Black Ink 2.4 for Mac is now available on the Black Ink site and has been submitted to the Mac App Store.

This update features Quick Look support, improved rendering of punctuation in clue text, and a revamped print panel with new options and improvements to existing ones.

Quick Look

Quick Look is Apple’s brand name for the wonderful feature that allows you, among other things, to quickly examine the contents of many files by simply pressing the space bar in the Finder. Apple provides Quick Look “plug-ins” for the basic types including most images, text files, PDFs, as well as custom plug-ins for many of its own private formats. But Apple also allows 3rd party apps such as Black Ink to provide custom previews for a better user experience. Starting with Black Ink 2.4, pressing the space bar on a puzzle file in the Finder will present a printout-like rendition of the puzzle including the grid and all clues:

Print Improvements

A substantial revision of the print panel was inspired by a customer’s request to have the clues printed at a larger size, for a person with low vision. As I thought through the workflow that would be best suited for such a task, I realized the app would benefit generally from the ability to specify “size priorities” when printing a puzzle. Now, you can specify that the grid or the clues be printed at smaller or larger sizes than the default. There is also a new option to specify that the grid should be printed on as separate page:

Notice as well the sliders for “Ink Saver”. Black Ink has had a feature for years to save ink by making the pure black squares of a puzzle a lighter shade of grey. Now I’ve expanded that functionality so that the clue text as well can be printed in a lighter color.

Smart Punctuation

I’ve always considered one of Black Ink’s primary features to be the way it exalts the aesthetic beauty of crossword puzzles. To this end, I have spent hours, days, weeks, heck, years finessing tiny details in way the grid is rendered, the placement of letters in the squares, etc. One thing that’s bugged me for a long time is the fact that most online crossword puzzles do not use “smart” punctuation. By this I primarily mean curly quotes and apostrophes:

To most people, this is subtle, but I’m sure the “dumb quotes” have driven a lot of people crazy over the years. To make sure I did this right, I enlisted the help of my friend John Gruber, who shared the logical core of his Smarty Pants script, which I now apply to all clue text upon rendering it.

Other Improvements

As usual, there’s a grab bag of smaller changes that came along for the ride with this update. Have a look at the complete list of changes for this release, and maybe you’ll find something you like:

• Quick Look support for puzzle files
• “Smartened” clue text for prettier quotes, dashes, and more (“”, ‘’, —, …)
• Printing improvements
  • New: Ink Saver option for text darkness in addition to grid darkness
  • New: Sizing options to specify larger or smaller grid and clues
  • New: Option to specify that the grid should print to a separate page
  • Restore header and footer sections on printed pages
  • Fix a crash that could occur when printing puzzle clues separately from the puzzle grid
• In Dark Mode, the “white” puzzle squares are now a little lighter gray, for better contrast
• Added a setting allowing automatic movement to next word after filling a word
• Added a setting to configure the space bar to switch puzzle direction
• Multi-character answers are now drawn inset slightly more from the edge of the square
• Overlay images are now drawn on top of the puzzle grid contents and clue numbers
• Improved error handling for scenarios where an app like TripMode is blocking network access
• Fix a bug that could cause overlay images to draw outside the bounds of the puzzle grid
• Escape key now causes About Box and Settings windows to close

If you’re a fan of Black Ink for iOS, stay tuned for an update to that app which will include some of the enhancements listed above as well.

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

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