After taking almost two years off, I’m starting on the #PencilKit version of #LetterSet again.
I had to rebuild the masking as before it only worked on a single letter, and I thought “oh this would be easy to scale across multiple views” but I was very wrong. I’ve also switched to a pixel-based output, which more easily allows for letter mistakes.
Oh you thought I was done pushing this into the realm of absurdity? Nope! How about repurposing a page curl metal shader to emulate translucent vellum?
As an aside: can I just say how annoying it is to have a single surface that needs to move, rotate, curl and accept pencil input?
#PencilKit #LetterSet
Almost all of the pieces are together for the MVP. Letter color is now selectable and ignores dark mode, pen size has two options, the gesture system has been completely redone (as a single UIRepresentable that handles both rotate and move). Major next step is a moveable canvas, and an eraser.
The eraser is the challenging one, as I’m rendering pixel data from a PKDrawing, and so the eraser has to manipulate pixels (luckily already separate from the background).
The iPhone version is still not something I’ve looked at in the least, but the app itself is starting to look SO GOOD.
@stroughtonsmith I’m not ready to use the showcase 25 hashtag yet, but I’m very close.
I tried to explain to my kids yesterday how the my new app works and … what’s it called when you use one outdated metaphor to explain another?
Maybe this needs a new term?
- Deuterskeuomorphism: using an outdated object or interface to explain another outdated object or interface.
Okay #typography fans, I've created a TestFlight sign-up form. If you want to play around with the existing version, please sign-up here: https://letterSet.app.
Sometimes you have to rip everything out to make new functionality. Enough people in the beta said “but in this one circumstance, letters don’t align” (e.g. of you rotate your device, or start in landscape mode, or are using a smaller screen, or …) so I’m ripping out the entire canvas mechanism.
Good news though: the next version will support an infinite canvas, and arbitrary device size and rotation! So glad I already redid the sheet mechanism.
New day new feature: “Infinite canvas” & “hard mode.”
This video shows disabling reusable letters, and accommodate all screen sizes.
- “Infinite canvas” now acts like a design app should: you can pan around & use flexible canvas sizes. As a bonus, you can now more easily use larger letter sheets, even if you’re on a small screen.
- “Hard mode” makes it so letters cannot be re-used. It is still possible if you switch font sheets, but is less obvious.
Sheet selection has been an afterthought in terms of the UX in #LetterSet but lately I’ve been working to change that. This is a demo of my current thoughts, but it could be better. I like the #SwiftUI matchedGeometryEffect here, but at the same time the final sheet size needs to be different. We’ll see where this goes.
The transitioning in of the “real sheet” will take a lot more work than what I had time to do before my day job this morning, but I at least got the switcher in to replace the existing one.
How it started vs how it’s going. Apple’s #iconcomposer is pretty interesting.
And a few more tweaks, now that I'm a bit more comfortable with #iconcomposer.
Ok huge release today:
- Files, and a new .letterset document format!
- Tap to place (as an option)
- Sharper document output
This is now a real app that manages documents, can edit files and ipad that were made on an iPhone, and generally behaves as one would expect an app to do. Only downside of this release is that I’ve purposefully broken macOS support while I refactor the launch experience just for desktops.
I can’t wait to see your new art with this!
#LetterSet #typography #swiftui
I think my favorite feature is the “custom image as sheet” experience. Any image, as in this screenshot with Chromium via Letraslut, immediately becomes a new usable tool. https://letraslut.com/wiki/index.php?title=File:Chromium_One_72.jpg
The top feature request at this point is more flexibility around available font sheets. I loved the “real” sheet selection UI but it isn’t scalable to the number of sheets people want. I can’t just have sliders as each size should allow for a distinct configuration, but this is directionally consistent with where I’m going.
New font selection UI is now live in the latest TestFlight release!
erin sparling
Wendroid 🇺🇦