So if you are running Tiger and ChocoFlop always answers “This doesn’t seem to be a valid ImageMagick folder :-(” you just need to install X11. It’s on your Tiger install DVD. Apple didn’t find it useful to post it on the web.

In the next release I’ll make the error message clearer.

- Text edition doesn’t crash anymore and should be faster altogether
- Fixes a HUGE memory problem with previous version when updating text
- Overlay HUD window has correct position on start and resizes correctly
- Text layers keep ‘autolabel’ attribute when duplicated
- Select by color min-preview isn’t draggable (out of viewable area) anymore
- Save for web: preview window limit panning in a correct way (fixes problems when image is slightly smaller than view)
- Save for web: return key hits the ’save’ button
- dcRaw export menu works again (messed it up in the previous release and it called ’save for web’).
- If you have ImageMagick installed with MacPorts it should work (without having to download a separate package). I couldn’t test it though (I get a wrong library error, but I don’t know much about macports).
- Native documents are now saved with appropriate QuickLook preview and thumbnail files (you have to resave your existing documents obviously). Flat.tiff has dissapeared and was replaced by QuickLook/Preview.tiff

That’s it, please update, enjoy and report bugs!.

PS: Despite the fact that the screenshot used as an example for QuickLook uses an image from Agony, an Amiga game famous for its then groundbreaking graphics, ChocoFlop does not yet support HalfBrite mode. But you can reduce your image colors to 64. I just don’t guarantee that the last 32 colors in the palette will have values that are exactly half the values in the first 32

Changes:

• Initialization fixes (creating images on mac mini doesn’t seem to crash, for one)
• Web export now shows progress
• Web export now shows ideal numbers of colors (if under 256), with a button to set it as current
• Web export: more dithering modes available
• Some small visual fixes here and there (especially there)

As usual, please update, test, and report your wonderful experience. Or other experiences.

Here’s a new update with a feature that’s been missing for long: web export with live compression preview. All powered by the great command line tools ImageMagick and AdvComp. ChocoFlop still only works in true color but you can now export and get the smallest possible files. If you are trying to get PNG files to get as small as possible, for example because like me you’re into mobile apps, then ChocoFlop will now be able to do the job. If you find a combination that gives you smaller PNG files I’d like to hear about it.

Since all the compression, quantization and dithering magic is done by ImageMagick, you’ll need ImageMagick installed. I thought about bundling if with the app but it’s ten times bigger than the app itself. So instead the app just tells you to download it and unzip it in on your disk. Maybe in a future version it will be able to download and unzip it automatically.

I also built an universal binary of advpng (part of the AdvanceComp project), which you can get here if you want to use it for other purposes. It’s also bundled in the app package now, much like dcRaw was previously. (Merci Gilles pour le build PowerPC ^_^)

Changes for this version:

• Save for web feature
• Clicking on the left area of the cancel button no longer enables/disables live preview
• No more ugly artifacts while resizing the window

As usual, update, enjoy and export lots of images.

PS: I have noticed that the current version of ChocoFlop seems to have serious issues on Intel cards (again…). And by issues I mean trying to create 1280×1024 document would just do nothing. I’ll try to fix this maybe tomorrow when I have time to play with this on my mac mini.

• Text can now be scaled correctly by dragging the handles. That makes it kinda usable (finally!)
• The color picker now displays a zoomed version in the lower left corner. Makes it easier to pick the color.
• Picking a color only on active layer on a text layer now works.
• Magic wand and color picker fixed when picking only active layer (picked dull colors bug)
• Text rendering should be faster and leave less artifacts (white borders or text rendered twice)
• Handles are now smaller by default, with still the ability to enable the large ones using the View menu.
• Betas now expire with a warning but let the user 30 days to update before really expiring.

The app is now 100kb smaller although it has a few new images, never hurts! So be happy and update now, it won’t waste your bandwidth.

Thanks go to Lon from MacUpdate for pointing this out

- Tablet pressure works again and looks better than before
- Magic wand seems to be (finally?) stable now even if you click around like a mad man
- Selection can be dragged while using the magic wand
- Third parts filters (noise industries) work again
- Filters are better organized in menus (Apple’s filters on top with a separation)
- Apple’s private filters do not show up by default anymore
- Enabling filters (apple’s private or transition) is now immediate (no relaunch)
- About box is less ugly.

That’s about it. There are big issues with text resizing but I really needed to release today since the beta 0.75 expired! I’ll get on this another day I guess. Good night!

PS: If anyone downloaded the 0.76 version that appeared for a few minutes, please just update again. I had forgotten to increase the expiration date.

I’ll clean some of the remaining mess up tomorrow. It’s a bit late here.

Thanks go to Alexander for pointing out that the site got hacked. I don’t look at the website that often and I hadn’t noticed

One of the good things of the old version is that I had modified the install to ask for an additional field when posting comment… now I am back to the good old days and I am getting 20 spam comments per hour in my e-mail. Sigh.

Update: Recaptcha solved this for me (I noticed askismet was bundled with Wordpress 2.x now but I still think recaptcha is an interesting use of captchas.

Well, what should I say. You get the update and I get some sleep? Fine.

Please update and report your experiences.

The next big thing I see is to get filters to work equally as fast when masked (currently a big image plus a mask on a filter is very slow, much slower than the same filter without mask). It seems that it renders the full resolution each time when there’s a mask.

But I guess I’ll think about that tomorrow, given the time here. Good night!