Lose Your Mind Development - Printer's Apprentice 8.1 Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the "Hide Fonts" function in Windows 7 not work with all applications?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In Windows 7, you can choose to have selected fonts not listed in your application font menus by using the new Hide Fonts function. But it does not work with all applications.

The Product Support page has an article that explains, in more detail, why the Windows 7 Hide Fonts function does not work with all applications. See the article Why Hide Fonts Does Not Work With Windows 7 for more information.

As of 1/28/10, we are working on an update for Printer's Apprentice that will enable it to properly display or hide fonts based on their Windows 7 "Hide" setting.

How do I look at the logs files created by Printer's Apprentice?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Printer's Apprentice fuctions listed below will generate log files detailing the results of program operation. The log files can provide valuable information if there is a problem with the software or unexplained results. Printer's Apprentice logs are standard text files and can be opened with Windows Notepad.

Operation	Log Filename
Application start	log_startup.txt
Refresh Installed Fonts	log_refresh_installed.txt

Install Fonts	log_install_fonts.txt
Uninstall Fonts	log_uninstall_fonts.txt

Install Font Group	log_install_fonts.txt
Uninstall Font Group	log_uninstall_fonts.txt

All log files are stored in the folder listed below. To easily open the log files folder, select Printer's Apprentice Logs Folder from the Tools menu. Or you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder directly.

Operating System	Log Files Path
Windows 7	c:\users\{user name}\appdata\roaming\Printer's Apprentice\log
Windows Vista	c:\users\{user name}\appdata\roaming\Printer's Apprentice\log
Windows XP	c:\documents and settings\{user name}\Application Data\Printer's Apprentice\log

If you need to send a log file to Lose Your Mind Development, simply attach the text file to an email.

What changes are included in the latest version of Printer's Apprentice?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A complete list of changes can be found on the Printer's Apprentice Version History page.

How do I upgrade from Printer's Apprentice 8.0 to 8.1?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

To upgrade to Printer's Apprentice 8.1:

Download Printer's Apprentice 8.1.
Unzip the contents of the prnapp81.zip file to a temporary folder or your desktop.
Run the setup.exe program to start the installation process.
Any previous versions of Printer's Apprentice will be removed and the software will be installed into the %programfiles%\Lose Your Mind Development\Printer's Apprentice 8.1 folder.

Your previous settings, font groups folder and license key will be preserved. You should not have to re-enter your license key.

Why does Printer's Apprentice have problems uninstalling certain fonts?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Under certain circumstances, Printer's Apprentice won't be able to uninstall a font. This can happen for any number of reasons.

The font may be in use by another application. Check to make sure that other applications are not using the font in a document. For example, if a file is open in Microsoft Word, fonts used by that document may not be able to be uninstalled.
You many not have access rights to uninstall the font. Check the font file Properties > Security tab to make sure that you have "Full Control" rights on the file. Under Windows 7, many fonts cannot be deleted because only the "TrustedInstaller" user has full access to the file.

The Product Support page has an article that explains, in more detail, why some fonts cannot be uninstalled from Windows 7. See the article How To Uninstall Foreign Language Fonts With Windows 7 for more information.

When was Printer's Apprentice 8.1 released?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Printer's Apprentice 8.1 was released on January 5, of 2010.

What are the system requirements for Printer's Apprentice 8.1

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Printer's Apprentice 8.1 is for Windows 7, Vista and XP. Both 32 and 64 bit operating systems are supported.

It does not run on earlier versions of Windows.

Printer's Apprentice 8.1 also requires the Microsoft .NET 2.0 runtime. This preinstalled on Windows 7 and Vista systems.

If .NET 2.0 is not installed on your PC, the Printer's Apprentice setup program will download and install it. However, we recommend downloading and installing .NET 2.0 prior to installing Printer's Apprentice. The .NET 2.0 runtime can be downloaded directly from Microsoft using the link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856eacb-4362-4b0d-8edd-aab15c5e04f5&displaylang=en

How much does an upgrade for Printer's Apprentice 8.1 cost?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Previous users of our software can upgrade to Printer's Apprentice 8.1 for US$ 15.00. To order your upgrade, click the button below.

Please Note: Before sending license keys, we check our customer records to ensure that you are eligible for the upgrade. Please make sure you have purchased Printer's Apprentice in the past before placing your upgrade order.

If you purchased a license for Printer's Apprentice after January 1, 2008, you can request a free Printer's Apprentice 8.0 license key. Simply send your request to helpdesk@loseyourmind.com. Include your full name and address so we can validate your upgrade eligibility.

What type of fonts does Printer's Apprentice 8.1 support?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Printer's Apprentice 8.1 works with TrueType (.ttf), Type 1 (.pfb) and OpenType (.off) fonts. The chart below indicates which features are available for each type of font.

	TrueType	Type 1	OpenType	Postscript based OpenType
Can be viewed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can be printed	Yes	Yes	Yes	yes
Can be installed, uninstalled	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Can be managed in font groups	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Support for printing Postscript based OpenType and Type 1 fonts was added in Printer's Apprentice 8.0.29.

Does Printer's Apprentice include an uninstall utility?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

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 Control Panel from the Windows Start menu
Double-click "Add or Remove Programs"
In the Add or Remove Programs dialog, scroll down until you locate the Printer's Apprentice entry.
Select it and click the Remove button

The uninstaller will start. Follow the on-screen instructions to remove Printer's Apprentice from your PC.

How can I manually uninstall Printer's Apprentice?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Follow the instructions below to manually uninstall Printer's Apprentice -

Delete the Lose Your Mind Development\Printer's Apprentice 8.1 folder from your Program Files folder.
Delete the Printer's Apprentice 8.1 group in your Start Menu.

How do I report a problem with Printer's Apprentice?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

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!

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?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

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.

Does Printer's Apprentice support Unicode fonts?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

At this time, Printer's Apprentice only works with fonts that include the Western ANSI character set. We plan to include full support for Unicode in a future version.

How can I use my font groups from an earlier version with Printer's Apprentice 8.1?

helpdesk@loseyourmind.com — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The setup program for Printer's Apprentice 8.1 does not import your font groups from earlier versions of Printer's Apprentice.

If you have font groups from an earlier version of Printer's Apprentice, use one of the following methods to make your font groups available in the 8.1 version.

The easy method involves simply pointing your PA 8.1 Font Groups path to the folder where the groups are currently located. For example, by default, Printer's Apprentice 7.5 stores the font groups in c:\program files\printer's apprentice 7.5\font groups. You can use the PA 8.1 Tools > Options dialog to look for font groups in that folder.

However, if you want to move your font groups to a more convenient location, such as another hard drive, or to the default PA 8.1 font groups folder, you will have to do a little more work.

First, using Printer's Apprentice 7.5, uninstall any fonts that are located physically in your groups path. You can tell which one are installed this way by making sure that the "Show full paths for font files" option is checked, then look at your installed font list. Any font located in your font groups path should be uninstalled.

We want to uninstall them because we are going to move the fonts themselves. Windows won't reload the fonts the next time it boots if it can't find them. So you want to uninstall them first. You only have to uninstall fonts that are installed and physically stored in the font groups folder. You don't need to uninstall the fonts if they are physically stored in the c:\windows\fonts folder.

Once any fonts are uninstalled, use Windows Explorer to move the fonts to their new location. You can move them to another folder or the default Printer's Apprentice groups folder. The default folder is

c:\documents and settings\{user name}\application data\Printer's Apprentice\Font Groups

If you move them to a different location, you will also need to change the location in the PA 8.1 Options dialog.

If you have any questions about this process, feel free to contact us via the support email form.