TRACE DRAW

Release Notes

This document contains release notes for the Trace Draw app, most recent first.

Version 2.9.1

• Support has been added for the new featurs of Apple Pencil Pro. This includes displaying icons in selection, drawing, and dropper modes while the pencil is hovering. The squeeze gesture is also supported. It will either perform the same function as double tap does (Switch Between Current Tool and Last Used), or, by updating the settings for Apple Pencil, it will activate the color picker (Show Color Palette) or dropper (Show Tool Palette)

Version 2.9

• When editing a curve, red dots representing the points of a curve are displayed on the screen. These dots were not being removed properly in previous versions. This update fixes that bug.

Version 2.8

• The curve menu no longer has the Smooth and Polygon items. Instead, both of these functions are handled with the new smooth setting. A value of 0 for the smooth setting corresponds to the polygon setting in the previous version. Prior to version 2.7 a smooth value of 1/3 was used for smooth curves. With version 2.7 1/2 was used instead. Starting in this version, values from -1 to 2 may be used. The default value is 0.5, which produces realistic-looking curves. A negative value likely produces loops, since it results in control points placed in the opposite direction of the main curve heading. Similarly, a value greater than 1 will result in control points that overshoot the next point, resulting in unrealistic shapes. That said these may be used for interesting effect.
• The Curve Editor view has been modified to include two new items:
  • A help button is added to provide help for the curve editor screen.
  • A new slider is added to adjust the smooth settings.
  The placement of different elements has also been redesigned.
• The dropper is tinted systemGray when there is no image. With no image, there is nothing for the dropper tool to do.
• Fixed an issue where projects with no images were not displaying thumbnails in the project list.
• Changed the direction of animation of selected curve(s). Now the animation is in the same direction the stroke was made.
• Added missing help text - updated some existing help text.
• Added a launch screen.
• Restrict adding dots to a single curve. Editing a curve shape is possible only on single curves.
• Fixed a bug where gradient edits were not possible.

Version 2.7

• Added function to remove smoothing of curves. This is achieved by selecting Polygon from the Curves menu. The inverse is Smooth.
• Adjusted the smoothing settings.
• Modified endpoints of closed curves to function the same as the rest of the points. This eliminates what was happening before, where closed curves were not smooth where the first and last points met.
• Fixed a bug where if using a selection tool to select points (not curves) and then tapping the select button again to deselect it, it was not possible to move the dots as described in the documentation for editing a shape.

Version 2.6

• Fixed a bug where adjusting color in the curve edit screen wasn't working properly.
• Adjusted tool sizes if needed when rotating.
• When the dropper tool is used to select a color, the swatch is displayed first at the touch location and then animated away.
• Ensured that when one select button is used, the other one is deactivated. They are mutually exclusive.
• Fixed bug with slider used to adjust curve thickness.
• When red circles are showing because the user selected some points on one or more curves, the help button now displays contextual help.
• When editing a curve (touch-up OUTSIDE a select button and select a curve, then tap the curve button and select Curve Details), the type button now is no longer read-only but can be used to toggle a curve between open and closed.
• Adding a second color in the curve edit screen converts the curve to a closed curve with a gradient fill.
• Dropper help text improved.
• Fixed bug where tool settings changed when the device was rotated.
• The open/closed button now has a third option: Force. Tapping the button cycles from Open to Closed to Force to Open again. When Force is selected, a closed curve is drawn with a width that increases with the force applied to the pencil. The altitude is also used in the calculation. The lower the altitude, the finer the the curve.
• Fixed a bug where it was not possible to draw after selecting.
• Fixed an issue where selections with the lasso were not cleared when changing layers.

Version 2.5

• If the color picker is dismissed without tapping the swatch, an alert is shown informing the user the swatch needs to be tapped to select a color and offering to set the color or ignore it.
• Alpha information for layers is now saved to the project file.
• Fixed bug where layers are inserted incorrectly.

Version 2.4

• Change line thickness slider to use a logarithmic scale rather than a linear scale. This results in a more natural slider.
• Deselect curves when changing the active layer.
• Fixed a bug relating to border colors and gradients.
• Selected curves now appear with an animated black and white outline.
• Marque and lasso are now two separate buttons, instead of modifying the same button.
• Now when selecting a curve the curve edit screen is not displayed automatically. Instead, the curves that were selected appear with the animated outline. When this happens, a new Curve icon is shown on the tool palette. When tapping this new button, a contextual menu appears with two options: Edit Shape, and Curve Details, described in the next two items. This curve button is displayed only when whole curves are selected. When only points are selected, dots are automatically added to the selected points, and the select button must be manually disabled in order to move the dots. This is because the user may want to do another select to select more or different points.
• Edit Shape adds small circles to the selected curve(s), one circle for each point. The select button used to make the selection is automatically deactivated, so the circles can be dragged to change the shape of the curve. To complete this mod, tap the select button again and select a blank portion of the screen.
• Curve Details displays the same screen that was automatically displayed in the previous version of the app.
• If the user taps the edit button on the layers list to edit a layer and taps delete there to delete the layer, previously, there was no active layer. Now the top layer becomes the active layer.
• Now if a select button is deactivated, the marquee or curve indicating the selection area is removed.

Version 2.3

• Added keystrokes to save commands.
• When a hardware keyboard is attached to an iPad, long pressing the command key was displaying a context menu. That has been disabled.
• Layers can now be reordered by simply dragging them to the desired position.
• New icon for projects.
• Project-related functions now use a context menu from the new projects icon tap.
• Two new icons, one for move - one for copy. These icons are hidden until at least one curve is selected. To select a curve, tap down on the select button and tap up outside it. A red border appears if done correctly. If the option key is also set or the option key is pressed on a hardware keyboard, multiple curves can be selected.
• As before when one or more curves are selected, a select edit screen is displayed. When this screen is dismissed, the selected curves have a black and white dashed outline. When this dashed outline is present, the curves can be moved around. If the copy function is used, a copy of the selected curves is made first, then the selection changes to the copy. After the copy is created, the move button is activated so that the user can move the copied curves.
• If the delete button is tapped while curves are selected, those curves are deleted.

Version 2.2

• Selection tool toggles between marquee and lasso.
• Enable multi-select. On a Mac, or with an attached keyboard, press the shift key to add to the selection. With Apple Pencil, if the select button is active, double-tap the pencil to toggle between single selection and multi-selection. When multi-selection is enabled, a + symbol is added to the select tool button. Lasso selections and marquee selections can be mixed.
• Undo and Redo now trigger saving the project.
• When dots are displayed along a curve, the first dot is now shown in green. This is relevant for gradients, since the default gradient fill is oriented according to the first point in the curve.
• Fixed a bug where dots in a selection are not cleared when changing the active layer.
• In the curve edit screen there is now a button to set the layer color from the curve. This will then be the color applied to new curves on the layer.
• Change the swatch design used by the dropper. It's back to a square instead of a diamond.
• Scroll using arrow keys on Mac and iPad with connected keyboard.

Version 2.1.1 (iPad - version 2.1 Mac)

• Change message when SVG export completes.
• Fixed bug with SVG export where open curves added after gradient curves are rendered as gradients in the SVG file.

Version 2.1 (Mac and iPad)

• Fixed issue where image is not loaded from saved project.
• Fixed issue with screenshot in color picker tool not displaying properly when alpha is reduced below 1.
• Added a web view to display instructions website.
• Fixed issue where gradient swatch is not updated if colors are changes.
• When adding a new layer, it is now added above the active layer.
• Previously when setting a secondary color a gradient was drawn only when drawing an open curve. Now it is drawn for a closed curve as well.
• Fixed bug where curve edits were not reflected in the project after leaving the edit screen.
• Fixed an issue where there is no image to start the project.
• The existence of a secondary color is what makes a curve have a gradient. So the secondary color is now cleared when selecting a new primary color. This way closed, open, and gradient curves can be combined on the same layer.
• Fixed an issue where open curves are drawn when the open/closed tool is set to closed.
• Added zoom reset feature on Mac. ⌘0
• Zoom button removed from Mac version.
• Display an alert if the dropper tool is used when there is no image.
• Pinch gesture disabled for Mac version. Mac users should use command +/-/0 instead or the menu.
• Dots are now redisplayed after zooming using the keyboard.

Version 2.0 for Mac released 11 September 2023

• Added undo to simplify feature.
• Added ability for gradients to have borders.
• Save project when points are moved.
• Added ability to duplicate a point. In case simplify reduces points excessively, some points can be added this way in order to manually adjust the curve shape (this functionality is activated with the option button - if the option button is active, moving a point adds a point).
• Color swatches Added to curve edit screen.
• Replaced HSV color picker.
• Added tooltip to color swatch.
• Set secondary color when option button is active.
• Border color is editable in curve edit screen.
• Added border color to saved project.
• Bug fixes.

Version 2.0 for iPad released 3 September 2023

• Copyright and version details added to initial help screen.
• Color model changed in project file to support gradients.
• Gradient fill feature added.
• Update SVG export to support gradients and masks.
• Added gradient support to curve edit screen.
• Added dots representing gradient endpoints so gradient curve can be edited.
• Change app icon from painted bunting picture to sunflower picture.
• Update website

Version 1.7 for iPad released 21 August 2023

• Fixed frame when there is no image.
• More tooltips.
• Bug fixes.
• Line preview changed from diagonal line to a zigzag.
• Some labels renamed.
• Sync added to layer edit screen so that updates apply to all curves.
• Added a help view.
• Saved projects can now handle layer color and mask flag. In previous versions, although masks worked, they did not save to the project file, so when the project was re-opened, the mask had to be set up again.
• Added simplify tool to eliminate superfluous points in a curve or multiple curves.
• Selection is now cleared when changing active layer.
• Split curve feature added.

Version 1.6 for Mac released 11 August 2023

• Added curve merge funcion.
• Move using keystrokes.
• Bottom image layer always exists now even if there is no image.
• Added tooltips for Mac.

Version 1.5 for iPad and Mac released 04 August 2023

• Change where projects are stored.
• Hide find button if there is no connected pencil.
• Added an extension to add thumbnails in the Files app.
• Added support for Mac Catalyst.
• Print option added.
• Added ability to toggle visibility of the layers table when option button is active.

Version 1.0 for iPad released 17 July 2023

• Initial release is on iPad only.