The first beta release of Intaglio version 3.0 is available to anybody who is interested in testing it. Below is a list of the new features. As with any prerelease software the following caveats apply:
This is prerelease software and you may lose your work.
The files saved with this version are not guaranteed to be usable in the final version.
This first beta version requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Apple is making it harder to support both Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.3.9 in one version but we’re investigating it.
The user guide and online help doesn’t contain any information about the new features.
The non-English language localizations are incomplete.
If you installed the previous test version of the Intaglio QuickLook plug-in you should delete it. It will not work correctly with files saved by this version.
This upgrade will be free for users with standard licenses. Licenses acquired through software bundles (i.e., MacUpdate) will require an upgrade (not finalized yet).
Please report any problems with this (or any) version of Intaglio to: Intaglio (at sign) PurgatoryDesign.com
The following features (in no particular order) are included in version 3.0:
A main emphasis of this version is to make it easier to reuse graphics and graphics elements by creating clipart libraries.
There are several changes to the library inspector. It allows labels to be added to items (which can be localized), multiple items to be selected and dragged as a group or removed, supports cut/copy/paste via a contextual menu, and allows individual pages to be imported and exported for sharing. Effects can be added to the library and dragged to new objects and your iPhoto library is automatically included.
You can select multiple items in the effects list and drag them to the library or Finder (for a clipping file). This allows a series of effects to be saved so it can later be applied to a new graphic. Effects clip art can be saved in library pages. There’s also a contextual menu for the effects list to allow you to disable individual effects without changing their outputs (among other things).
The various “color” types have been renamed “paint” to reflect variations beyond simple colors. In previous versions paint types included colors, gradients and patterns. A new type called a “texture” has been added. There are three texture types – image, paint and light. An image texture contains an imported image (e.g., bitmap or PDF). A paint texture contains a non-texture paint object (e.g., a gradient or pattern). A light texture is a computer generated 3D image of a simulated sphere with user selected lights shining on it. Textures can be used to fill graphics (e.g., you can fill a path with an image without resorting to group masks) and as sources for CoreImage based effects. As effects sources, textures can be included with complex effects saved to reuse on future graphics (e.g., effects clip art).
Arrows have been substantially rewritten, including a new arrow editor and toolbar menu. There are many new arrows and you can make your own in the editor. New options allow the ability to warp an arrow on a curved line, better scaling control, and the ability to offset the end of the line so it doesn’t interfere with the arrow head.
A star tool makes it easy to create multisided stars and flowers.
Text blocks can include a background color.
Intaglio now includes a German localization.
A QuickLook plug-in is includes to enable Intaglio drawings to be preview within the Leopard Finder with QuickLook.
When running on Leopard, 2D graphics hardware acceleration is enabled (i.e., QuartzGL).
There are new tool preferences to allow stroke widths and/or effects to be scaled when objects are resized. In particular effects scaling makes it easier to adjust the size of things like clip art web buttons.
You can focus editing on a group (in the Edit menu) to allow the group contents to be edited without destroying the group (thus losing mask settings and all effects, etc.).
You can edit the text without removing it from an enclosing group. For example, select a clip-art web button and hit . You can now edit the button’s label directly without fiddling with the group used to collect the button items.
I’ve been having a quick ‘play’ with the beta. It looks good, so far.
The following features (in no particular order) are included in
version 3.0:
A main emphasis of this version is to make it easier to reuse
graphics and graphics elements by creating clipart libraries.
This is excellent! I re-use a lot of stuff, because often my
diagrams use the same elements over and over, both within the same
diagram and between different diagrams in the same project. Having
flexible libraries and stuff makes it much easier to keep tabs on all
my bits and bobs.
You can select multiple items in the effects list and drag them
to the library or Finder (for a clipping file). This allows a
series of effects to be saved so it can later be applied to a new
graphic. Effects clip art can be saved in library pages. There’s
also a contextual menu for the effects list to allow you to disable
individual effects without changing their outputs (among other
things).
Great idea!
The various “color” types have been renamed “paint” to reflect
variations beyond simple colors. In previous versions paint types
included colors, gradients and patterns. A new type called a
“texture” has been added. There are three texture types – image,
paint and light. An image texture contains an imported image
(e.g., bitmap or PDF). A paint texture contains a non-texture
paint object (e.g., a gradient or pattern). A light texture is a
computer generated 3D image of a simulated sphere with user
selected lights shining on it. Textures can be used to fill
graphics (e.g., you can fill a path with an image without resorting
to group masks) and as sources for CoreImage based effects. As
effects sources, textures can be included with complex effects
saved to reuse on future graphics (e.g., effects clip art).
I haven’t played with this yet - current project is line drawings
only! But I will have a fiddle with it later on.
Arrows have been substantially rewritten, including a new arrow
editor and toolbar menu. There are many new arrows and you can
make your own in the editor. New options allow the ability to warp
an arrow on a curved line, better scaling control, and the ability
to offset the end of the line so it doesn’t interfere with the
arrow head.
That answers my problems with the arrow tool.
A star tool makes it easy to create multisided stars and flowers.
It’s good, as far as it goes - and a star tool was one of the things
I missed most in Intaglio. I would just make one request though -
the ability to input a number for the ‘Inside Radius’ (perhaps as a
percentage of the outer diameter?) would be handy, rather than just
having to rely on the slider and guess work.
Text blocks can include a background color.
Good!
There are new tool preferences to allow stroke widths and/or
effects to be scaled when objects are resized. In particular
effects scaling makes it easier to adjust the size of things like
clip art web buttons.
Great!
You can focus editing on a group (in the Edit menu) to allow the
group contents to be edited without destroying the group (thus
losing mask settings and all effects, etc.).
Excellent!
You can edit the text without removing it from an enclosing
group. For example, select a clip-art web button and hit
. You can now edit the button’s label directly without
fiddling with the group used to collect the button items.
And again.
The grid can be printed with a drawing.
Really handy - at times!
This is a set of really, really, useful improvements to the app,
which really take it up a gear in terms of usefulness: in my opinion,
they make Intaglio a much stronger product, and much better able to
compete with the ‘big boys’ - there’s far less chance of needing to
reach for some other app when Intaglio can’t cope. And so far it
hasn’t fallen over, or lost me any work (fingers crossed!) - not that
I’ve done a great deal with it.
This upgrade will be free for users with standard licenses. Licenses acquired through software bundles (i.e., MacUpdate) will require an upgrade (not finalized yet).
Good! I have a standard licence =0)
On 15 Apr 2008, at 12:30, KeynoteKen wrote:
Will v3 be a paying upgrade for existing users?
Depends on your license.
This upgrade will be free for users with standard licenses.
Licenses acquired through software bundles (i.e., MacUpdate) will
require an upgrade (not finalized yet).
In the top is the image in Intaglio. The objects were aligned beside each other using the automatic guides (snap!). When printing, though, you get a vertical white space between them. (That’s a picture of the Preview.app below)
Nick, one thing I should of requested from you, was a spell checker
option with the text tool.
Is this difficult to implement? I tend to use Intaglio mainly as an
alternative to Indesign, DTP etc.
Something Intaglio is very good at imo. A spell checker would be very
handy.
There’s nothing wrong with the latest version- it works fine already
(amidst a few quirks, but then what would be the pont
of a v3? ), but anyway, if you buy a full licence now, you’ll still
be able to upgrade later when the beta is finalised. =0)
On 17 Apr 2008, at 01:28, Atlantia wrote:
When this update (version 3.0) will be available officially, because
I want buy this software and I would buy the
lastest version
In the top is the image in Intaglio. The objects were aligned beside each other using the automatic guides (snap!). When printing, though, you get a vertical white space between them. (That’s a picture of the Preview.app below)
What you’re probably seeing here is some kind of rounding error in the floating point numbers used to specify the rectangles. If you zoom way in with Intaglio you’ll probably see the same line but it doesn’t seem to change thickness as you zoom. That makes me think it’s a glitch in Quartz.
Actually, when I zoom in at 200, 400, 800, 1600, I see no gap at all. It’s only when using the odd sizes like -20, -50, -75 that I see the white space in the interface. I’ve seen this with other apps and was thinking it was a Quartz thing, just wanted to flag it for you just in case it wasn’t
Using your information, I used the Geometry panel to define specific sizes and placements and was able to create two adjacent shapes that show no gap at any magnification. However, the Preview output still shows a gap.
I tried playing with the grid… making it smaller so as to approximate an integer drawing area, but after a certain size (around 20?), the title bar flashes and the interface delays before you can do anything.
The reason why I’m looking into this is because some other apps snap to the stroke, not the actual boundary, so I’ve taken to drawing things without strokes to get around this limitation.
My suspicion is that you’re seeing antialiasing artifacts. If you use the sample script to disable antialiasing on these objects the line will probably disappear. I’m not sure what happens if you export this as PDF though.
FWIW, the snap features ignore the stroke but you can use the align palette if you want to include stroke.
There are two minor issues that remain in 3.0. They may be a conscious design decision, but I find them awkward:
In order to mask an image, the masking path must have a fill. This makes it hard to see what’s being masked! Instead, I set the fill’s opacity to less than 100% so that I can see through it, but I can’t see why a no-fill path can’t be used for masking. It seems that this was changed at some point, since I recall that I could once mask with a nonfilled path.
The corners on round rectangles do not scale uniformly when the rectangle is resized. If I draw a rounded rectangle and scale it by 200% horizontally, then the corners, instead of being circular arcs, become elliptical. I would prefer that they always remain circular. It would be especially nice if there were two kinds of rounded corners: 1) corners with a fixed radius that could be set with a slider/text box; 2) Corners whose radius scales with the size of the rectangle (while still remaining as circular arcs). This method is a bit ambiguous, since it’s not clear how to scale the radius as either the x or y length of the rectangle is changed, but there’s probably some reasonable scheme.
My basic problem is that if I create a rounded rectangle that surrounds an object, then if I need to tweak the size of the rectangle its corners are no longer circular. I usually have to just draw a new rectangle.
I agree too (with both actually)- but, yes this one is really
annoying, but is it just a general quirk, because Intaglio 2 did this
also?
On 3 May 2008, at 19:40, amtravco wrote:
The corners on round rectangles do not scale uniformly when the
rectangle is resized. If I draw a rounded rectangle and scale it by
200% horizontally, then the corners, instead of being circular arcs,
become elliptical. I would prefer that they always remain circular.
It would be especially nice if there were two kinds of rounded
corners: 1) corners with a fixed radius that could be set with a
slider/text box; 2) Corners whose radius scales with the size of the
rectangle (while still remaining as circular arcs). This method is a
bit ambiguous, since it’s not clear how to scale the radius as
either the x or y length of the rectangle is changed, but there’s
probably some reasonable scheme.
), but anyway, if you buy a full licence now, you’ll still