Allow indexing of images and archives

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tinne
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Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:43 pm
Location: Dortmund, Germany

Allow indexing of images and archives

Post by tinne »

There are some fonts I bought on CD-ROM, which I would like to keep as my file system as ISO images only. On windows, these ISO files can be mounted by a double click, but become a new ”drive“ with a dynamically assigned letter, e.g., E:\.

Of course, MainType lets me index the fonts once I mount the ISO image and even more caches lots of information, but since the font folder is tied to the actual mount ”drive“ instead of something that works irrespective of the actual mount drive, I am lost without remounting the archive under the same letter again.

I would love MainType to store information about the archive or even index in-archive files without mounting or unpacking them. Useful file formats would be ISO and ZIP, but also VMDK and TAR.GZ files might come in handy.
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Allow indexing of images and archives

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Do remove the font folder from your MainType Font Folders (Main menu -> Library -> Font Folders).

Then add the folder, but now ensure you have checked "Create groups after indexing" and unchecked "Keep in sync".

GenerateVirtualGroups.png
GenerateVirtualGroups.png (26.94 KiB) Viewed 10116 times

MainType will now generate virtual groups based on the original folder structure.
Erwin Denissen
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tinne
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Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:43 pm
Location: Dortmund, Germany

Re: Allow indexing of images and archives

Post by tinne »

Thank you, @Erwin Denissen, this is certainly helpful.

It would be amazing if I could add a more speaking name instead of e:\, f:\, and so on.

Allow me a few more questions:
  • When I unmount the drive, I can install, load, and print the font, but cannot locate its original path relative to the image/archive origin as “open containing folder” does not work until I know what to re-mount - right?
  • It occurs to me I removed a group in the Groups view and it still appears in the Font Folders view - can that be? Can I re-add it? Then after adding folders in the Font Folders view, groups get added twice to the Groups view - when and why do these both views get out of sync?
  • What does the “User Access” option do? It seems rather undocumented.
Erwin Denissen
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Re: Allow indexing of images and archives

Post by Erwin Denissen »

tinne wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:23 pm Thank you, @Erwin Denissen, this is certainly helpful.

It would be amazing if I could add a more speaking name instead of e:\, f:\, and so on.
That sounds like a nice idea, but I'm not sure if more people are intrested in this.
tinne wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:23 pm Allow me a few more questions:
  • When I unmount the drive, I can install, load, and print the font, but cannot locate its original path relative to the image/archive origin as “open containing folder” does not work until I know what to re-mount - right?
Yes, when the original path is not available, then it won't be shown.
tinne wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:23 pm
  • It occurs to me I removed a group in the Groups view and it still appears in the Font Folders view - can that be? Can I re-add it? Then after adding folders in the Font Folders view, groups get added twice to the Groups view - when and why do these both views get out of sync?
I suggest to read the manual about Virtual groups.
tinne wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:23 pm
  • What does the “User Access” option do? It seems rather undocumented.
The font service might not have access to mapped drives, and might fail to process a font folder. Then this option will allow MainType to process it.
Erwin Denissen
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Proven Font Technology
tinne
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:43 pm
Location: Dortmund, Germany

Re: Allow indexing of images and archives

Post by tinne »

That sounds like a nice idea, but I'm not sure if more people are intrested in this.
Understanding that I can instead rename the font group surely helped. I also put the "mount on drive _x:\_" information there.
I suggest to read the manual about Virtual groups.
I was just discussing Keep in Sync Groups than were not perfectly in sync. Virtual groups were not affected.

Thank you again for your support!
Karsten
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