The advice on this page has been updated 23 October 2019 following extended testing and feedback based on the final release of macOS Catalina.
What Astute Graphics software is compatible with Catalina?
The Astute Manager is fully Catalina compatible. This includes all the subscription plugins deployed by the Astute Manager.
If you are on the subscription, simply ensure you are using the latest Astute Manager to install the current plugins.
I'm not on the subscription, am I compatible with macOS Catalina (10.15)?
Legacy (non-subscription) customers should avoid upgrading to Catalina.
Why are legacy plugins not compatible with Catalina?
Apple increased the security threshold of their Gatekeeper mechanism in their October 2019 desktop operating system.
Many software products created prior to the release of Catalina (early October 2019) require additional integrated security steps to install on Catalina ("notarization").
Due to the Astute Graphics plugins for Adobe Illustrator being installed via the Astute Manager, significant additional development was required to ensure that the deployment services catered for Catalina's Gatekeeper.
The Unified Installer, which deploys legacy plugins, was developed many years ago and could not be prepared for Catalina’s changes as it operates in a very different manner to the more modern Astute Manager.
What are my options?
For customers who aren't on the subscription, the options are:
Remain with macOS 10.10 to 10.14 (for which the last plugins before the change to our licensing system was developed for) or if already upgraded, downgrade to macOS 10.14.
Upgrade to the subscription.