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.

#BuildInPublic

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.

#LetterSet #SwiftUI #BuildInPublic

How it started vs how it’s going. Apple’s #iconcomposer is pretty interesting.

#LetterSet #BuildInPublic #swiftui

And a few more tweaks, now that I'm a bit more comfortable with #iconcomposer.

#LetterSet

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

#LetterSet #typography #swiftui

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.

#LetterSet #swiftui

New font selection UI is now live in the latest TestFlight release!

#swiftui
#typography
#LetterSet

The first release candidate is going out to testers right now! There is so much more I’d like to do, but everything “works” right now so… what better way to get more feedback than to make it real?

#LetterSet

OMG “hole in one!” releasing!

#LetterSet #BuildInPublic

My sophomore effort, LetterSet - A Typography Tool, is live! Neither a text editor, nor a drawing tool, but a secret third thing.

In this unusual experience, you can relive what it meant to design in the era of pre-Desktop Publishing. Revel in the joy of:
-Rudimentary font selection
-Mistakes that are hard to undo
-Creative expression through limitations
-An unusual photo collage experience

I can’t wait to see what you do with it.
https://letterset.app

#LetterSet #typography #showcase25

In an effort to be forward-compliant with font requests and copyright/licensing, I’m having to make an insane pipeline:

1. library to host custom fonts, not used by the app
2. library to download the above and parse fonts into svg for a set of characters, and build a catalog of character-to-svg file mappings
3. library to convert a catalog of character-to-svg mappings to a swift representation
4. swap character rendering

Currently on step 3.
#swiftui
#BuildInPublic
#LetterSet

I finished #3, but in an unexpected way. I’m still using my swift package that wraps fontforge scripts to do font exporting, but am using a custom svg->path implementation because every library didnt do it thoroughly.

So now I have:
- an “air gapped” repo to hold and process fonts, which makes an output format, containing the converted data, in a known location for a host app to consume
- a reference implementation of a renderer for said output format.

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

The availability of the Logitech Muse (ships to me in a week) means I have to actually make the version of this app for #VisionPro now. I think this can officially be 3rd in my roadmap:

1. Support arbitrary fonts via the SVG conversion pipeline.

2. Improve the renderer via a fixed coordinate system (aka “quasi-infinite canvas, as opposed to the existing “actual infinite”, which is unmanageable).

3. AR with stylus.

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

Last night I completed the font-license-complaint workflow, and got it working in Xcode Cloud.

Packages:
- glyph-preprocessor uses fontforge to convert fonts to paths commands stored in json
- LetterSet-sheet only knows about finding catalog json files, how to render path data as a sheet, and the process state changes (touch events)
- Distributed host iOS app only includes LetterSet-sheet for glyph rendering, doesn’t know about fonts or svg files

✅🤦🔡✍️

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

I've been updating my catalog and sheet format to accommodate the new flexibility granted by the Font -> SVG -> Path pipeline, but I needed a new tool for previewing and managing the configurations. I've found that the various ai-related code tools are pretty decent at doing things like this, e.g. spinning up examples using a well-documented library. So... now I have a Mac app that authors configurations for my main app!

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

So much non-obvious new work in this latest video:

- Font->SVG->Path-based glyph pipeline now allows the use of the full set of font variations (as seen in Futura).
- Glyph rendering is sharp, no longer using GraphicContext for display.
- Zoom out finally “just works”.
- When in “hard mode” (aka character re-use disabled) one can now partially scribble over a letter; subsequent stamping only stamps the remainder!

Almost ready for testing…

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

Hey #typography community, what font(s) would you like to see in #LetterSet next? My tooling to handle most arbitrary fonts is ready to expand my existing sheet selection, so I’d love to hear from you as to what would be the most fun or satisfying to see.

Currently I have Helvetica Neue and Futura PT configured, and Zapfino is in my test builds just to test literal edge cases.

I really get such immense pleasure even just having fun in the new version of this app.

#typography #LetterSet #swiftui #BuildInPublic

New feature is almost done: paper generation. This tool is so funny collage with.

#typography #LetterSet #swiftui #BuildInPublic

And here’s the prototype in action.

#LetterSet #swiftui #BuildInPublic

And (at long last) undo/redo is reflected in the sheet mask correctly! This works for tapping and drawn masks.

#LetterSet #swiftui #BuildInPublic

Halftone and screentone patterns, powered by metal shaders, in the latest TestFlight.

#metalshaders #LetterSet #swiftui #BuildInPublic

Undo/redo now works properly even across canvas resizing. Note the hilarious complexity: the letter sheet does not change size, nor does the mask associated with each state, but the canvas does. Many things in sync makes me sad but works well... famous last words.

#swiftui #BuildInPublic #LetterSet

Rejected. Forgot to describe how to test the in-app purchase. On the positive side: this means my feature-gating is not insanely overbearing?

Resubmitted.

#LetterSet

I pulled the original build and re-submitted with the ruler. Hopefully this one makes it through!

At this point though, I feel like "season 1" features are at least real:
- Lined paper
- Graph paper
- Construction paper
- Halftone
- Screentone
- Custom ruler

I said at the beginning of the public beta that all of the actually core features in #LetterSet would remain free, and that only consider it for subsequent features. I feel like I'm making good on that promise.

Rejected again because of section 3.1.1, the very section I presented on at @SwiftLeeds this year!

In Apple’s defense, I did not follow the guidelines to have a “restore purchases” button; an honest mistake on my part as this is the first time that I’ve used non-consumable in-app purchases. They also offered to let me submit it as a bug fix without further review, but I declined so I could add the polish I had done since the last build.

New build submitted now…

#LetterSet #BuildInPublic

From a technical perspective, the improvements are so numerous. Most interesting I think is a reenvisioned zoom (that can handle zooming out!), a new canvas display system, completely reengineered sheet mechanics, and a font->glyph->svg->patched drawing command pipeline, totally automated.

I also built three standalone utilities, not including packages. Notably, my sheet author configuration utility act as a complete test tested for all of the type pipeline features.

#LetterSet #swiftui

The paper generation uses #metalshaders, a first in production for me, and masking has evolved into an art. I now have a MaskManager in the sheet library, that handles three types of masks:
- current, a mask of the active stroke
- cumulative, a combined mask of all strokes
- transient, as temporary mask of views that impact transfer

Transient impact of the ruler is not yet implemented in the app, but the library supports it now.

#BuildInPublic #LetterSet #swiftui

Image handling is also greatly improved. You can crop after placing an image, resize behaves more reasonably, and masking parts of the image transfer perfectly, for the most bizarre #collage experience ever since Khoi Vinh’s Mixel. This crop/mask experience also works on the new paper types!

#BuildInPublic #LetterSet #swiftui

Also, I’ve stuck to my goal of keeping all core features free, and will likely grant Season 1 entitlements to all omce Season 2 exists… whenever rhat is.

In the meantime, there’s a menu option to hide premium features because I hate when features I use in tools advertise things I haven’t bought. Since all paid-for features are truly optional from the core experience, you can hide all mentions of them (except the preference to show/hide them) if you also hate this.

#BuildInPublic #LetterSet

Meanwhile, the ruler is a really fun tool as it stands. When in use, it becomes the only way to rotate a sheet. This lets you more accurately line up a word’s baseline as you zoom, so you can be more consistent with positioning… if you want!

#BuildInPublic #LetterSet #swiftui