Enfour history · Macintosh
Software for the Mac, since 1992
Enfour started on the Macintosh. Enfour Media Laboratory was founded in 1992 to fix the problems of Japanese desktop publishing on the Mac. Over the next decade we made Mac tools for kanji, gaiji and fonts, the UniDict dictionary, and Japanese editions of some of the best Mac developer tools.
Overview
From Japanese DTP to dictionaries
Richard Northcott, Enfour’s founder, came to the Mac through desktop publishing in Tokyo. In 1989 he ran Mac design and output systems at CBS/Sony, then made Japanese fonts and consulted for output bureaus before founding Enfour Media Laboratory in 1992.
Its first products, such as KanjiSuck and the PS Gaiji Kit series, solved problems unique to Japanese DTP. The same skills in Japanese text went into a dictionary, into Japanese editions of other developers’ Mac software, and from 1993 into the Newton.
Enfour originals
Mac software we made
UniDict (1998)
A Unicode Japanese–English dictionary engine for Mac OS 8.1, with contextual-menu lookup across the system, more than 20 specialist dictionaries, a kanji dictionary, kanji lookup by radicals for learners, speech, user glossaries, Internet updates and LAN dictionary serving. A Newton version followed.
KanjiSuck
Pulled the PostScript fonts stored inside a printer out as editable outlines for Illustrator. For the first time, Japanese designers could get real control of Japanese characters on screen.
From 1992, the PS, TT and ATM Gaiji Kits and then Gaiji Edit Kit let Mac users make the gaiji (extra characters) missing from Japanese fonts. The ATM Gaiji Kit (1994) was the world’s first CID font product.
Turned Fontographer fonts and Illustrator outlines into full Japanese TrueType fonts for Mac OS and Windows. Version 2.5 shipped in 2001, and independent designers used it to publish their own typefaces.
The successor to Gaiji Edit Kit (2000): gaiji for any PostScript typeface, ready for PDF embedding.
The IrDA pod control panel (1998), Hypex Spot Converter for Honda Internavi (2000), and Keitai-Font brought PDAs and phones to the Mac desktop. Enfour also sold and supported i-JADE, an i-mode Java emulator for Mac and Windows.
Japanese editions
Great Mac tools, in Japanese
Enfour also localised and published Japanese editions of Mac software by other developers.
Resorcerer J
The Japanese edition of Resorcerer, the “Swiss Army knife” of Mac OS resource editing. Version 2.4.1 ran on Mac OS 9 and natively on Mac OS X, with PowerPC and AltiVec disassembly, a Japanese-capable hex editor, icon and Unicode resource editing and AppleScript automation.
PowerGlot J
The Japanese edition of PowerGlot, a localisation tool for Mac and Palm OS software that handled double-byte languages and Mac/Windows projects.
PowerMail J
The Japanese edition of PowerMail, “the Mac emailer to end all emailers”.
Based on Enfour’s original product pages and press releases on www.enfour.com and www.enfour.co.jp. Resorcerer, PowerGlot and PowerMail are trademarks of their respective owners.
Today
Back on the Mac
Our dictionary and language apps run on the Mac again today, alongside iPhone and iPad.