Hello all,
I hope you are well?
I do not know where else to turn, I'll try it here.
I think there is someone here who can help me and maybe give me a tip.
Here's the scenario:
A buddy of mine legally bought an innovative font software from Sweden (www.typedna.com) including a license in 2011. The software worked very well until then and he used the software daily.
Now unfortunately, since two weeks the software does not work anymore. Why?
The problem is that the license number is checked on each start with the developer server and the server is not available for some time and ergo, the software can not be started.
I checked, the domain of the software is still registered until 2023, I thought, maybe there is just a small server problem and when the server is up again, everything works again. But far from it, the server is still down.
My buddy has written to the developers, to a gmail address and also to the email address from the domain (yes if the website doesn't work, probably the email doesn't work either. Yes but he tried anyway).
He has not received a reply for two weeks, he also tried to contact the guys via Twitter, but the guys have disabled direct message, so contact futile. Facebook you do not have, only Twitter.

So my question to you, would there be a tool that have the same function?
The special innovative function, can analyze all fonts of your collection and find fonts that are similar.
TypeDNA is really cool. My friend has thousands of fonts locally on the disk. All in one folder, not sorted. TypeDNA scans all fonts from the folder, now if you want to find all similar fonts from a font, right click and select the command "find similar font", now the software searches and displays all similar fonts. This function has currently no other software, according to our findings and research.

No other program can do that, otherwise he would immediately switch to another software. My buddy has even installed and tried other software for testing purposes and the Swedish Font Tool is apparently already the best of all the others.
The guys in Sweden are not getting back to me and it seems that you may have killed your software project without informing your customers. The software is already more than 10 years old.
I want to help my buddy and just like I said, maybe there is a genius here who can help me.
Thanks in advance for your attention and interest and help!
Kind regards, Elena

I remember Type DNA. They proposed to license their software to Adobe around ten years ago, but Adobe didn't choose to acquire it. I agree it was a good tool, and I'm sorry to learn that the developers may have gone out of business.

When developers decide they can't afford to continue supporting a product, there aren't many options. Sometimes the code can be open-sourced – if there's a community willing and able to handle the support burden. But for a tool not used by many, such a community is less likely.

On LinkedIn I checked out the guy who had approached Adobe. I see he went to work for Monotype for several years, and then moved on about four years ago. It's possible that Monotype now owns the Type DNA code base. You might ask their local office whether they have a suggestion.

Hi DavidLemon, thank you for your fast respond.
I found a co-founder from TypeDNA and I wrote him a email.
He respond very fast:

Quote

I am sorry to say that I left TypeDNA over 10 years ago. And I believe the company who sold you the software www.matton.se has now in the process of closing down. Sorry I can’t help more. I am glad you enjoyed using the software.

This is very sad. I hope I find a similar Font Manager with same function.
 

10 hours ago, elenalauder said:

No other program can do that, otherwise he would immediately switch to another software. 

Which operating system? I know the Find My Font app for Windows has a font matching feature. 

 

On 8/9/2021 at 8:54 AM, Ralf Herrmann said:

Find My Font app for Windows

Also for MacOS.

Hi Riccardo and Ralf,
Thank you very much for your input. I have tested the Tool.
It is not perfect like TpeDNA
Now I have official the info, TypeDNA has a bankruptcy.
The Tool TypeDNA dosn't work anymore.
I need to search further.
That't really bad.
Have a good time.
 

Hi! I am in the same situation, and it's awful we can't use the software we paid.

Anyone know a good crack of the serial number check process?

http://www.identifont.com ? Ressources are maybe quite old but searching tools are efficient ! You should give it a try

@Vincent Chappuis
Thank you for your inspiration. I know this site, but a offline tool would be more helpful.
Have a good time, Elena

@elenalauderA little late responding to this post, but... better late than never.

QuickMatch — See a font that’s almost — but not quite — what you need? Search your collection with QuickMatch to find similar alternative fonts fast.

If that sounds like the feature you need, it is available in the Suitcase Font Manager, here:
https://www.extensis.com/suitcase-fusion

Thank you very much George for your respond.
I'm going to take a closer look.
Take care.