PopChar X - Statements

Read what others say about PopChar

We are proud to have happy customers from all over the world, and we love to hear back from reviewers and customers.

Read some of the overwhelming feedback we have received on this page.

Please let us know what you think about PopChar. If you have a comment or suggestion, simply send us an e-mail.

If you see any news stories or reviews which you think would be of interest to us or our customers, please send your e-mail to popchar@ergonis.com.

Reviews

MacWorld, Philip Michaels
July 2008:

"Life is too short to spend fumbling around for the proper keyboard combination to produce the Euro symbol. If you spend a lot of your work day dealing with text, having a tool that helps you quickly insert special characters can be a real productivity booster."

Mac Edition Radio:

Harris Fogel writes in his review in Mac Edition Radio on 29-06-2006:

"When I purchased my first Mac in 1992, the first and most important piece of software that I installed was a little shareware application called PopChar, which debuted in 1987. Fourteen years later, it's on every Mac I own, and I’m still using it and consider it one of those really indispensable tools that make my Macs a lot more useful.

While there are other tools out there that promise to make using your fonts easier, there isn’t anything as elegant, useful, or reliable as PopChar X. The new version is Universal Binary and adds a slew of new features including search, Unicode support, html coding, and much more, yet it’s still quick, easy, and simple to use! How many products can you think of that have lasted this long, are affordable, and do just what you want, with no muss or fuss? PopChar 3 is one of the few that can make that statement, and now it runs at full speed on an Intel Mac!

L. Davenport (Review for Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group):
"PopChar X really speeds up the insertion of special characters and is much more feature-rich and helpful than Apple’s Keyboard Viewer. Simply scroll down until you find the desired character and click on it. Instantly that character is inserted into your document. It couldn’t be easier." Read the full review here...

HubbleMac:

"Honestly, I can't even find anyhting to constructively criticize. If you ever had to use Key Caps to find the right symbol, you quickly realized what an inefficient process it is. Enter PopChar X.

This little utility is a great way to save time when looking for a particular symbol among all your fonts. ... It will be worth the money. ... Thank you for giving me a reason to never use Key Caps again!" Read the complete review here.

TidBITS:

Matt Neuburg writes in his review in TidBITS#641/05-Aug-02:

"... The interface for character display is superbly simple, clean, and convenient: characters are shown in a single scrolling pane, but that pane is clearly divided into sections (Greek, Cyrillic, Arrows, Hiragana, and so forth) and a pop-down menu scrolls instantly to any section. PopChar X is now both an excellent way to examine your fonts and a significant Unicode input method: for those wishing to use more than the plain Latin alphabet, it's a must-have utility."

MacNotes :

"With PopChar X, Ergonis delivers a program that is definitely one of the must-have Mac utilities. The seamless integration in the workflow, the ease of use, and the simple yet effective mode of operation are exemplary." (Review in German)

Frank Taylor(Review at Versiontracker):
"This is one of those applications that's always present when I start my Mac every day. It saves time, it's easy to use, you get great support, it's reasonably priced and does its job with just a couple of clicks in any application you are working in. It has been updated to keep pace with every Mac OS system update and has had many new features added to increase its value.

Very highly recommend for anyone who does a lot work requiring the use of special font characters."

MacNation:

In MacNation's review in Aug-03 PopChar X gets the highest possible rating "Beyond Belief!"

"... This application is a must have for anyone who deals with fonts on a daily basis. There are many font utilities out there, but this one is the leader of the pack!" Read the complete review here.

CuK New Technologies:

posted a review of PopChar X in French.

"Quel bonheur de retrouver PopChar sous MacOS X! "

MacCompanion:

Harry Babad writes in his review for Maccompanion in March 2007:

"I have been using PopChar since it first appeared in 1987. Twenty years and many versions later, I still use it!

PopChar X plays nice with every application I tried and use it in. These range from disc labeling product, business card software, word and text processors, FileMaker Pro, MS Excel and all the notepad, brainstorming and ToDo software I’ve played with. I have even been able to make it work with Adobe Acrobat when I use the touchup text tool. PopChar also works well in Acrobat Professional’s sticky notes and comments as well as the typewriter tool function. None of my other “font” tools work across all my installed text using applications including the Finder. All I can say is I’m impressed! ...

You don’t have to be a heavy user of special font characters to benefit from PopChar. If you reach for the option key to select a non-standard character more than once a day this is a product well worth buying. ...

This is a strong product that gets better with each upgrade. I would never consider this product as any thing but a priority one keeper – few other utilities I’ve used can make that claim. Thank you Ergonis."

Roger Harris, Fairview Heights, IL, USA (Review at MacUpdate):
"I have been using PopChar for years on OS 9 and for about a year on OSX. It has always been a good product. If you are looking up characters more than once a day the clumsy methods in OSX and all the font management software become a real pain. PopChar has always made getting to these characters efficient.

But PopChar 3 is even better than the earlier versions. It is the most readable font display I have ever seen. After I tried the new PopChar 3 beta for OSX and decided I would upgrade to it, if the price wasn't too high. As I searched for the upgrade price I found I was still good for a free upgrade. All versions of the upgrades were for two years. I was a bit surprised to get a whole number upgrade for free, but I am happier than I was surprised. I find that to be a good licensing policy on upgrades. The cost of the application fits into my very tight budget."

Sharon Zardetto Aker (author of "Real World Mac OS X Fonts" from Peachpit Press):

After her lukewarm review of the previous version of PopChar X, she looked at version 3 and said: "The 3.x version puts Character Palette to shame. It is well worth the investment if you input non-standard characters on a regular basis."

User Comments

Jeff Seaver (Web designer), Westport, CT, USA:
"Wow - PopChar 4 is a great update, and free! How often do we see that these days? The magnifier is the bomb, too. Thanks for all of your hard work on such a terrific product."

Brian Wratten, Yaroomba, Australia:
"I find it one of the most indispensable utilities on my Mac. It has always been great and just gets better and better. It just makes the whole operation of finding those hidden characters so much better than any other way."

Darryl Lewis(Everything Macintosh), Zebulon, NC, USA:
"PopChar and PopChar X have been wonderful time savers, and this new version 3 makes PopChar even better."

Erwin Heiser (Pilates Works), Antwerp, Belgium:
"A really great update while keeping the app nice and light! I use Popchar all the time as I translate a lot between english and spanish. Popchar is the one essential utility for my work."

Charles Ying (Founder, MyFonts.com), HI, USA:
"Using a Mac without PopChar is like driving a BMW only in first gear or playing a piano with one hand. I believe all of our Mac customers should own a copy of PopChar. I know I cannot live without mine. Even on Tiger."

All fonts are at least 8 bits and keyboards are 5-6 bits (47 keys). PopChar allows users to access the full character set on regular fonts and is indispensable for accessing symbol fonts.

PopChar has been the most useful utility for MacOS since its creation. Why Apple has not incorporated PopChar in its OS is beyond me."

Judy Tuccinardi, Mt. Airy, MD, USA:
"I downloaded and installed Pop Char X and I love it! I like it better than the version for 9.x! It is great in either operating system but the one for OSX is the best! I like how I can choose what font and see the choices for the symbols. Good work!"

Gregory Kerwin, Novato, CA, USA:
"PopChar 3 is fantastic! It's the coolest. Thanks for a great job!"

John Madden, Chapel Hill, NC, USA:
I've been using PopChar ever since the days of OS Classic. Now I am using the OS X and the Windows version. This program is itself a classic of its genre. I do a scientific writing and I often need math/science symbols. PopChar is absolutely the best program of this type. The developer has been adding features at a steady rate for many years. It's solid, it does exactly what it claims to do with no fuss or bother. I highly recommend it!

Matthias Suschka, ItsMagic Inc.,
Sarasota, FL, USA / Hamburg Germany:
"Since many years I am a PopChar freak. For me it's one of the most important tools if you are doing a lot of publishing specially in different languages, e.g., English/German with these üÖöÄäß etc. Today I only want to thank you for your continual work to make things running better. I appreciate very much that a lot of these updates were free over the last years."

Ken T. Davis, Woodland Hills, CA, USA:
"There are many other 'character finders and pickers' in all sorts of apps, but I have relied upon PopChar more than any others - consistently.

It is just the right size and it fits in just the right place on my desktop -it's unobtrusive and handy.

I have employed it countless times to insert needed characters into my writing, which I code for use on the web.

And scanning new fonts to see all the unicode characters they contain is a powerful and fun eye-catcher."

Damien Barrett(in his blog at TUAW):
"There are a few applications that increase my productivity to the point where, after awhile, I can't work without them. ... When it comes to working on a desktop publishing project for days on end, nothing increases my productivity more than Ergonis' PopChar X. ... If you haven't ever tried PopChar, I encourage to do so now. For me, it's truly one of the great applications for Mac users."

Sverrir Sveinsson (Typographer), Reyjavík, Iceland:
"I'd like to express my utmost graditute for your software PopChar. It has been my help and saviour since I got it, and I have been doing the most difficult work of my entire carier. I couldn't have done it without PopChar. Thank you!"

Jackie Baum, Hollister, CA, USA:
"PopChar is one of the most innovative programs around and makes finding the right symbol a 'piece of cake'! I've used it for many years and it only gets better and better! I would like to add that it is extremely gratifying to do business with a company such as yours. Obviously, customer satisfaction is a big part of your company policy."

Shuey Wolfe, Niceville, FL, USA:
"There are not many products that I would endorse, but PopChar X, like it's predecessors is deserving of any and all praise it receives. Infrequently used special characters are always just a click away. It's a simple tool, but indispensible once you have it. I'm surprised Apple hasn't bought it from you yet to include it with their next OS release! Thanks for PopChar, it is a great tool! "

Arleen Lopez, Davenport, IA, USA:
"I loved this utility from the moment I found it 10 years ago as a free product. I am glad it is still available and it is well worth the price. Thank you for making easy use of my Mac even easier!!!"

Jaddie Dodd, Burford, GA, USA:
"I really love this product. I got FontBook for free with my purchase of Suitcase, but PopChar is really the bulldog app for setting alternate characters."

Stanley Salmons, Emeritus Professor University of Liverpool, UK:
"Congratulations on PopChar 3.1! You've done a wonderful job and made a super little application even more valuable and user-friendly."

Martin Berg (Associate Professor, University of Washington), Seattle, WA, USA:
"I have tried the beta version of PopChar 3, and you were correct in predicting that I would be impressed! Good work!"

Ratings and Awards