Black Ink for iOS 2.3: Solving Status, Puzzle Notes, and More

March 2nd, 2025

Black Ink for iOS 2.3 is now available on the App Store

This update is jam-packed with new features, usability improvements, and bug fixes. Two of the most fundamental changes to the app are the addition of support for viewing solving status, and for viewing puzzle notes, so I’ll describe those in a bit more detail.

Solving Status

Anybody who uses Black Ink regularly will be familiar with the process of going into the app, tapping your favorite puzzle source, and trying to determine whether there’s something new to solve. With no indication of what was new, or already solved, it could be a bit frustrating. But now, Black Ink will not only show you the date for each puzzle, but also whether you’ve started solving or completed it. Tap the round button in the upper-right corner to filter all the completed puzzles out of sight:

Screenshot of crossword puzzle list on iOS screen, severa, items show indicators of partial or full completion
Screenshot of crossword puzzle list on iOS screen, all completed items are hidden and only unsolved or partially solved items remain

Puzzle Notes

This update also adds support for viewing puzzle notes, and hiding solved puzzles. Coming along for free with the “hiding solved puzzles” feature is an indicator in the puzzle list that shows whether a given puzzle is
e the ability to hide solved puzzles and view puzzle notes, but the update also includes all the following changes:

Screenshot of Black Ink showing a prompt asking whether you'd like to read the notes provided by the puzzle's author.

Everything Else

On top of those main user-facing features, there’s a long list of improvements, big and small that are included in this update:

  • Redesigned “Actions” menu with standard menu interface
  • Added a menu item for opening Settings to the Actions menu
  • Clue text is now “Smartened” for prettier quotes, dashes, and ellipses (“”, ‘’, —, …)
  • Puzzle notes can now be viewed when available for a puzzle
  • Puzzle date and completion status are now shown along with the puzzle title
  • Puzzle lists can be filtered to show only puzzles that have not been completed
  • A progress indicator is now shown after clicking the download puzzle button
  • Overlay images are now drawn on top of the puzzle grid contents and clue numbers
  • Restored header and footer sections on printed pages
  • Multi-character answers are now inset slightly more from the edge of the square
  • Fixed a bug that could cause overlay images to draw outside the bounds of the puzzle grid
  • Fixed a bug that caused special answer entry to sometimes fill adjacent squares
  • Improved performance when loading a list with lots of puzzles
  • Improved performance of puzzle printing

If you enjoy Black Ink, please consider writing a review or rating the app on the App Store, and spreading the word on social media! Thanks for your support.

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