Plugin to install fonts (Freeware)

[casic]

Install Fonts is the first plugin of mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE. This plugin provides easy and save font installation. Main features:

• Easy and safe font installation on these operating systems:

• Windows 10
• Windows 8.x / Server 2012
• Windows 7 / Server 2008R2
• Windows Vista / Server 2008
• Windows XP / Server 2003
• Windows 2000 / Server 2000
• Provides these installation tasks:

• Unregister font file if already installed
• Copy font file to the correct Font-directory of Windows
• Register font file
• Mark font file to be a permanent font (only if font is new)
• Inform all top-level applications about installed/updated fonts
• Supported font file types:

• .fon Font resource file.
• .fnt Raw bitmap font file.
• .ttf Raw TrueType file.
• .ttc East Asian Windows:TrueType font collection.
• .fot TrueType resource file.
• .otf PostScript OpenType font.
• .mmm multiple master Type1 font resource file.
• .pfb Type 1 font bits file.It is used with a .pfm file.
• .pfm Type 1 font metrics file.It is used with a .pfb file.
• Install/Update one font file or all font files of a directory
• Optional remove original font file(s)after installation
• Complete documentation (PDF) included

You can download mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE here...

If you have any suggestions or comments please post to this thread so I get notified

cu

Markus

[casic]

Hi,

the "official" product site of mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE is now available:

English: mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE
German: mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE

News about updates of mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE will be posted to this forum too.

cu

Markus

[stevew]

Good work. I tested out your plug in and installed a font ... just as advertised. I went into MS Word and was able to use the font. No reboot or anything. Plus you have some nice PDF instructions too.

But ... I did notice some items you may like to include in a future update:

-> the font name was not set correctly for me in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Fonts

-> the install correctly removed my fonts after install, but it would be nice if the $TARGETDIR$/fonts folder could be removed too.

-> In the instructions talked a lot about $TARGETDIR$ but i couldn't figure out what this meant for a while. You might like to mention that the font files need to be added to the InstallAWARE project, just like other files that are deployed. It was only mildly confusing since the other plugs don't need manually adding files. I think this is fine, just a tip in the PDF might help other people like myself who get confused easily.

[casic]

Hi,

thank you for your post.

-> the font name was not set correctly for me in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Fonts

You are right - retrieving the font name is a little bit tricky so I tried to get out of something But, okay - I added this feature after hard work to the plugin now

-> the install correctly removed my fonts after install, but it would be nice if the $TARGETDIR$/fonts folder could be removed too.

Good point: has also been added the plugin!

-> In the instructions talked a lot about $TARGETDIR$ but i couldn't figure out what this meant for a while. You might like to mention that the font files need to be added to the InstallAWARE project, just like other files that are deployed. It was only mildly confusing since the other plugs don't need manually adding files. I think this is fine, just a tip in the PDF might help other people like myself who get confused easily.

I updated the documentation. Hope it is more clear to understand now. Please check it out and post a comment.

You can download mdPLUGINS for InstallAWARE 1.0.1 here...

Thank you very much for your support,

Markus

[stevew]

Hi Markus. I was just feeling guilty about complaining about issues when you had volunteered your time to create this plug-in ... when tada ... a new version was posted. My comments paid off.

I could find no problems with the improved version.

Good work!

[sdeschenes]

Hi,

I have two installers. One uses InstallShield and one uses InstallAware. If a user installs using InstallShield first and then installs using InstallAware second, the fonts don't get updated correctly when installing with InstallAware. (The InstallAware installer uses the Install Fonts plug-in). The plug-in installs the fonts from TARGETDIR\\Fonts. Should the plug-in check the version and date of the fonts before installing them?

[casic]

Hi,

are the fonts also installed into $targetdir$\\fonts by the InstallShield setup? If this is the case please install the fonts into a different folder when using InstallAware (there could be a MSI problem with updating existing files without version information). All fonts from the specified directory are copied to the system font folder by the plug-in (overwriting existing files), so there should be no problem with the plug-in itself.

cu

Markus

[sdeschenes]

Hi,

I think I have discoverd the problem. My InstallShield installer installs fonts that are marked as Read-Only. This is why the plug-in can't install the fonts included in my InstallAware installer.

[jateennaran]

How do i use the features of this plugin if they are only available in msi code. We purchased install aware express. We need to install fonts and its not working. Is there another way to work around this? Is there and update for install aware that could help?

[casic]

Hi,

you have to use the InstallAware Developer Edition or higher to be able to use the font plug-in. With the Express Edition it is not possible to use any third party plug-ins.

Sorry,

Markus

[Tiago]

Does this plugin support IA9?
Thanks in advance!

[casic]

Hi,

YES - InstallAware 9 is fully supported by all our plug-ins.

Cu

Markus

[Gunter]

Hello,

I'm using your plugin to install the "Arial MS Unicode" font on the target computer which is working flawless on 2000/XP/Vista, but on *some* Windows7 computers this is failing. For some reason, the font is gone after a reboot, while Configuration Panel - Fonts is listing the font, while the actual file (.ttf) is removed from the system.
Manually removing the font and installing it manually fix the problem, but obviously I want this done by the installer.
Unfortunately, I can't find a reason for this, and I was unable to replicate it here on my computers, but several customers are reporting this problem.

Our installer requires Admin rights, and elevation so I don't expect this is an UAC or rights problem.

Thanks for your help.

[Gunter]

Never mind, I found the reason of this problem and solved it.

[Dan Evans]

Hello,

Gunter, I'd be curious to know what solved your Windows 7 problems. We have been using this plugin for quite a while, but have recently noticed that on Windows 7, fonts do not appear to be installing properly, even with the latest version. If I check the location where the ttf file is set to install from after the installer completes, both the folder and file are still there, despite having the options to remove both selected. The font is never copied to the C:\\Windows\\Fonts folder, nor is any registry key created. XP and Vista work fine, but it seems like the plugin has no noticeable effect on 32 or 64 bit versions of Windows 7. I've also tried using several other ttf files to see if there might be something unique to our font that prevents it from installing. In all cases, I had no problems installing the fonts manually, but the plugin doesn't seem to do anything. There are no errors generated and the Installer completes all the other tasks normally, but the font simply never installs.

Thanks for any help anyone may be able to provide.