Version 3.1.3 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• DropDMG is now code-signed using a Developer ID certificate for Gatekeeper.
• Layouts and custom volume icons now work with hybrid (.iso) disk images.
• DropDMG’s helper tools are now 64-bit like the rest of the application.
• Improved the reporting of unexpected errors.
• DropDMG now logs more information when a layout item is missing from the source folder.
• Improved the What information should I include when I report a problem? section of the manual.
• Fixed a bug where the Compact Image… command didn’t work on Mac OS X 10.7 when the computer was running on battery power.
• Fixed a bug where Delete after converting didn’t work when converting to .iso format.
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG would report an error when converting a .iso disk image to the same format.
• DropDMG now requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later.

For information about previous releases of DropDMG, please see the version history.

2012-05-09: DropDMG 3.1.3 was submitted to the Mac App Store.

2012-05-18: DropDMG 3.1.3 is now available from the Mac App Store.

Version 3.1.2 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• Added support for Growl notifications via GNTP (requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later).
• When renaming a configuration, layout, or license in the preferences, you can now press the Esc key to cancel.
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG would log an error to the console when converting a ZIP archive to a disk image.

For information about previous releases of DropDMG, please see the version history.

2012-02-07: DropDMG 3.1.2 was submitted to the Mac App Store.

2012-02-07: DropDMG 3.1.2 is now available from the Mac App Store.

Version 3.1.1 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• Added support for Growl 1.3.
• DropDMG is now localized in Brazilian Portuguese.
• Added 1024×1024 application icon.
• Fixed a bug where the Add Icon… button didn’t constrain new icons to the grid.
• Fixed a bug where the Add Icon… button didn’t let you add folder icons to a layout.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if there was an internal error launching a helper tool.

For information about previous releases of DropDMG, please see the version history.

2011-11-16: DropDMG 3.1.1 was submitted to the Mac App Store.

Version 3.1 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• DropDMG is much faster at creating large disk images under most circumstances, and it now compresses disk images a bit more tightly. Added the Use less temporary disk space preference, so that you can make DropDMG operate in the older, slower mode if your destination volume is running out of space.
• Disk image layouts can now contain text boxes, with your choice of fonts, styles, colors, and shadows. Thus, it’s no longer necessary to fire up a graphics program to update the text in your background picture.
• Layout text boxes can contain placeholder variables, which DropDMG will replace when creating the disk image. For example, if your disk image contains an application (e.g. DropDMG.app), the text ${APP_SHORT_VERSION_STRING} will be replaced by the marketing version of the application (e.g. 3.1).
• The Mount Image… command now has a Shadow file option that lets you mount a read-only disk image as read-write. Any changes made to the mounted image will be written to the adjacent shadow file. This can be useful, e.g. if you want to use Spotlight to search a read-only disk image.
• DropDMG now supports license agreements localized in Arabic, Greek, Russian, and Ukrainian.
• To ensure that background pictures display properly in the Finder, DropDMG now reports an error if you give it a picture file that’s not 72dpi.
• Many operations when editing a disk image layout are now undoable.
• The license agreement editor text view now displays line breaks in the same places as the text view that the system uses when mounting the disk image.
• The Preferences window now supports full screen mode (requires Mac OS X 10.7).
• Added the Burning a Lion Installation DVD section to the manual.
• Fixed a bug where, when creating an encrypted disk image with no specified passphrase, DropDMG sometimes failed to prompt for one.
• Fixed a bug where creating a new language for a license agreement appeared to do nothing if the license’s name was in edit mode.
• Fixed a bug where the configuration/layout/license lists didn’t properly update if you added an item while you were renaming another item.
• Fixed a bug where the source size reported in the log when mounting a disk image only counted the first segment.
• Fixed a bug that could cause DropDMG to create a .tar.bz2 archive when you requested .tar.
• Fixed alignment of license button text fields.
• Fixed a bug with re-personalizing the application via URL.

For information about previous releases of DropDMG, please see the version history.

2011-10-04: DropDMG 3.1 was submitted to the Mac App Store.

2011-10-13: DropDMG 3.1 is now available from the Mac App Store.

SpamSieve and Lion’s Apple Mail

Summary: After updating to Lion, Apple Mail will not automatically launch SpamSieve. After launching Apple Mail for the first time, you must manually launch SpamSieve once (e.g. by clicking its icon in the Dock). Thereafter, Apple Mail will automatically launch SpamSieve, and everything will behave normally.

If you’re updating from Snow Leopard, the first time you launch Apple Mail under Lion it may disable SpamSieve’s plug-in. While the plug-in is disabled, Mail will not auto-launch SpamSieve, you will not see the SpamSieve commands in Mail’s Message menu, and Mail will move all new messages to the Spam mailbox without consulting SpamSieve.

For most users this will not be a problem, as a few new messages are easily dragged back to the inbox. (There’s no need to train them as good, since SpamSieve didn’t think they were spam.) However, if you’d like to prevent any messages from being misfiled, you can, before updating to Lion, open Mail’s Preferences window, go to the Rules tab, and uncheck the SpamSieve rule. This will temporarily disable it.

To get SpamSieve and Mail working again, just launch the SpamSieve application (e.g. by clicking on its icon in the Dock). It will detect that the plug-in has been disabled and automatically re-install it. (If, for some reason, this does not happen automatically, you can choose “Install Apple Mail Plug-In” from the SpamSieve menu.) If you had unchecked the SpamSieve rule, go back to Mail’s preferences and check it to re-enable SpamSieve.

EagleFiler’s Capture Key and Lion’s Apple Mail

Use of the capture key is currently not recommended with Apple Mail on Lion. It does not work when Mail is in full screen mode, and for some users it will report errors when capturing messages or import the messages as a complicated folder structure instead of a mailbox file. An update to address these issues is forthcoming, and you can contact technical support if you’d like to try a pre-release build of EagleFiler.

Update: This is fixed in EagleFiler 1.5.5.

Version 3.0.7 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• Fixed a bug where DropDMG would fail with a permissions error when creating a disk image with a custom icon of a root-owned file, e.g. a purchase from the Mac App Store.
• Fixed a bug where, in rare cases, DropDMG could not create a disk image if a file with its preferred temporary name already existed.
• Fixed a bug creating images in .cdr format with custom icons or layouts.
• Clarified the description of .cdr disk image format.
• Adjusted the help page titles to fit better in the menu and search results.

For information about previous releases of DropDMG, please see the version history.

It’s Your Choice

We’re happy wherever you choose to purchase our software. The Mac App Store makes it very convenient to buy, download, and install, and you get updates via the store. The purchase is tied to your iTunes account. If you buy direct, you drag-and-drop to install and get updates via the application’s auto-updater or the Web site. Either way, you can sign up for a mailing list or RSS or Twitter feed to be notified about new versions and important product news.

Prices

Pricing is substantially the same, although there will be slight differences due to Apple’s pricing tiers and currency conversions. All Mac App Store purchases are for single-user licenses. Purchasing direct, you can also buy family packs and get volume and educational discounts. Although you pay the same price, Apple’s higher fees mean that direct purchases send 25+% more of your money to C-Command.

Trials

Each product has a fully-featured 30-day trial version that’s available from the Web site. If you purchase direct, you can click a link in your order confirmation to enter your serial number and take it out of trial mode. If you purchase from the Mac App Store, you should first delete your trial version so that the store doesn’t see the application as already installed. Your preferences and user data will be seamlessly shared between both versions.

Updates and Upgrades

Our standard policy has been to provide customers lots of free minor updates and 50% discounts on major upgrades. The Mac App Store does not support upgrade pricing, so currently we can only guarantee the 50% discount if you originally purchased direct from C-Command. We’ll do the best we can, however, and Apple may make more options available in the future.

Initially getting into the Mac App Store took longer than we would have liked. Because DropDMG and EagleFiler use encryption, there was some additional paperwork that needed to be completed with the U.S. government and Apple before the apps could be submitted to the store. Then it took more months for Apple to review the apps and be convinced that they followed the guidelines. Now that the applications have been approved, we’re optimistic that updates will be available from the Mac App Store more quickly. However, there will always be some delay. For example, having previously approved DropDMG 3.0.5, Apple took 17 days to approve the 3.0.6 update.

Transfers

If you purchase via the Mac App Store, the direct version will recognize your receipt from Apple. So (barring changes in the way Apple handles receipts) you’ll always have the option of downloading the software yourself to get the full features and the latest updates. (Thanks to Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software for the clever idea that makes this possible.) Apple, unfortunately, provides no way to transfer purchases in the other direction, for existing customers who would prefer to receive updates via the Mac App Store.

Feature Differences

We intend the Mac App Store and direct versions of the products to be as similar as possible, however some differences are necessary in order to comply with the rules for Apple’s store. Our first priority is to design the direct versions as best we know how; they should not be limited by Mac App Store considerations. Secondly, if a feature cannot be accepted in the Mac App Store, we will try to adapt it or make it available in another way. This may not always be possible or practical, however. Here are the current differences between the Mac App Store and direct versions:

DropDMG

• The direct version has a button in the preferences for installing the command-line tool and man page. With the Mac App Store version, you can install these manually via Terminal.
• Some files and folders have ownership or permissions such that DropDMG needs an administrator password to correctly copy them. The direct version will ask for the password as needed. The Mac App Store version will stop and report an error.
• The direct version has a checkbox in the preferences to Always run with root access. This lets DropDMG run unattended and copy the aforementioned files without asking for your password each time. With the Mac App Store version, you can enable this feature via Terminal.
• The direct version runs on Mac OS X 10.5 and later; the Mac App Store version requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later.
• Update (2011-10-13): The Mac App Store version defaults to “Ask Later” for the destination folder, rather than “Next to Source.”
• Update (2012-02-07): The Mac App Store version has a slightly different application icon.

EagleFiler

• The direct version automatically adds a “Save PDF to EagleFiler” command to each application’s Print dialog. With the Mac App Store version, you can install the PDF service manually.
• The direct version uses OpenMeta to share your recently used tags with other applications. The Mac App Store version can read the list of recent tags but cannot update it.
• Previous versions of EagleFiler maintained an error log in the file ~/Library/Logs/EagleFiler/EagleFiler.log. Mac App Store applications are not allowed to write to this folder, and Mac OS X’s logging subsystem has improved since EagleFiler’s log feature was designed, so both versions of EagleFiler now use the system log database, which appears under the “All Messages” section of Console.
• The direct version runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and later; the Mac App Store version requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later.

Update (2012-03-20): We expect Apple’s upcoming application sandboxing requirement to significantly increase the differences between the direct and Mac App Store versions. The precise differences will not be known until we see which features and bugs the sandbox has when the requirement is instituted.

Version 3.0.6 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• Fixed a bug where the command-line tool and Automator would time out during long disk imaging operations.
• Fixed a bug where disk images with layouts sometimes ended up with too short a window.
• Fixed a bug where creating a disk image with a layout would sometimes fail if DropDMG was running with root access.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when verifying a folder containing circular symlinks.
• Improved the error message when the chosen destination folder isn’t writable.
• Improved the German localization.

Version 3.0.4 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• When creating a disk image with a layout, DropDMG now sets it to auto-open. This ensures that CDs/DVDs burned from that disk image will auto-open when the disc is inserted.
• Fixed a bug where invisible version control folders could prevent detached licenses from working.
• Fixed a bug where Automator would time out during a long disk imaging operation.

Version 3.0.3 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• Fixed a bug where it didn’t work to simultaneously enter --license-folder and --layout-folder from the command-line.
• Fixed a bug where some temporary folders would not be deleted if you canceled while converting a disk image.
• Fixed a bug where the German and Italian localizations showed an incorrect version number.

Version 3.0.2 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• DropDMG is now localized in French.
• Added toolbar buttons to the DropDMG window for directly opening the Layouts and Licenses tabs of the Preferences window.
• Added a preference to remove log entries When DropDMG quits.
• Creates more tightly compressed ZIP archives than previous versions of DropDMG or the Finder (requires Mac OS X 10.6).
• Added a CreateDeviceImages esoteric preference, which lets you create regular disk images instead of device images when dragging a volume onto DropDMG. This is slower but gives the option of setting a custom volume name.
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG truncated the suggested volume and base names when using the Ask option.
• Fixed a bug in the layout editor where retracting a marquee selection left the icons still selected.
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG reported an error when converting encrypted .sparsebundle disk images.
• Fixed a bug where using a detached license or layout could cause DropDMG to create extra Info.plist files in nearby folders.
• When displaying an internal error, DropDMG now cleans it up and presents an abbreviated version to ensure that the window fits on screen. (The full error information is still included when you click the Send E-mail button.)
• Worked around an OS bug that could prevent DropDMG from being able to open its Preferences window.
• Tried to work around a problem where the software updater sometimes didn’t ask for the permissions it needed to complete an update.
• Updated the disk image layout.

Version 3.0.1 of DropDMG is now available. This is a free update for owners of DropDMG 3.0 that includes the following enhancements:

• If you try to enter a serial number for DropDMG 2.x, rather than just complaining that it’s invalid, DropDMG now uses it to help you get a discounted or free upgrade and a 3.x serial number.
• Fixed a bug where creating a disk image from the Finder’s contextual menu or keyboard shortcut sometimes didn’t work.
• Fixed a bug where selecting a folder from the New from Folder/File… dialog didn’t work.
• Fixed an internal error that occurred if you changed a configuration option while renaming a configuration.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent the Automator action from working.
• Fixed a regression where the -t argument to the dropdmg command-line tool wasn’t recognized.
• Fixed a bug where the Base Name and Volume Name fields sometimes weren’t editable when dragging and dropping onto the main window.
• Enabled undo for the Base Name and Volume Name text fields (requires Mac OS X 10.6 due to a bug in previous versions).
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG would show two Help menus after auto-updating the command-line tool.
• Fixed a bug where the Names pop-up menu text was too wide when using YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS dates.
• Fixed the positioning of the log detail drawer.
• Fixed a small memory leak.
• The manual now recommends leaving space in a layout’s background picture for the Finder window’s path bar.
• Updated the tooltips in the configuration options.
• Updated the localizations.

Version 3.0 of DropDMG is now available. This is a major update that’s $24 for new users, $12 for previous DropDMG owners, and free for people who bought DropDMG 2.x on or after June 20, 2008. There’s a 30-day fully-featured trial for new users and upgraders.

This update includes the following new features and enhancements:

Highlights

• The user interface and disk imaging engine have been almost completely redesigned and rewritten to make DropDMG easier to use and more robust.
• The Layouts feature gives developers a WYSIWYG editor to set the background picture, view options, and icon positions, making it easy to deploy Mac software to their users.
• The New Blank Disk Image… command lets you protect select folders using the same encryption technology as FileVault but without its drawbacks.
• Added support for the .sparsebundle, .sparseimage, and hybrid (.iso) disk image formats.
• The DropDMG window now has a customizable toolbar for quick access to commonly used commands.
• DropDMG can now create device images of hard drives.
• The Verify Image… command now works in the background and can verify a whole folder of disk images at once. You can also bulk-verify multiple encrypted disk images without having to keep re-entering the passphrase.
• The Activity window consolidates progress information into a single window, rather than having separate windows for each operation. Additionally, DropDMG now has progress bars for bulk operations, so that you can see the overall progress (e.g. folder 6 of 10) in addition to the progress for the current operations.
• The Mount Image… command now works in the background and can mount multiple disk images at once. You can also bulk-mount encrypted disk images that share the same passphrase.
• Added the Change Image Passphrase… command, which makes it much faster to change the passphrase of an encrypted disk image.
• The Join Files… command lets you recombine files that have been split into .001, .002, etc. files.

Configurations

• Configurations are now editable, and the Configurations window has been merged into the Preferences window.
• The Formats pop-up menu has been reorganized and provides more information about the different formats and which versions of the OS they work with.
• Added support for 256-bit AES encryption, which the NSA rates as secure enough for TOP SECRET level documents.
• Added the Optimize for restores option.
• Added the Sizes pop-down menu, which makes it easy to select common sizes for disk image segments.
• The Show Passphrase button lets you check the passphrase for a configuration without having to re-type it.
• The dialogs for the New from Folder/File… and Convert Image/Archive… commands now have pop-up menus to select which configuration to use.
• The destination and names prompts have been combined into a single dialog.
• If the chosen destination folder is not available (e.g. because its volume is offline) DropDMG now displays a caution icon in the pop-up menu and will report an error during the operation, rather than silently changing to Next to Source.
• When choosing a configuration in the DropDMG window or from the Dock menu, you can hold down the Option key to open the configuration for editing.
• Configurations are now stored as individual .plist files, rather than in DropDMG’s preferences file, so it’s easier to exchange them with other users and they work better with Time Machine.

Optimizations

• Creating encrypted disk images is faster and requires less temporary disk space.
• Other types of operations can now run while DropDMG is waiting for a blank optical disc to be inserted.
• Improved the queuing of bulk operations to reduce disk contention and increase performance.
• DropDMG now runs as a 64-bit application under Mac OS X 10.6.

Log

• The DropDMG window now has a drawer that shows detailed information about the selected log entry.
• You can Control-click on log entries to perform operations on their files.
• Log entries are now posted as Growl notifications. If an operation has succeeded, clicking on the Growl notification will reveal the destination file in the Finder (or Path Finder). If the operation has failed, clicking on the notification reveals the log entry in DropDMG.
• The Remove log entries preference lets you set DropDMG to auto-delete old log entries after a specified amount of time.
• It is now possible to delete individual log entries manually.
• The log is now displayed as a table rather than a block of text.
• The log can now be set to only show errors.
• The log is now stored as a Core Data database rather than in DropDMG’s preferences file. This makes reading and updating it faster and reduces DropDMG’s memory usage.

License Agreements

• The separate windows for the license agreements list and the language editors have been combined into the new Licenses tab of the Preferences window. The steps for making a new localized license are much clearer now.
• Licenses can now customize the prompt text and button names that are presented to the end-user.
• Added additional languages for localized licenses: Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish.
• License agreements are now stored as individual files, rather than in DropDMG’s preferences file. This allows for sharing, storing them under version control, editing using external applications, and better Time Machine backups.
• Added Spelling and Grammar, Substitutions, and Transformations to the Edit menu, and also added menu commands for finding and replacing.
• You can hold down the Option key when choosing a license in the Configurations tab to open it for editing.
• The license agreement editor now localizes the display of the language names.

Miscellaneous

• You can now choose whether DropDMG shows temporary options by default or only when you hold down the Option key.
• Added the Compact Image… command, which reclaims free space from .sparseimage and .sparsebundle files.
• The Get Image Info… command now displays the information in an outline rather than a block of text.
• Custom badged icons for the mounted disk image volume are of much higher quality. The icon is now rendered at up to 512x512 pixels, and there’s a separate optimized version for each size (rather than scaling down the full-size rendering).
• The dropdmg command-line tool now has a man page.
• File and segment sizes are now displayed using base 10 megabytes, for consistency with the Mac OS X 10.6 Finder.
• Remembers between launches which windows were open.
• DropDMG now auto-updates its command-line tool when you first launch a new version of the application.
• The Create Disk Image/Archive Automator action is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.6.
• Added Esoteric Preferences.
• Worked around an OS limitation that could prevent DropDMG from converting a very large disk image into segments.
• Properly handles composed characters when truncating filenames.
• Made various improvements to the Software Update user interface and engine.
• Improved the Purchase window to make it easier to understand how the trial period and serial numbers work.
• DropDMG now uses Mac OS X code signing, which should reduce the number of annoying keychain dialogs.
• Fixed a bug where DropDMG would continue trying to burn an encrypted disk image after the user had failed to enter the proper passphrase.
• Fixed a bug with non-ASCII names and the command-line tool.

Removed

• DropDMG 3.0 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Older versions for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.3 are still available.
• The Encoding option has been removed, since it’s no longer particularly useful to create BinHex- or MacBinary-encoded disk images.
• Removed support for creating self-mounting .smi NDIF disk images, since all recent versions of the OS have built-in support for disk images.
• Removed the keyboard shortcut for DropDMG’s command in the Services menu, since Command-Shift-D was appropriated by the OS. You can use the Keyboard pane of System Preferences to assign your own shortcut, if desired.
• Removed the option for making disk images auto-open. This is no longer necessary since Mac OS X can now auto-open disk images that do not have this option set, and this makes disk image creation much faster.
• Removed the Copy to Others button in the temporary options sheet, as this functionality is superseded by configurations.
• Removed the contextual menu and Dock menu items for changing image formats. This functionality is superseded by configurations.
• Removed support for creating and converting StuffIt archives.
• Removed support for creating ADC-compressed disk images. Zlib-compressed images are more efficient, and, due to other changes in Mac OS X’s disk imaging engine, ADC images no longer provided any compatibility benefits.
• Removed the Fix Image… command, since Mac OS X will now mount disk images regardless of whether they have the correct type and creator codes. The Control-drag shortcut has been reassigned to the Verify Image… command.

DropDMG 2.8.6 is now available. This is a free update that includes the following bug fixes:

• The Use custom icon for mounted image feature now works with Mac OS X 10.6.
• The crash reporter now works with Mac OS X 10.6.

• DropDMG’s “Use custom icon for mounted image” feature. Fixed in DropDMG 2.8.6.
• Various minor issues fixed in EagleFiler 1.4.9.
• In order to use DropDMG’s Create Disk Image/Archive Automator action, use the Finder’s Get Info command to make Automator run in 32-bit mode.
• Various minor issues fixed in SpamSieve 2.7.6.

DropDMG is part of the Give Good Food to your Mac “Special Developers Edition” promotion:

“Give Good Food to your Mac” is a community action where independent Mac developers come together and build exciting promotions: for a limited time, every Mac user will be able to download and taste cool Mac applications and enjoy great discounts.

No junk food, just healthy, tasty and innovative products. And because we are speaking “haute cuisine” everybody gets to create their own combination of titles matching their own and unique taste.

From June 9–23, you can get discounts from 20–50% on a variety of great tools for Mac development. In fact, many of the applications (including DropDMG) are also useful for non-developers.

DropDMG 2.8.5 is now available. This is a free update that includes the following bug fixes:

• Fixed bug where saved Automator workflows didn’t use the proper configuration when running on Mac OS X 10.5.2.
• Fixed bug where certain disk images of application files created on Mac OS X 10.5.2 would mount on 10.3, but the Finder would refuse to open them. (The contents were intact and accessible from other applications.)

DropDMG 2.8.4 is now available. This is a free update that includes the following bug fix:

• Fixed a regression in version 2.8.3 where DropDMG would delete the source file/folder if you were creating a segmented disk image next to the source and there was not enough disk space.

DropDMG 2.8.3 is now available. This is a free update that includes the following enhancements:

• Fixed bug where a .dmg file would not mount on Mac OS X 10.3 and earlier if you created it on an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.5 and the image contained just a single package file (e.g. an application).
• Fixed bug where Append Current Date didn’t work properly when the original file/folder had a very long name.
• Fixed bug where images converted from Zip archives were owned by root.
• Faster at creating images of packages when running on Mac OS X 10.5.
• Fixed bug restoring the selected row after editing a configuration name.
• Carriage returns are no longer allowed in configuration names.
• Fixed bug where some preferences items were incorrectly enabled when showing a temporary preferences sheet for a conversion operation.
• More detailed logging of burn errors.
• The software updater is better at handling invalid downloads folders.
• Updated Spanish localization.