Beta 4 is here! Happy Fourth of July!

It’s been 4 months in the works, but a lot of great new features have been added to our little project.  And firstly…

THANK YOU

…to everyone who sent in feature ideas, pointed out bugs, and tried it out.  Glyphr Studio is still young, but it’s getting better with your help.  In the next few weeks we’ll be asking for more ideas, feedback on Beta 4, and maybe even have a poll to see what goes into Beta 5.

Head over to glyphrstudio.com now to download Beta 4.  Use it, and let us know what you think!  Drop a line @glyphrstudio or mail@glyphrstudio.com

So what’s new?

  • Import SVG Outlines – Now you can use any number of graphic design software to design outlines, like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape, and import them into Glyphr Studio.  If your design environment doesn’t exactly match your font’s metrics, there are easy scaling options that can be adjusted to make sure each character lands in Glyphr Studio with ease.
  • Full Unicode Support – where Beta 3 only supported the Basic Latin sect of characters, Beta 4 supports the entirety of the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (that’s over 65,000 characters).  Easily add Latin Supplement ranges with a checkbox, or add custom ranges for whatever you need.
  • Dual Monitor Mode – Keep the classic compact mode if you’re designing on one screen, or tear out the Edit Canvas to a separate window to take full advantage of your nice big external monitor.

Other New (smaller) Features:

  • There are now Keyboard Shortcuts for most of the things you’d expect – and a keyboard tips dialog box to help you learn them.
  • Along with the keyboard shortcuts came Nudging, using the arrow keys you can move a shape or point by just a smidge.
  • You can now look through the undo-able actions in the History Panel to see just how many times you need to ctrl+z.
  • When re-sizing a shape you can now lock the aspect ratio.
  • Working with Linked Shapes is easier, now with actions that let you turn a shape into a linked shape, and the reverse, turn a linked shape into a shape.
  • You can now bulk transform all the shapes in a character, so moving or resizing all character shapes as a single unit is a snap.
  • Even with a ton of changes under-the-covers, Beta 3 projects can be migrated to Beta 4, just by loading the project normally.
  • Plus lots more – I just can’t help tweaking the UI to make it a little prettier, or refactoring code to make it faster and more stable.  I’m a hit at parties.