Updated 24 Mar 2022
In late 2020, Apple began shipping their first computers powered by their own M-series processors. Apple heavily promotes the advantages of the chip family, claiming industry-leading performance and power efficiency.
FontAgent® Mac 10.x takes full, native advantage of Apple’s new M-series chips. FontAgent 9.7 and 9.6 run impressively on them as well.
Macs Move to Apple Silicon
Starting in November 2020, Apple began utilizing its new M-series processors in Mac computers. The chips now appear in the iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Studio and Mac mini product lines.
M-Series Macs Require macOS Monterey or Big Sur
The initial shipment of M1-based Macs ran on the Big Sur release of macOS. Apple designed its Monterey release of macOS to maximize performance and power management in the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M2 chips that appeared later. Apple completed the conversion of its entire Mac product line to the new M-series family during 2022.
Which Chip Does Your Mac Run?
To see which processor your Mac is running, use the Apple > About This Mac menu command to display the dialog below.
- If you have a new Mac with Apple silicon, you will see a Chip label and the name of the M-series chip.
- If you have an Intel-based Mac, there will be a Processor label and the name of the Intel chip.
Applications Moving to Universal Binaries
Apple provides Rosetta 2 technology as part of macOS to enable existing Mac applications and plugins to run on their M-series semiconductors. This gives software vendors time to create Universal binaries that provide native support for both M-series and Intel chips in their applications.
FontAgent Compatibility with Mac Platforms
- FontAgent 10.x is a Universal Binary that take full advantage of both M-series and Intel-based Macs.
- FontAgent 9.7 runs seamlessly on M-series Macs.
- Font auto-activation functions in Adobe applications without requiring plugins.
- FontAgent auto-activation plugins function on M-series Macs as expected when associated Adobe and Quark apps are running in Rosetta.
- FontAgent 9.x and associated plugins continue to run as expected on Intel-based Macs running macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina and Mojave.
You can feel confident using FontAgent on M-series Mac systems. As always, please talk to us if you have any questions.