TypeStyler replacement?

[barryjaylevine]

Finally tired of waiting for Strider to release an OSX native version of TypeStyler. I'm doing "print to paper" only (no "web" stuff). Anyone care to make some recommendations for a replacement for TypeStyler?

Thanks,
Barry

[Gabriel]

From Strider's website:

Quote: YES! There will be a TypeStyler for Mac OS X. But when and what do you mean by "soon"? This is what users have been asking for over a year and although this page has told what's happening it hasn't answered the "when" question. And even though I still can't give a definitive date I can tell you that every day brings us closer. Believe me, no one wants the Mac OS X release out more than we do. We continue to work feverishly on this new release but with every release of OS X new challenges are encountered. Obviously development is taking longer than we ever anticipated but is necessary to make this next generation of TypeStyler everything we all want it to be. TypeStyler for Mac OS X will remain a quick and easy alternative for users wanting styled type. Projects that take hours in other applications can be done in minutes. Just like TypeStyler 3, this next generation TypeStyler will set a new standard in the creation of stylized type. TypeStyler for Mac OS X is a complete desktop publishing tool, providing the full range of features needed to quickly design, layout and print headline text and logos, as well as complete ads, signage, packaging and web site graphics. TypeStyler for Mac OS X can be used by anyone from professional graphic artists to the general Macintosh user. The new TypeStyler for Mac OS X is not just a port of TypeStyler 3 to OS X but a new dedicated OS X application that will take advantage of the new Mac OS X (Panther) operating system. Until the new TypeStyler for OS X is released the current TypeStyler 3.7.2 (one known issue) has been shown to run fine under the Classic environment of OS X. * Thanks, David Stillman info@typestyler.com Strider Software P.O. Box 513 Marinette WI 54143-0513 USA 906-863-7798 906-863-7799-fax

Sounds great - on the small chance it isn't vaporware. Honestly, TypeStyler is one of the very few apps I miss from Classic. I liked it, but I wasn't very happy with the way it integrated with other apps. Hopefully a new version will be able to generate .doc or rtf files and maybe even have (or be?) a plugin for the adobe apps.

[barryjaylevine]

The biggest worry I have is that the TypeStyler development process will become Strider's Rhapsody. Frankly, all that needs to be done (IMHO) is to make it native (Carbon is fine) and fix some export issues. The "web" stuff could even be dropped AFAIC.

[Gabriel]

Thats a good point - I don't need another "complete desktop publishing tool" - I'm sure that whatever TypeStyler develops won't be nearly as useful as Quark or InDesign or even PageMaker. I don't do a lot of desktop publishing, but I'm certainly not going to shift a whole project over to an inferior (and most likely very non-standard) app just to have some really nice text styling. Strider should just focus on what they do well. I'm sure that the long wait has really hurt them financially.

[davestillman]

Obviously this thread was started out of frustration for not having an OS X native TypeStyler. As someone who lives this frustration daily I also have the knowledge of knowing what the Mac OS X release of TypeStyler is. As frustrating as it is not having a shipping OS X TypeStyler I know we're doing the right thing by not releasing a product that would end up being a disappointment.

The messages and posts we get daily ranges from extremely supportive to downright nasty. Regardless of how nasty folks are it doesn't make things go faster and it doesn't change the facts.

The fact remains that we are not "waiting" for anything other than to get everything working like it should. It's almost impossible to believe how much had to be rewritten. And after taking this long, to release something now that's not ready and fix it later would be suicide. To recover from that would be all but impossible.

TypeStyler X is feature complete and we are doing internal beta testing so it won't be much longer before our beta testers start seeing something. A shipping TypeStyler is definitely getting close.

Until TypeStyler X is shipping I continue to personally try help anyone that runs into an issue using the current TypeStyler release running in the Classic environment.

[Gabriel]

Thanks for your post Dave. I didn't mean to be a jerk in my earlier posts, you've created a very useful app with TS 3 and I wish you the best of luck with TypeStyler X. I look forward to seeing what you've come up with.

If you need any more beta testers, PM me

[barryjaylevine]

TypeStyler for OS9 is so great that its absence in an OSX native version screams at us. I have a client who has been awarded many certificates and honors for her graphics work. She's said to me that, if it were not for TypeStyler, she'd be struggling and her work would take her two or three times as long.

As long as you have a printer with an OS9 driver, TypeStyler in Classic is fine. However, my client is using a Designjet 500 and we're shifting her over to HP's new OSX driver (and dumping their awful OS9 RIP). So our challenge will be to take whatever output we can from TS in Classic and get it into the OSX printer queue. I'm wondering if Acrobat (output to PDF in Classic and print it from OSX using Illustrator or Acrobat_X) might be a temporary solution. I've tried the "export to AI" option but everything is shifted around in what looks like an inconsistent manner. Maybe "PrintToPDF"?

Chomping at the bit...

Barry

[barryjaylevine]

Just ran some tests on exporting from TS in Classic. If I export as jpeg with an appropriate resolution, Photoshop and Illustrator (in OSX) don't seem to have any problem with opening or placing the file. Then we can add whatever other text/photos/etc. are needed and print in OSX using the Designjet_X driver. I'm using a custom page size of 39" x 120"; the export from TS_Classic and the subsequent opening or placement of the jpeg maintain the page size (which you would expect considering that the file is simply a jpeg, eh?).

The AI export from TS_Classic isn't working properly (but I think there was mention of this in an earlier post). I'll bet that TS_X will have this nailed.

If Dave is right about TS_X, there will be joy in Mudville.

Barry

[ibobunot]

"The current TypeStyler 3.7.2 (one known issue) has been shown to run fine
under the Classic environment of OS X."

Well that's all fine and dandy but I don't have a "Classic" environment.

[jriz]

TypeStyler - The check's in the mail and other lies.

It's now almost 2 years since Dave Stillman of Strider said on this very board that TypeStyler for OS X would be here soon. It's obvious that Dave and the good folks at Strider aren't working hard on the OS X version of TypeStyler. They're working hard to redefine soon.

[barryjaylevine]

Wow! 18 months for the latest reply!

Is TypeStylerX the best example of vaporware...ever?

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by barryjaylevine Wow! 18 months for the latest reply! Is TypeStylerX the best example of vaporware...ever?

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." [often incorrectly attributed to Samuel Johnson] - Translation: Merely intending to do good, without actually doing it, is of no value. I have no doubt that Dave Stillman has great intentions, but clearly can't be working on this project at all.

I too was an almost daily user of TS through several incarnations. To continue to use it for any purpose requires starting up an old OS9 machine now (somewhere along the line it got unhappy with Classic). I haven't even moved it to my 10.4.5 G5 from a G3 that will boot into OS9 and I leave it as an exercise for the reader how often I'm willing to do that.

[EvilGod]

that's cool soft

[6502]

Waaaaaay back when, there was an archive floating around the 'net purporting to be a Carbonized OS X beta of TS 3.7x.

I never tried it, but I remember a lot of talk about it in the Mac newsgroups.

It was a trojan.

[barryjaylevine]

Quote: Originally Posted by 6502 Waaaaaay back when, there was an archive floating around the 'net purporting to be a Carbonized OS X beta of TS 3.7x. I never tried it, but I remember a lot of talk about it in the Mac newsgroups. It was a trojan.

Back in August of 2004 I eMailed Dave and he said there truly was a beta he was demo'ing to the Los Angeles MUG and that we would see the app real soon.

We're just shy of two years later and there is still no acceptable replacement for TypeStyler. Today I don't even have the choice of Classic (both my Macs are CoreDuo Intel models). My client who was using it in Classic (see my post way earlier in this thread) has abandoned it and now does it all in Illustrator although it does take her more time.

Would a Carbonized TypeStyler even work on an Intel Mac? Will Dave ever release TypeStyler? Who is John Galt?

[NovaScotian]

BJL made his first post in this thread 98 weeks ago. What astonishes me is that Strider's site is still up, and still promising. Like most of you who care, I haven't been able to run it since I upgraded to Tiger and abandoned Classic. I wonder why he keeps a) so silent, and b) paying for the site?

[JDV]

The description of the "coming soon" product indicates that it will be written as a Universal app, so obviously he has updated the promise since the release of the Intel-based Macs.

I didn't use this product, but it sounds like it is not being ported, but re-written from the ground up, and it is likely that the introduction of the Intel processor into the picture might have made even more coding necessary. Since he's not likely to have a huge development team, I can easily see that it might take a rather long time to achieve this. I hope, for those of you who used it and liked it, that the wait isn't too much longer and that it remains the desirable program it seems to have been in earlier versions of the Mac OS.

Joe VanZandt

[MiaThai]

I've been using TS for I think around 16 years.
Stillman has a habit of doing a disappearing act every now and again and it was a shame that when TS resurfaced as TS3 it was so close to Mac's move to OSX.

Until about two years ago I used to get personal replies from Dave or Mariane when I sent my begging letters for a OSX but even that has dried up. I could understand if Dave is broke, ill, or just generally fed up, but like everyone else I do feel he should stop playing like a politician and come out with some facts about the future of what was one of the most genial grafix programs ever.

Sorry Dave, I'm moving on too - when I find something. But it's not going to be a journey through all those Adobe plug-ins or Art Text which may look cool with its gel colours but it's no substitute for TS

[Norman]

"Coming soon?" "Not being ported, but re-written?" Ohh my. What excuses will next we make for a product that time has all but forgotten?

It's been close to two years since I last visited David Stillman's TypeStyler website. Frankly I thought it would be long gone, but when I discovered it was still there and saw the same old empty promise being displayed, "TypeStylerX will be available soon," I could only scornfully snicker at his bald-faced audacity and ponder what he's trying to prove, and to whom he's trying to prove it to.

It seems obvious at this point, at least to me, that Mr. Stillman is hanging on to the wisps of a dream that was, and now only exists in an all but abandoned reality known as OS 9.

It's high time we realized that it's time to move on, because the timeframe for Mr. Stillman to get real about a TypeStyler application for OS X is long gone and now smacks more of vaporware than software.

I'm sure as much as all of us wish it were otherwise, TypeStylerX has become the stuff of unrealized daydreams that no amount of wishful thinking or self-delusion can make real. It's time we woke up to the reality of the situation.

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by Norman ---- It seems obvious at this point, at least to me, that Mr. Stillman is hanging on to the wisps of a dream that was, and now only exists in an all but abandoned reality known as OS 9. It's high time we realized that it's time to move on, because the timeframe for Mr. Stillman to get real about a TypeStyler application for OS X is long gone and now smacks more of vaporware than software. ----

What do you suggest 'moving on' to? When it existed, I used that app a lot and I've never really found a substitute in a price range I can afford.