When you first download Texifier it will start in a two week trial period during which it will be fully functional. If you wish to continue using Texifier, you will need to purchase a license.
Texifier for macOS is currently available via two channels,
- Directly from our website: This version does not restrict file access.
- From Apple App Store: This version is “sandboxed”, and allows access to files that you have explicitly granted Texifier permission to access.
Buying Texifier macOS directly from us
Texifier for macOS is available directly from us by visiting www.texifier.com/purchase.
Licence Key
When you buy a license for Texifier from texifier.com you will receive a Licence Key. To activate this license please type it into the licence key box on the Welcome Screen of Texifier. Alternatively if you choose the Account pane of the Welcome Screen and log in using your texifier.com account details, it will automatically retrieve the key for you.
When you do this, Texifier will verify that license with our server and activate your copy for four weeks, after which it will deactivate. After two weeks Texifier will reverify the license and reactivate itself for another four weeks so that provided Texifier has contacted the licence server within that last 4 weeks it will remain licensed and run offline.
If you lose your licence key, you can retrieve it by logging into your Texifier account and visiting the (licences page)[/account/settings/licences]. If you require a purchase certificate because you are using an old (pre 1.8.0) version of Texifier, you download this from that page too.
Moving a licence between computers
As described above Texifier activations last 4 weeks, and are refreshed after 2 weeks to ensure it remains activated. After 4 weeks of no contact with an activation, the Texifier licence server will deem it inactive. If you want to move your licence between computers simply start using the licence on the new computer, and the old activation will time out and no longer be deducted from your quota.
Use of Texifier macOS on computers not connected to the internet
If you wish to use Texifier on a computer not able to connect to our licensing server (usually due to an airgapped installation), please get in contact as we can manually provision the certificates for you.
Licence Quota
A Texifier licence purchased for n seats entitles you to the use of the licence on n computers. In addition, we allow two extra slots per user. These slots are provided for transition during swapping computers for instance. In the case of a single licence holder using the licence for private use, one of these slots may be used for their second computer.
In cases, where a licence carrying multiple seats and/or there are multiple licences purchased via separate payments made by a single user, the number of slots strictly remains the total number of seats held by the user, plus two. Quota of slots does not depend on the number of purchases made by the user. Nor does it depend on the multiplicity of seats licence. All seats across a user’s account are aggregated. This total number plus 2 determines the overall number of slots a user is entitled to.
Please also note that this plus two system is there for transferring licences to different machines of the user and allowing some flexibility. The purchaser has not been sold the extra two seats in this system, and we may alter that system in future. In both single-user personal licence or multi-user multi-seat licence cases, the plus two system is there to ensure Texifier is continuously operational when the computer hardware changes.
If a licence is intended for multiple users, or is not strictly being used for personal use of a single user, one seat must be purchased per computer.
Buying Texifier in Apple App Store
[HIGHLIGHT]{Important Note on Restrictions of the App Store Version} Please note that when purchased in the App Store, Texifier will abide by the sandboxing requirements. Once purchased via the App Store, we cannot refund the app if these restrictions do not meet your requirements. [/HIGHLIGHT]
You can search for Texifier in the App Store or visit https://apps.apple.com/app/id458866234.
This version is sandboxed and we urge you to read the technical article accompanying this version at apps/getting-started/platform-specifics/sandboxing
The differences between the two versions
The key differences between the two versions of Texifier macOS are to do with accessing files and typesetting them. These are explained below.
Since macOS Lion (10.7), Mac OS has had the ability to “sandbox” applications – a restrictive security model for applications that amongst other things restricts software from accessing files it has not been given permissions by the user to access, or to launch external binaries. Sandboxing as implemented in macOS is an official Apple policy as explained at developer.apple.com/app-sandboxing.
We cannot write a fully sandboxed version of Texifier that works with traditional TeX distributions such as MacTeX/TeXLive. However we have been developing TexpadTeX, a modern fork of TeX that is much faster, easier to use and designed from the start to be compatible with Sandboxed operating systems. Since Texifier 1.8.0 TexpadTeX has been bundled with the version of Texifier macOS that you download from our website. TexpadTeX, for the first time, allows us to create a sandbox compatible version of Texifier.
Texifier outside the App Store
If you wish to continue using a traditional TeX distribution then please purchase your copy from our website. Applications distributed outside the App Store are not required to use the Sandbox and as such the texifier.com version of Texifier will remain compatible with traditional TeX distributions for as long as mac apps remain unsandboxed.
Accessing Files
When using the unsandboxed version obtained directly from us, you may store your files anywhere on your computer and open them with no restrictions in Texifier.
Please note that if you purchase the website version of Texifier this is sold by us, and it is not exchangeable for an App Store version of Texifier, which is sold by Apple.
Typesetting Files
The directly downloaded version of Texifier benefits fully from TexpadTeX. In addition, when an external typesetters are needed, they may be installed and called from within Texifier as before.
Texifier inside the App Store
Starting from v1.8.12, Texifier has been updated to a sandboxed version inside the App Store. This means that Texifier when purchased & downloaded from the App Store, will obey strict sandboxing rules. In summary, this version places restrictions on how files can be opened and how they can be typeset.
Restricted Access to Files
Like most non-macOS apps on sandboxed computers, Texifier is allowed full, unrestricted access only to its own ‘sandbox’, located at
~/Library/Containers/com.vallettaventures.Texifier/Data/Documents
All files residing outside of this folder on your computer must be granted explicit permission by the user before they can be accessed by Texifier. This particularly affects projects with multiple files, i.e., where a root file includes another file using \include{} command or projects that include images, using commands such as \includegraphics{}.
We understand that as a user, saving files in Texifier’s sandbox folder is a highly impractical solution in the long run. We have therefore designed the ‘File Accessibility’ pane where you can grant Texifier permissions to access your files in folders outside of Texifier’s sandbox.
Typesetting Files
Although good for security of users machines, the sandbox restrictions are incompatible with traditional distributions of TeX, such as MacTeX/TeXLive and MikTeX. Texifier’s internal, live typesetter TexpadTeX however is fully compatible with sandboxing. This is because, unlike TexpadTeX, external typesetters run outside of Texifier as a separate process which is prohibited by Sandboxing. You can see more details on TexpadTeX in Preferences under the Typesetting section.
In few cases, where TexpadTeX does not support a package, tool or feature that your require, you may use our free cloud typesetter, which is fully integrated in the app.
Please note that if you purchase the App Store version of Texifier this is sold Apple, and it is not exchangeable for a website version of Texifier, which is sold by us.
Price difference
We set prices such that regardless of how you pay for Texifier, we receive the same after fees. This can cause a difference in price between distribution channels, but it does ensure there is no preferred channel from our point of view.
Version difference
There can be temporary version differences between the Mac App Store and the Website version. These arise either because a fix is only applicable to one version, or due to the time it takes to release Texifier through one channel or the other.