Mac OS Sonoma and Affinity

[Catfish Creative]

Sonoma is available today. (Sept 17) I was going to hit download and install when I thought better check and see if there are issues. I know there were a few things going on with the Sonoma beta but is there any info about how everything works with the final release of Sonoma? I really don't want to install it and be the guinea pig...

Thanks. ernie

[Old Bruce]

You will find bugs that hurt you when you install the first version of an OS upgrade. My advice is to wait for the first or second set of patches for any OS upgrade before it is worth installing.

[Catfish Creative]

Agreed. That what I usually always do. Not sure why I woke up this morning dying to hit install. I'm going to wait for an upgrade or two. Just saw 14.1 was released in beta today. I'm guessing a better install option will be in a few weeks around 14.2.

[dvoth]

People keep saying one should wait until patches, but how true is that in this case as it has been beta tested for awhile. I updated my phone and iPad and haven't had any issues. I am also interested in the question as to Affinity software and Sonoma.

[v_kyr]

It always depends on how long and carefully the Sonoma Beta phase was overall.

At least it contains a bunch of macOS related security fixes ...

• macOS Sonoma includes these 61 security fixes

... beside some new features ...

• New features available with macOS Sonoma PDF

macOS Sonoma 14 introduces a number of new features, but - as with every major macOS version - functions are also eliminated. This year it concerns the conversion of PostScript and EPS files to PDF format - this is no longer supported by the system.

Apple said in the macOS 14 developer release notes: "macOS has removed the functionality to convert PostScript and EPS files to PDF format. As a result, CoreGraphics' CGPSConverter returns an error when called; ImageIO does not convert EPS files "No more, NSEPSImageRep does not display EPS files and PMPrinterPrintWithFile does not accept PostScript file for non-PostScript print queues."

Anyone who needs this functionality will have to use third-party software starting with macOS 14. With macOS Ventura 13, support for PostScript files in the Preview program was removed.

[Old Bruce]

46 minutes ago, dvoth said:

People keep saying one should wait until patches, but how true is that in this case as it has been beta tested for awhile.... I am also interested in the question as to Affinity software and Sonoma.

Please see @v_kyr's post regarding PostScript and EPS functionality being removed. That could be a deal breaker for you, or not.

[Catfish Creative]

I do love my Postscript fonts. Been transitioning...

[dvoth]

It doesn't affect me, though yes I do agree one does need to be aware of these things for those that need them.

[v_kyr]

10 hours ago, dvoth said:

It doesn't affect me, though yes I do agree one does need to be aware of these things for those that need them.

Sooner or later one has to go with Sonoma either way in order to be more up to date and in order to have an overall more secure macOS. Another point is performance, as certain frameworks/APIs etc. have been enhanced and optimized (Metal3, WebKit ... etc.) for Sonoma.

Also especially MacBook Air m2 13" users would probably benefit more from Sonoma, as it comes along with an "updated battery management for the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip", which serves "to optimize long-term battery life" for these MBAs. Previous versions of macOS – such as Monterey (macOS 12) and Ventura (macOS 13), which shipped with the devices – are not taken into account (don't offer this).

So 13-inch M2 MacBook Air users who run older macOS versions than Sonoma here, might want to use something like AlDente then instead.

 

Related to Affinity software it has to be seen how well the Affinity apps do behave under Sonoma here now.

[Andreas Scherer]

16 hours ago, Catfish Creative said:

Not sure why I woke up this morning dying to hit install.

Because of the huge panel of release notes next to the upgrade button? 😉

Personally, I'll wait at least until 14.4. (I started with Ventura 13.5 and Monterey 12.6.)

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Sooner or later one has to go with Sonoma either way in order to be more up to date and in order to have an overall more secure macOS.

Just curious but is your sig up to date & you are still running OSX El Capitan?

[v_kyr]

43 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Just curious but is your sig up to date & you are still running OSX El Capitan?

Jip my personal old (outdated) iMac runs just that. - Where in contrast to that certain project related dev machines I do get provided (...which are flying around here when doing home business days, or which I use in the company office) run of course much more modern macOS and Win versions.

BUT I do not (can't) use Affinity apps on customer project dev machines and therefore have not installed them on these customer project machines. Since in most cases this is not permitted by customers and their dev computers are also protected accordingly to not install whatever third-party software. - Instead I can tell certain newer OS behaviors here from the daily project related dev tools & customer tools usages. So from all the stuff that is preinstalled and/or is allowed to be installed/used from the customers side and things out of their individual approved software pools.

[v_kyr]

According to heise.de ...

• https://www.heise.de/news/Unlesbare-Dokumente-macOS-14-Sonoma-hat-Probleme-mit-bestimmten-PDFs-9325194.html

Quote

Unreadable documents: macOS 14 Sonoma has problems with certain PDFs

Printing and exporting PDFs with macOS 14 Sonoma may result in missing characters - making the document unreadable.
After updating to macOS 14 Sonoma, you may experience significant problems printing and exporting PDF files. The error cannot usually be recognized in advance; Apple's included preview app, which opens PDFs by default, displays the documents correctly and completely. However, when the PDF is printed out, the error shows up on the paper, as readers report: Certain characters are replaced by small rectangles, which usually makes a large part of the content unreadable.

PDF/A export makes documents unreadable

If you open the same PDF document with an older version of the operating system such as macOS 13 Ventura, the preview app prints it correctly - as usual. The problem is far from being observed in every PDF file in macOS 14, but it can definitely be seen in documents that are still printed out frequently, for example for tax returns. This includes, for example, PDFs from the health insurance company and Barmenia Insurance as well as invoices from Deutsche Telekom.

The error cannot only be observed when printing: If the user exports and saves the PDF document as PDF/A for archiving, the digital version also shows rectangles instead of letters. The new document is therefore unusable.

Adobe Acrobat Reader as a workaround

Switching to a PDF program other than Apple Preview doesn't necessarily help; for example, printouts with the Foxit PDF Reader also show the corresponding boxes instead of the characters. The most reliable workaround so far is using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which meant that the otherwise problematic PDF files were printed out correctly and legibly again during a short test run by the Mac & i editorial team.

The cause remains unclear for the time being. With macOS 14, Apple removed all frameworks for displaying EPS and PostScript files, but this does not seem to be related to the PDF problems described. Developers with access to the macOS 14.1 beta report that problematic PDFs can be printed normally again. Apple is expected to release the first major update for macOS Sonoma in a few weeks.