Hey Fivos, I was just thinking about FindMyFont yesterday.

Great that there's a new version, I don't know why, but I had a little trouble with the first one on my workhorse XP machine and just didn't have the time to figure out what was wrong.

Will get you some feedback very quickly. I'm working with a small, but always growing, open-source font library, and we can definitely use something like this.

Rich

Hi Rich,

we don't have any issue reports from our clients regarding Windows XP.
The only requirement is that you must perform the installation using an admin account.

As I remember you already have a Find my Font Pro LicenseNo, therefore I propose to try again and if you have any issues installing it, post them here or send me an e-mail to resolve them - whatever you want.

I will be glad to read your comments on our new release.

Fivos

@Fivos

BTW - I'm a former network engineer/administrator with a lot of experience with Windows installation problems. I was the third-level guy - the guy they called in when the first two techs failed. And unless something was truly broken, I never failed. (Just true, that's all.)

I began playing around with Find My Font today.

1) I am absolutely sure I installed the newer version some weeks ago, yet when I went to launch, the icon brought up the older version. Just odd, that's all I'm saying. After that, I uninstalled the older version and re-installed the newer version and everything's fine now. But unless I'm losing my mind (perfectly possible), the install of 2.3.01 either wasn't successful, or didn't replace/overwrite the previous version. I'm just mentioning this so you can double-check.

2) I have not looked at the tutorials yet. But simply trying to figure out how the program works by looking at the interface and making educated guesses is a bit difficult. Too difficult - and I don't think it has to be this way.
That I have to have an image of a font and that it needs to be in the left-hand box is fairly clear and obvious. But it would be more obvious if the box were not blank by default, why not a greyed out "Font Image Loads Here" or something like that? This way, the second the user opens the program, it's unavoidably obvious that an 'font' image needs to be opened and that it will display in the left-hand panel?

Now, I'm at the point where what's not clear to me is what kind of image is best to use to get the best chance of an accurate match. Should it be a phrase, or a word, or a single character? When I click the image more than once, it tiles within the "preview" box below it. There, too, what exactly is being displayed in the lower left hand box? Is it what the program "sees" in trying to find a match? It's unclear.
Ideally, I should be able to learn these things without going to the help section or a tutorial.
I'm getting a pop-up box that says something about a 1 letter bitmap which I don't understand, too. I'm being forced, really, to go into the help and tutorial sections and it seems to me, the idea of the program is very simple and this shouldn't be the case.

The idea behind the program is simple to understand: Provide an image of a font, select a folder or directory that has a font collection, and ask the program to find a match. That's it. Very simple.

Yet, it seems a little more difficult than it should be to make this happen quickly. Everybody hates "reading the manual". In fact, they don't read the manual! And if you're going to be relying on a thirty day and/or disabled features demo or something like that to generate sales, it's important that it be as easy to use as it can be.

Please understand that I'll certainly figure out how to use the app, I'm just passing along these points of confusion as a good beta tester! If you'd like to switch to email on these observations, let me know.

Regards,

Rich

Hi Rich,

and thank you for your valuable comments.

----------------------------
About this one:

1) I am absolutely sure I installed the newer version some weeks ago, yet when I went to launch, the icon brought up the older version.(...)

The only difference in installer prior v2.3.00, it was it offered an option to launch the application at the end of install.
As the installation always requires an admin-level account, any files created on this first run were owned by the admin and they might not be accessible for a normal user account.
That's the only thing I can think it's related to the issue you mention.
Anyway, the last installer is tested again & again with many different XP accounts and I hope this is not an issue anymore.

----------------------------
I really appreciate your comments and ideas about how a first-time user can figure out the basic program operation.
Experienced users, have no problem to start using the app. right away,
but you are right that people hate to read manuals.
We have already started to design a simple screen to stay on, and navigate the new users through the required steps:

1) Tell the App. where your fonts are (once)
2) Load or Capture a font image
3) Click on it to select 1-3 distinct letters
4) Type the actual text in [Text to Match] field
5) Click the [Mach Fonts!] button

That's all ;)
and you are right, we should make these simple steps more obvious.

Thanks again for your time

Regards
Fivos

PS-1: We are already testing Finf my Font v2.3.02-beta, which supports Postscript Type-1 fonts (both Mac & PC format) and Mac Font Suitcases (OTF/TTF/Type-1). I will post the details just after release in a couple of weeks.

PS-2: I will be really glad to read some comments about the "Browse Fonts by Visual Similarity" functionality. What do you think?

Hi again,

as I promised about a month ago the new Find my Font v2.3.02 is at last released.
I updated the first post of this thread with the major features of the new release which are:
a) A "Getting Started" screen to assist the first-time users (as Rich, Ricardo and others already pointed out) and
b) Full support for Postscript Type 1 fonts (both Windows and Mac format) and Mac Font Suitcases.

All typophile users already having a license can download Find my Font Pro v2.3.02 on the following page: Members - Update (to latest version) or you can compare the Find my Font editions and download the free trial here: Find my Font Editions Comparison

I will be glad to read your comments & suggestions on the new release.

Regards
Fivos