Two of our most popular developer tools were updated this week. It’s not just our website that’s getting the love!
xScope
Our primary focus with xScope version 4.7 was to update the screen recording code. Alerts in the Sonoma beta gave us pause and we noticed an increase in crashes with the older APIs. There were even significant bumps as we replaced code.
Most tools use the current screen image in one way or another: the Loupe to magnify the pixels and sample colors, Dimensions to determine the distance between interface elements, and even things like the Crosshair automatically adjust contrast depending on where your mouse is located.
This modernization effort wasn’t easy, but we were able to increase the speed of the tools and the app got more reliable. And that inspired us to keep going!
Measuring the screen with Dimensions was redesigned with a new algorithm that takes color perception into account. Detection on subtle patterns, gradients, materials, and other modern UI design is much better now and and it’s sensitivity is much easier to tweak with a new Settings UI.
We also spent time improving support for Dark Mode, adding new reticle modes for the Loupe, making it possible to delete Guides with a shortcut, and much more.
All-in-all, it’s a great update to an app that just had it’s 20th birthday!
WorldWideWeb
Our newest developer tool also got an important update.
We use WorldWideWeb for all our HTML/CSS/JavaScript development. Whether it’s a static page or something dynamically generated with PHP and Rails, automatic refresh saves everyone time as we implement and tune a site.
With a major redesign of our home page, we used WorldWideWeb a lot. And that’s when we started noticing a crash every few hours. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to these failures, except that they all happened on the web server’s background threads.
So we started running the app with Xcode’s thread sanitizer enabled. And within a couple of hours, we identified several data races between the main UI thread and the web server’s background work. If you haven’t run your app with this tool, you’re probably missing some bugs that are notoriously hard to track down, but relatively easy to fix.
Both updates are FREE. If you’re not familiar with either app, a free trial of xScope can be downloaded from the website and free versions of WorldWideWeb are available on the iOS and Mac App Stores. Give them a try today!
Someone recently was excited to learn we offered design services to clients – something we’ve been doing for over 25 years and is a significant part of our business. It was clearly time for a refresh of iconfactory.com so we could highlight that aspect of our work.
In tackling the redesign, we started with the very same process we use with clients and our own apps – design first, code later. This approach lets us experiment with the design quickly and easily before a single line of code is written. Throughout the entire process we kept in mind that the site needed to be responsive and work well on a wide range of devices.
The new Iconfactory has a singular focus. We’ve been leaders in the design industry for decades and the new site puts our attention to detail, our award-winning apps, and our extensive development services at center stage. In short, we want to help you build the best apps you can, and whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, or an indie developer like us, we’re here for you. The new site explains why we’re the ones you should call on, and it does it with plain language and gorgeous examples.
So, this is us, tooting our own horn. We invite you to explore the all-new Iconfactory.com and see what we have to offer. No other company has been helping designers and developers as long we have. Isn’t it time we worked together?
It’s been a little over a year since we launched Wallaroo and to celebrate we’re offering a special discount for new customers. Taking advantage of this sale is easy. Just head to the App Store by opening this link on your iPhone or iPad to receive a 35% discount off the annual subscription price. And don’t wait – this offer is only good until January 19th!
In 2023, Wallaroo subscribers received hundreds of new wallpapers, each designed specifically for iPhone, iPad, and macOS. These joined hundreds of others from previous years with no ads or sketchy schemes – just great wallpapers.
There’s never been a better way to customize your screens than Wallaroo. We hope you’ll discover the fun as we bring new and exciting wallpapers to screens near you throughout 2024!
What a year! Right off the bat, we could tell that the new year wouldn’t be pulling any punches as one of our most beloved and important applications, Twitterrific, was forced into early retirement by Elon Musk. Last January seems like a lifetime ago, but the sting of having to shutter Ollie, and the revenue that sustained our company, still hurts to this day. Perhaps the only thing worse than discontinuing the app has been watching helplessly as Twitter, or rather X, has mutated into a dark shadow of its former self.
Focusing On the Future
Early in 2023 we decided to no longer be an active part of Twitter, and made the move to Mastodon for connecting with our fans and clients. That was a great decision and we’ve enjoyed watching the community on Mastodon grow and flourish. We invite you to follow us on Mastodon, but we also have a presence on Threads as well. Needless to say you can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and Patreon.
Of course, we couldn’t let all that drama distract us from bringing fun goodies to your screens this year. Here’s what else we’ve been up to:
Linea Love
Let’s start with Linea, our pick-up-and-draw digital sketchbook for the iPad. In January we released v4.2, offering fun new features like Organic Ink to give your drawings a more rustic appearance. We followed that up with the more recent v4.3 update that added easy textures, custom thumbnails, and more.
The year also brought new Linea Sketch videos, including Ged’s pixel-clicking tutorial to help you get your feet wet creating retro pixel-clicked icons and artwork. Head over to Linea’s YouTube channel to check them out and subscribe for future videos.
The Name of the Game
Back in May, we treated fans of our fast-paced puzzler Frenzic: Overtime to a chapter filled with all-new challenges and strategies while (once again) attempting to save the world for human and robot kind. We’re currently working on the final installment on Apple Arcade, and boy you won’t want to miss this one!
Frenzic wasn’t the only game in town this year. In August we released Ollie’s Arcade, a collection of retro-inspired hand-held games that charmed players with its seriously mindless fun.
The app comes with Ollie Soars as a free-to-play game, with Snake and Tranquility Touchdown as one-time purchases. There are no subscriptions, no ads, and no in-game coins to buy. We hope to add new games to Ollie’s Arcade in the future, so be sure to show your support and download on the App Store today!
Triode Gets A Tune-Up
September’s release of Triode 2 was a great update to our easy-to-use cross-platform Internet radio app. We introduced a host of new OS features including interactive widgets to control the app from your Home Screen, support for Standby Mode, full support for Shortcuts, improved integration with Apple Music, a convenient sleep timer, and more.
Using Triode with CarPlay is now easier than ever.
The release’s visual improvements were notable and included new music category icons, a richer and more vibrant appearance, improved CarPlay layout, and controls to identify steaming music with Shazam. If you love music, be sure to get the free download of Triode on your platform of choice and see what everyone’s been listening to.
Of Widgets and Wallpapers
Wallaroo 1.4 launched in September with cool and customizable Home Screen widgets. We also improved Wallaroo’s handy shortcut for setting wallpapers to work without muss or fuss.
We lovingly create every wallpaper by hand, fine tune them for each platform, and often create multiple variants. Subscribe to Wallaroo to join in on fun, or even better, join our Patreon for bonus wallpapers, sneak peeks, Discord access, and more exclusive goodies!
The Next Adventure
The year ahead promises to bring some amazing new offerings.
We’re putting the finishing touches on an all new version of the Iconfactory website, with a focus on our design and development services. The new site is the latest in a long line that will bolster the services side of our business and introduce us to new clients.
A Kickstarter is also in the works for an innovative new product that we hope will surprise and delight you. We can’t say much yet, but with your support, we hope it becomes our next big thing. Be sure to follow us here and on social media for a heads up when it launches early in 2024!
In the meantime, we’re off to rest up and recharge our batteries. We’ll be spending time with family and friends, watching our favorite movies and TV shows, and wishing all of you the best this life has to offer. We’ve been blessed and honored to serve you all for over 25 years and we honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. Stay tuned, be safe, and Happy Holidays!
To say that product has been a success would be an understatement. It’s been an essential part of a workflow for tens of thousands of folks. It’s also an app that has evolved with our desktop environments over the years: it predates responsive web design, Retina displays, deep color spaces, and even the iPhone with mobile design. A lot has changed over the years.
Back in 2002, the Iconfactory was a huge fan of Wolfgang Ante’s Screen Tools. As people who fretted over pixel level details, we relied heavily on this suite of utilities. And, of course, we wanted the tools to do more. It made sense for us to combine forces and come up with a new product: we entered into a partnership where ARTIS Software would handle the development and the Iconfactory would do the design, documentation, and marketing.
ARTIS Software got to work during the winter of 2003 in a beautiful place: a sunny apartment in the south of France where the balcony door was always open. Yes, it was Nice.
Wolfgang was joined by his brother Joachim who was building a game engine for a new Mac OS X title. The Ante brothers worked side-by-side on their respective projects while collaborating with colleagues in Copenhagen, Iceland, California, and North Carolina. An early example of how remote work changed everything.
It also turned out that both of them were working on tools for designers and developers, because that winter’s work produced a tool called Unity in addition to xScope.
xScope blossomed in this creative environment. These screenshots of the Loupe show the transformation that took place during 2003:
xScope Loupe in January (left) and November (right) of 2003.
The pinstripes were gone and replaced by a sleek new interface. It’s not often that you revisit a design from the distant past and think it looks good and modern. We are all still extremely proud of this work.
The next step was to give this new product a name. After several weeks of trial and error we landed on “xScope”. The “X” worked for both the operating system and the “examination” done by the tool. All the assets and websites were put in place and we got ready to launch with our unique tool with a unique name.
And then this little company from Cupertino decided to rename their Project Builder tool. Our unique name wasn’t so unique anymore: at least we used a lowercase “x”!
xScope Loupe running on macOS Sonoma in 2023.
As we mentioned above the functionality of xScope has evolved over the years. The screenshot above shows what the Loupe looks like in the version we’re currently working on (with improvements for macOS Sonoma and beyond).
The app’s icon has also changed considerably. Many of these variations were driven by the desktop’s own evolution. xScope has been through macOS’s pinstripe, brushed metal, translucency, and flat phases. You can probably guess the era for each one shown below:
xScope icons for versions 1.0 through 4.0, and a tasty breakfast.
And if you’re having trouble picking the era for “Eggscope”, don’t worry, you didn’t miss macOS’s awkward teenage years. It’s a long-time Easter egg (hold down the Option key until the Preferences Settings window opens, then pick EGGSCOPE DUH).
To celebrate this anniversary, we’re putting xScope on sale for a week. Use the promo code 20FOR20 to get the app for only $20 (a whopping 60% discount!). If you’re a professional developer or designer, and don’t have these tools at your disposal, now’s the perfect time to fix that!
If there’s still a macOS desktop in 2043, we all hope that xScope will be running on it. Here’s to the future! 🍻
The latest update to Linea Sketch is now available! From textures to thumbnail cropping, version 4.3 is packed with clever new features to make sketching on your iPad easier and more fun than ever.
Textures Have Never Been Easier
We’ve created a variety of pre-defined seamless textures to let you quickly add visual interest and depth to your artwork. Open the options panel on any layer and tap the Textures icon to get going. Select from a range of choices including abstract patterns, architectural materials, crosshatching, and more. Then simply draw or paint a color into the layer with any tool. It’s as easy as that.
Side-shade a texture with the Pencil Tool or use the Watercolor Brush for weathered, rustic effects. Or use Clear Ink to erase the selected texture from your artwork. The Textures feature is super flexible and even works with Transparency Masking or the Fill Tool.
If you want to learn more about how to use textures in Linea Sketch, be sure to head on over to our YouTube channel. We’ve created a Textures Basics tutorial that gets you up and running quickly with Textures in Linea and covers what kinds of things are possible with this great new feature. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel while you’re there!
Canvas Resizing
You can now change the overall size and aspect ratio of existing sketches. Open any sketch, then tap More Actions (⋯) and Edit Canvas Size. Adjust the canvas based on screen size, aspect ratio, or use a custom setting to set whatever proportions you need. This comes in really handy when you want to continue working on a sketch on the iPad that was originally created on iPhone or vice versa.
Thumbnail Framing
With Linea Sketch 4.3 you’re no longer stuck with a thumbnail of your entire sketch. Now you can easily customize each sketch’s appearance in the Project view. Simply open a sketch and zoom into the portion of the drawing you want to focus on. Once you close the sketch, the thumbnail in the Project View will reflect this new framing for the sketch. It’s great for showing detail or highlighting a particular portion of a sketch in the Project View. Creating custom thumbnails enables you to decide how your work should appear and let’s you highlight the parts that are important.
Get Linea and Get Sketching!
Linea Sketch 4.3 includes many other improvements and fixes, including smoother results with the Blending Tool, improved autosave functionality, and more. Visit Linea’s version history page for the complete list of what’s new, and then head on over to the App Store and grab the FREE download of Linea Sketch. It’s where your ideas begin!
We’ve been working on a compatibility update for xScope on macOS Sonoma for the past few weeks. The current version has been fine through the beta release, so we’ve been making minor tweaks and adding some performance improvements – certainly nothing urgent.
With last week’s release of macOS Sonoma 14.1 (on October 25th) things changed significantly. A new bug in the window server causes clicks in some of xScope’s tools to be “flipped”. This affects the Rulers, Guides, and Frames tools.
For example, when you click on the measurement arm of the Ruler, nothing is reported to xScope. Only clicking in the empty space below the arm will generate events. And since these events are “in the void” the app doesn’t know what to do with them.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a workaround for this issue. It’s a low-level bug and window server optimizations aren’t telling us about the clicks because it thinks we don’t need them.
If you are currently running macOS 14.0 or earlier (including Ventura), things are fine. If xScope is an important part of your workflow, DO NOT UPDATE to macOS Sonoma 14.1. (See below.)
If you have already updated, the only thing you can do at the moment is wait it out. We have submitted a bug report (FB13320473) with a sample project that should help Apple’s engineers get to the bottom of the problem quickly.
We’ll update this blog post as we learn more.
Please help us spread the word about this issue. If you know someone else who uses xScope, please give them the heads up. Thanks!
Updated November 1, 2023: This bug also affects Photoshop. If you turn off the application frame, clicks go through the toolbar. This video shows the behavior. Developers at Adobe are aware of the issue.
Hot on the heels of a major new release, there’s a new version of Triode with two big new improvements. Our Internet radio app just keeps getting more perfect with Shazam and data management!
Triode does its best to figure out what song is playing, but if you’ve ever been listening to a station without metadata, you might have used the Shazam app to identify a track. But doing so was awkward and didn’t work all the time (AirPods!)
We’re happy to announce that Triode now has Shazam built-in. On iOS, macOS, and tvOS, there is a button in the Now Playing view that lets you start song identification. Any matches are displayed and added to your track history for later reference. Super easy, and super quick!
A reorganized control panel on iOS lets you Shazam, start a sleep timer, or view a track history.
Also new in this release is the ability to manage your data. Triode has always put the customer first with our focus on keeping your data private. We’re now extending that philosophy with tools that let you take charge of your favorite stations and track history.
In the iOS settings, you’ll see a new Manage Your Data button that lets you extract the data. On macOS, you use the File and Station in the menu bar to perform the same operations. (This feature isn’t supported on tvOS because there’s no sharing or file management.)
The exported data uses a standard JSON format that can be processed by Shortcuts, scripts, or other applications. The export file can also be used to restore your favorites if something goes wrong with iCloud.
There are many other minor fixes and improvements in this release. See the product website for a full list of changes. And if this is the first time you’re hearing of Triode, check out the website and get your free download for iOS, macOS, and tvOS. Rock on!
On macOS, we added support for a reverse proxy. This lets you use WorldWideWeb as a frontend web server for a backend development environment. In simpler terms, this lets you use the auto refresh feature with code written in Ruby, PHP, or whatever framework you’re using.
We’ve used it for development on our own sites, and it’s pretty great to edit some code, hit Save, and have the browser automatically refresh and run that new code.
Every development environment is different, so make sure to check out the Proxy Configuration section of the app’s documentation (click the ? button on the main window). There are a bunch of recommendations and tips that will help you get the most out of this new feature.
On iOS, we added some Advanced Settings that were previously only available on macOS. This includes the ability to adjust the sound level while in the background (it can now be quiet or turned off completely). No more beeping while showing off your work on the iPad!
To make these changes, look for “WorldWideWeb” in the System Settings app. The app’s documentation explains how these advanced settings can be used (About > Product Manual > About WorldWideWeb).
Get your updates for iOS or macOS today. To learn more about the product, and how auto refresh makes working with the web so much more pleasant, check out the WorldWideWeb website.
October rears its spooky, pumpkin-spiced head once again and with it comes our favorite way to flex our creative muscles – Inktober. The annual event encourages artists, both amateur and professional alike, to pick up a pencil, brush or stylus and channel their creativity each day in the month of October. It’s a great way to express and challenge yourself as we doodle and sketch our way through the official list of prompts.
This will be the fifth year we’ve contributed to the cause by creating a set of handy templates for Linea Sketch that outlines the prompts for each of the 31 days in Inktober. This year’s list of templates is ready for download and broken out by page numbers that contain the prompt for that day’s drawing. The templates are perfect for those who like to have a uniform set of sketches for the entire month or who want to stay tight and focused on their daily creations.
As they are every year, Linea’s Inktober 2023 templates are completely free, easy to set up, and should quickly get you on your artistic way. A few years ago we created a short video tutorial on how to get the templates into Linea Sketch for the iPad that will help guide you through the process this year as well. Be sure to check it out.
Be sure to tag your posts on social media with #LineaSketch – we always share our favorite drawings over on Linea’s Instagram during the month of October so it’s a great way to step into the lime light! Apply new screen protectors and charge those Apple Pencils because October will be here before you know it!
