "Arial" is installed. The registry entry is "Arial (TrueType)". Sometimes a software setup program will make the registry entry "Arial (True Type)" - note the space in "TrueType". Our software allows for this, but often the difference is significant.

For example the font name might be "Arial MT" but the Registry entry is "Arial (TrueType)" - without the MT. The error happens when there is miscommunication between the developers and setup program writers. If the developers give the setup program writers an incorrect list of font registry entries to make, then we get problems.

There is a solution-
1. Open the Fonts window in Windows Controls Panel.
2. Select two or three of the 47 fonts that list as "unknown" in PA. Drag them from the window to the Desktop. This essentially uninstalls them.
3. Wait a few moments.
4. Drag the fonts from the Desktop back into the Fonts window. This reinstalls the fonts. Windows will write the correct Registry entries for the fonts.
5. Start Printer's Apprentice and see if the font file names are now listed correctly.

23. How can I fix the "file not found" error when I try to start Adobe Type Manager from Printer's Apprentice?
By default, Printer's Apprentice launches the Adobe Type Manager 3.0 program file. If you have ATM 4.0 installed, you need to point Printer's Apprentice to the 4.0 program file. To do this, follow these steps -

1. Launch Printer's Apprentice.
2. From the Tools menu, select Options.
3. On the "General" tab, click the "..." button next to the ATM Path field.
4. Locate the Adobe Type Manager program file installed on your computer.
5. Save your changes by clicking the "OK" button on the Options screen.