User Guide

Macro Programming
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I n s ta l l i n g P y th o n
When you run FontLab 4 for the first time it will know nothing about
macro programming and Python. All Python-related tools and interface
components are hidden and disabled. This means that if you don’t want to
use these tools you are not required to and FontLab will work smoothly
without any Python integration.
If you want to use macro programs or perhaps create some programs
yourself, however, you have to install the Python interpreter.
FontLab can work with the Python interpreter starting from version 2.2.1.
Version 2.2.3 is recommended.
First, download it from the FontLab site:
http://www.fontlab.com/html/fontlab.html
or from the Python site:
http://python.org/ftp/python/2.2.3/Python-2.2.3.exe
After you download this file, run it and follow the instructions to install
Python.
As an alternative you can use the ActivePython (which is also based on
Python 2.2.x but provides additional services specific for Windows):
http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/
Please note that even if you have a newer version of Python installed it is a
requirement to install version 2.2.1 to run Python from inside FontLab.