Hi,
I have been using Maintype to my great satisfaction since 2.0. Maintype 12 currently manages my more than 6600 fonts. The last stable version for me was and is 12.0.0.1290 (64 bit). The subsequent update …1318 was completely unusable for me because the windows were constantly getting mixed up, the program didn’t retain its settings and, above all, kept crashing. Thanks to a data backup, however, I continued to work with …1290. But the development progressed: Now the update …1332 has been released. Although it no longer messes up the windows, it still does not retain the selected settings and still crashes very often: usually when switching to another program. It is still not possible to work properly with this version.
My system is Windows 11, version 23H2, OS Build 22631.4317.
Now concerns update …1332:
The new attempt today resulted in crashes when installing variable fonts. The installation itself was successful. I still can’t say: When a certain situation occurs, exactly this and exactly that always happens. The only thing in common is that no error message appears and no message appears in the C:\ProgramData\High-Logic\Errors folder.
After starting the program, the size displayed in the “Zoom” panel has changed and the previous window settings have been reset. If I reload my own settings, I have them again, of course. However, the main window is slightly smaller and I have to enlarge it again.
After calling up the options, not all lines of the options window are displayed because the window appears too small.
After many, many attempts with version …1332, I can now state the following results:
the program always crashes in the normal view of individual fonts in the Font List panel. Sometimes this happens when previewing the 2nd font, sometimes not until the 5th or 8th font and rarely even later. After restarting the program, this is different again for the same fonts. So when the program actually crashes is very irregular. I could not recognize any kind of correlation as to which fonts cause the crash. So it doesn’t matter whether the fonts come from Google or from renowned manufacturers such as Adobe or Linotype or from small foundries and whether they are Opentype-TT or Opentype-CFF or Opentype-TT (VAR). It also makes no difference whether I operate the program with the mouse or with the keyboard.
the program never crashes in safe mode (version …1332) or when I use the program with identical fonts with version …1290 in normal mode.
Since safe mode works fine, it is almost certain your system has an issue with one or more fonts. MainType does cache more fonts than you see in view, so it is hard to tell which fonts are causing the problem. If you are familiar with the Windows Registry, you can also look for entries in this key:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\High-Logic\MainType\Load
If available, the items reveal the specific fonts that Windows was not able to load.
It can be your video driver that crashes, so updating that might solve the problem.
Alternatively you need to find out what font is corrupt, so you can get rid of it.
There were actually 3 entries in the registry. Even after I deleted them and restarted the PC, …1332 still crashes as described.
I cannot understand why the graphics driver only crashes when you update your program and not at all otherwise. What have you changed that causes this? Because …1290 works perfectly. Likewise, I don’t understand why one or more fonts should be damaged, but work perfectly with version …1290. And if I have determined that I have no corrupted fonts on my system, what do I do? That’s why I wrote to you!
Thanks for the new version …1334, which I was able to test. I can’t see any difference to version …1332. The crashes are exactly the same as before. The program still does not remember the panel settings. I can load the layout I saved, but then the main window shrinks. To resize it, I always have to resize it afterwards to get it back to maximum size – just like before. What I didn’t mention before was also the same as before: After starting the program, only the panels defined by the program appear. The Views and Groups panels are not displayed, although they have a checkmark in the View | Panel | menu.
However, the lines in the options are now displayed in full.
I have also searched for a more up-to-date graphics driver for my system. Unfortunately there is none.
Regarding your question »Did you delete them from your file system or from MainType?«: The three entries were still in the registry. I deleted them there. I had deleted the font files in both MainType and the file system a long time before.
Yes, my Windows system is set to download updates automatically. The system is therefore always up-to-date overall.
My intuition leads me to suspect something to do with the graphics. I have looked for settings to adjust the display (scaling and screen resolution). Unfortunately, changes to these did not change the behavior of Maintype.
A completely new experience:
I got out my notebook, on which Maintype was also installed. I use this device very rarely. It only runs Windows 10 (version 22H2, OS Build 19045.4651, 64-bit). As far as I remember, all the fonts of my main PC are also known there in notebook maintype and additionally old fonts, as well as old fonts that I have never tried. I was very surprised today when I installed …1334 on this notebook: The program seems to run flawlessly with one small exception! There were no crashes! The exception: If the zoom panel is located above another panel, it is no longer displayed when a different font is selected, the F8 key then has no effect. Only the detour via the menu with the mouse makes the panel visible again. However, if the Zoom panel is on the screen as a separate panel, this also works.
I am no longer familiar with Teamviewer and Zoom. (I had to deal with both programs several years ago.) If you find it helpful, I’ll go along with it. Can we perhaps coordinate the details better by e-mail? You should know my address.
I too am getting crashes after completely reinstalling and building the database from scratch in 12.0.0.1335.
After crashes, I tried looking at the Registry Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\High-Logic\MainType\Load, but there were no entries, so I cannot tell what is causing the crash. I fixed all the invalid fonts and it still crashes. The software seems to struggle loading the previews and sometimes it crashes, but I cannot get it to crash consistently as the OP already described.
Yes, There was an error report generated there. FontService 20241030 101228 448.txt (30.3 KB) Small update: I noticed that there were a few fonts installed at c:\Users\Kernal\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts, rather than being installed to C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. I noticed that Maintype may have been crashing on one of the fonts installed there, so I uninstalled them all.
I am not sure why or how fonts get installed to c:\Users\Kernal\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts. If anyone knows, I’d love to be enlightened.
But I thought I’d note it in case it helps trouble-shoot the issue.
Erwin,
Thank you for the trouble shooting.
Just to be clear, I uninstall and reinstall, but can I use a back up of my database? Will the uninstall/reinstall fix the corrupted database, or do I start from a new database again?
I ask because I don’t want to loose all my tags, notes, ratings, views, etc.
Hello,
I tried the new 12.0.0.1337 today with a fresh install and a new database, as well as a fresh install with an old database and unfortunately I am still getting crashes. There are no new error reports in the C:\Programdata... folder. I cleaned up all the invalid font resources too.
I also upgraded my NVidia driver to the latest version 566, but this did not fix the problem.
The issue is adding a folder and then clicking on subfolders too quickly. If you click on them and not wait for the font list to refresh the screen, after a few clicks, MainType will crash for me.
What else should I mention? I have two monitors one facing me, and the secondary monitor at an angle as a tablet device down below. I have MainType full screen on the secondary tablet monitor. Again, not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I mention it because I have had other software display incorrectly or misbehave on the second monitor. If display configs have something to with the way MainType is handling font previews. Again, attempting to flag any configurations differences. Lastly, all font resources are running off a NAS drive with an assigned drive letter.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you narrow down the problem.
