Black Ink 2.2.2 is now available on the Black Ink site and has been submitted for approval on the Mac App Store.

This update is a quick fix to yesterday’s 2.2.1 update which addresses a crash that affected some users running macOS 11 or earlier.

Here is the complete list of changes for this release:

• Fix a crashing bug when opening NYT puzzles on some Macs
• Fix drawing of clue text with superscript and subscript characters

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

Black Ink 2.2.1 is now available on the Black Ink page and the Mac App Store.

This update includes a variety of usability and appearance improvements:

• Color preferences can now be reset to default values
• Printed puzzles now include any formatting, e.g. italics, bold, that are specified for clues
• Puzzles based on east coast US timezone should now be available at the appropriate time in other time zones
• Fix a bug in 2.2 that caused kerning of text to be disabled in the clue lists
• Fix a bug that caused the app to sometimes become unresponsive while handling formatted clue text
• Fix auto-shrinking of clue font size to fit longer clues without clipping them
• Fix a variety of cosmetic glitches that affected older versions of macOS
• Fix a bug that prevented clues and grid numbers from being printed by default
• The puzzle timer no longer restarts automatically if a reopened puzzle is already solved
• Checking a puzzle that is complete and correct now re-displays completion panel

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

Recently WordPress.com revised its pricing structure, switching from a complex variety of paid plans to a simpler approach in which users can either stick with a free plan, or pay $15/month for a variety of upgraded features.

Among the features now offered at the $15/month level are plugins and custom themes, which used to be included only with the more expensive “business” plans. This is a great change for users, but it exposes a huge number of WordPress.com users to an authentication issue that previously only affected the higher-cost plans.

The problem: WordPress.com’s implementation of the WordPress XMLRPC API doesn’t accept standard WordPress.com “Application Passwords” for these updated blogs. Application passwords are the unique, generated passwords that you must use for 3rd party apps such as MarsEdit when you have enabled Two-Step Authentication on a blog.

Luckily there is a workaround. It requires deliving into the legacy “WP-Admin” interface of the affected site, and generating san application password in the standard WordPress back-end, independently from WordPress.com’s own higher-level interface.

In light of the increased number of users who will be needing to figure negotiate this change, I updated the Red Sweater help pages to more fully document the process for generating application passwords, whether you’re on a free WordPress.com plan, or one of the newly unified paid plans. Read more here:

Red Sweater Help: WordPress.com Authentication

It would be great if WordPress.com fixed their XMLRPC API support so that standard WordPress.com application passwords worked on upgraded sites. It’s always been a little ironic that the user experience for paying WordPress.com users, in this one respect anyway, is worse than it is for those with free sites.

Black Ink 2.2 is now available on the Black Ink site and has been submitted to the Mac App Store for review.

This update features an all-new calendar based interface for selecting the puzzle to open and solve:

By default, the puzzle browser will always default to selecting the most recent date for a publication that has not been downloaded already. So for folks who prefer the old behavior of always just opening the “next puzzle that hasn’t been downloaded”, it should have the same behavior if you ignore the calendar altogether.

This update also includes changes to the puzzle format so that Black Ink can accommodate advanced features of New York Times puzzles, including shaded squares and formatted text in clues. Some puzzles italicize text or use special characters to add nuances to the puzzle. Now Black Ink will faithfully represent these in the puzzle window!

For folks who prefer to run their system in Dark or Light mode, but would prefer to solve puzzles in the other appearance mode, there’s a new preference for selecting the preferred apperance. There are also a ton of other changes and improvements in this update. Here’s the complete list:

• New calendar-based puzzle browser for easier download of historical puzzles
• Preferences now includes an option to run in Dark Mode, Light Mode, or System default
• New York Times enhancements:
  • Support for shaded squares (previously they were shown as circles)
  • Support for italics, bold, and special characters in clue text
• The app now prompts to open another puzzle after finishing with one
• Other fixes and enhancements
  • When solving, the delete key now moves to previous word if first letter is already blank
  • Improved performance opening next puzzle for sources that have a large number of previously downloaded puzzles
  • Improved drawing of checked/revealed/incorrect symbols especially on non-Retina displays
  • Puzzle answers are now considered correct even if they don’t match upper/lower case
  • Fix a crashing bug that could occur if right-clicking on the preview puzzle in Preferences
  • Improved the appearance of answer letters in cells, particular longer “Special Entry” answers
  • Elapsed solving time is now saved with the puzzle when closing/re-opening
  • The Copy Clue menu item no longer includes the clue number in the copied text
  • Fix a crash that could occur when entering special answers in some puzzles
  • Accessibility: puzzle chooser now hides puzzle source icons from VoiceOver

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