Home : Support : Version 4 and 5 End of Life
Support Bulletin: End of Life for Versions 4.x and 5.x
We are announcing the end of life and the end of support for Sign Wizard versions 4.x and 5.x and Neon Wizard versions 4.x and 5.x. The 4.x versions are now 16 years old and the 5.x versions are 12 years old. Please see below for additional information and special upgrade offers.
What This Means
If you are using one of these products, then there will no longer be:
- Product updates from the website.
- Technical support (phone or email).
- Downloadable or shipped CDs.
Free Technical Support
As you know, Aries Graphics has never charged for technical support. When you call, you get to talk to a real person
and we answer our support inquiries through the site and via email. We have been doing it this way for over 25
years. At some point, however, it becomes impractical to continue to support and maintain software that is this old
and it is not reasonable to expect software written in the late 90’s to work on today’s operating
systems. We will, of course, continue to support our current products.
Upgrade Options
Upgrading from Sign Wizard 4.x or 5.x to version 7 or Neon Wizard 4.x or 5.x to version 6.5 means that you get 12-16
years of software development in one upgrade! It is impossible to describe all of the new features and capabilities
you’ll get, but one thing is for certain – your software will operate faster and you’ll be more
productive with the new capabilities.
Sign Wizard
While we appreciate that version 4.x and 5.x were terrific products for cutting vinyl, version 7 goes far beyond
those capabilities in design and production.
Paragraph Text – this is a further improvement on our terrific text editing features, including Auto Weld and Text on a Path. Watch the video.
Dynamic Effects – now you can easily add various effects, change the settings (including the
font and text), even save them for future use. Watch the video.
Not only are there new capabilities, but the things you love about these old versions are still in there, such as
the terrific text editing features, right mouse button zooming, easy vector editing tools, and the Plot Manager.
Sign Wizard 7 is not all about large format printing; there are also many terrific upgrades for vinyl cutting design
and production.
Neon Wizard to LED Wizard Upgrade
Program
If you are running an older version of Neon Wizard, or if you have an older version of Neon Wizard that you are not
using, then you have the opportunity right now to upgrade to the current version of LED Wizard for
just US $995. This includes the popular Channel Letter Returns feature at no
additional charge. Any version and level of Neon Wizard is eligible. If you have an older key, we’ll upgrade
that as well at no additional cost. With this special upgrade, we add LED Wizard to your Neon Wizard key, so that
you can run both programs on the one key.
We have made a video that goes through the LED Wizard workflow using a sample job from the standpoint of an existing Neon Wizard user. If you are curious about how LED Wizard works, and if it would be a good upgrade from your Neon Wizard, please Watch the video.
Upgrade Discounts and Costs: Customer Appreciation Sale
Last year we had the popular Customer Appreciation Sale, which gave a discount to our loyal
customers based on the number of years they have been our customer. In many cases we were giving discounts of 20% or
more! I’m happy to announce that as part of this end of support announcement for versions 4.x and 5.x and
Windows XP, we are once again offering the Customer Appreciation Sale discount of 1% per year as our
customer. These discounts will be valid until June 30, 2014. (Please also see the
related Support Bulletin: End of Life for Windows XP Platform.) Several
years ago we also consolidated the upgrade prices to be consistent for all older versions (1.x to 6.0). This means
that you don’t have to add all the upgrade prices together for each version.
The upgrade path for Sign Wizard Pro 4.x and 5.x users is going to be Sign Wizard Pro 7. This
upgrade normally costs US $650, in itself a tremendous bargain. Now let’s say that you have been our customer
since 1999, which is 15 years. This means you get a discount of 15% off this price, bringing the total to US
$552.50. I promise you that you will spend more money in lost productivity working on old technology.
For Neon Wizard users, you have the option of moving to Neon Wizard Pro 6.5 or directly to LED
Wizard 7.1 (see above). The upgrade from Neon Wizard Pro 5.x to Neon Wizard Pro 6.5 normally costs US
$575. If we apply the same 15% discount as above, this would reduce the cost to just US $488.75.
For additional upgrade prices, please go to our Pricing
Page and enter your current product to see the upgrade options. Then take your Customer Appreciation
Discount off of that price. If you don’t know how long you’ve been a customer, give us a call and we’ll
look it up for you!
New Operating System and New Computer
As part of this upgrade of your software, you should also upgrade your operating system if you are running Windows
XP, and consider upgrading/replacing your computer. While we are compatible with Windows 8, we recommend Windows 7
and at least 8 GB of RAM to efficiently run the latest versions of Sign Wizard, Neon Wizard, and LED Wizard desktop
Windows software. Please note: new computers do not come with parallel ports for your old Sign Wizard and Neon
Wizard hardware keys/dongles! We do not advise that you go through all kinds of gyrations to use your old parallel
keys. We can update your key to a new USB key for free with the purchase of your upgrade. The normal cost to upgrade
your dongle is US $125.
If you have any questions on this Support Bulletin, please contact us at 805 642-2650 or visit our site at www.aries-graphics.com.