News

New 1.1 Paragraphic update released today, and it's a big one! New features for modifying vector paths, clipping and easier parametric generation, unlocking lots of new possibilities. Here's a video showing of some of the highlights!

Click below to find out more about the update and try it out for yourself at paragraphic.design!

After the 1.0 release a number of smaller updates with bug fixes and smaller improvements based on user feedback have been released, with the latest 1.0.4 being released today. You can read more about these updates in detail at the Paragraphic development blog.

Paragraphic is a new graphic design application combining traditional vector illustration tools with powerful parametric design features.

Click below to find out more and try it out for yourself at paragraphic.design!

A new maintenance update of Patternodes 3 has been released.

Fixes and improvements:

• Added support for abs() function to return absolut values in expression fields and math nodes.
• Improved connection mouse hover and click hit detection.
• Fixed a bug where you could tab into disabled value fields and get stuck there.
• Fixed an SVG path parsing issue with transforms of open subpaths.

After a period in early access the full 1.0 version of Paragraphic has now finally been released.

Paragraphic is a new graphic design application combining traditional vector illustration tools with powerful parametric design features.

Complex repetitions, gradients and patterns
Easily create and modify multi-level repetitions and patterns, applying flexible modifiers or randomization. Then just copy and paste the result as SVG vectors into your workflow.

Non-destructive randomization
Replace, reorder or transform repeated elements at random with full control to add interest to your design. All non-destructive with updates in real time to encourage gradual testing and tweaking.

Custom vector halftones
Create halftones, raster patterns and advanced vector gradients based on images or any other layer data.

Parametric design
Automate design tasks and create data visualizations using custom parameters and connections to control your designs.

Click below to find out more and try it out for yourself at paragraphic.design!

This new post on the Paragraphic development blog has a comparison between the node-based system in Patternodes and Paragraphic. This can hopefully also be a good introduction to this type of procedural design tools, and both Patternodes and Paragraphic. Or if you're already familiar with such tools explain a little more in detail how this is implemented in Paragraphic.

A new maintenance update of Patternodes 3 has been released.

Fixes and improvements:

• Fixed .pnds Finder file previews and thumbnails.
• Saves separate preview panel state in files and restores this on loading.
• Allow radial repeater to compensate for varying dynamic element pivot offsets.

A new small update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released, with a couple of little fixes and improvements.

Changes and improvements

• Fixes Finder .VRaster file previews and thumbnails on macOS 15 (Sequoia).
• Adds export option to export SVG files using px units instead of the default mm.

You can download and update from free from within Vectoraster, or download the new version via the product page linked below. If you've bought the app via the Apple App Store the update should be rolling out there as well today.

Another early access update of the paramtric veector design app Paragraphic has now been released, with many fixes and improvements:

Changes and improvements
– Added secondary change parameter to the Apply Function and Repeat Function nodes, allowing you to apply two changes using the same function.
– Added support for multi-line text in text layers.
– The Repeat Function now allows applying all the same change types as the Apply Function instead of just basic transforms.
– Changed value function Noise to get better range distribution, and adds an exponent parameter to allow adjusting the noise value distribution. Note: this will change the output generated by nodes using Noise function.
– The function graphs now show multiple function graphs when representing multiple different selected function parameters.
– Added a new shortcut button to add a node between two nodes in the layer node sequence.
– Made Repeat Area the primary grid repeater tool.
– UI performance optimizations.
– Changed a couple of node default parameter settings to produce nicer results.
– Turn off auto-center pivot option when converting shapes to free form path layers.
– Added new setting to open a new blank document at startup or not.
– The home screen (shown when no documents are open) now shows a list of recently opened documents.

Bug fixes
– Correctly handle negative index offsets in Apply Function node.
– Fix node “Apply to” mode sub-parameters not always being shown when appropriate.
– Fix apply change scale range parameters mirroring around 0 instead of 1 when set to mirror.
– Fix some cases of svg export text elements being misaligned.
– Correctly outline elements affected by edited nodes when multiple layer nodes are edited simultaneously due to multi-selection.

Click below to find out more and try it out for yourself at paragraphic.design!

After many years of ideas and planning, and a little more than a year of active development Paragraphic is now available in Early Access as of version 0.8.5.

This means you can download and try the application for free in a Trial mode with some limitations to exports. If you like it you can then buy a license that will enable you to remove the trial mode limitations, and of course support continued development towards the full 1.0 release.

Click below to find out more and try it out for yourself at paragraphic.design!

Development of the new cross-platform parametric 2d design app Paragraphic is has taken another big step towards release. While it's not feature complete yet the core features are now in place and a second testing phase with a larger group of testers has started.

You can follow the continued development of the app at the Paragraphic development blog. There you can also sign up if you're interested in being a tester, or just to get a notification when the app is eventually released.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released, with a new dynamic arc point shape and dynamic point offset transformation, along with a number of fixes and smaller improvements.

Changes and improvements

• New Arc point shape, for drawing dynamic arc shapes and lines with variable arc angle.
• New Point offset transform, a new variable X,Y offset available in Point transform that visually moves the points without changing the measuring location like the raster pattern distortions, allowing for more control of point alignment and making complex patterns.
• Improved license check redundancy for situations when the main license server is not working properly.

• Fixed disabling Point aspect scaling while set to vary dynamically would still apply aspect scale.
• Fixed Fill opacity parameter being shown even when it had no effect due to fill being turned off.
• Fixed colors loading incorrectly from some older format Vectoraster files.

You can download and update from free from within Vectoraster, or download the new version via the product page linked below. If you've bought the app via the Apple App Store the update should be rolling out there as well today.

A new maintenance update of Patternodes 3 has been released.

Fixes and improvements:

• Fixed Apply Function node and Apply Element node not working as expected in selected apply to modes.
• Improved license check redundancy for situations when the main license server is not working properly.

Following a server migration of lostminds.com we had some temporary issues making the website and license system unavailable for about an hour on August 22. The issues have now been resolved, but we're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

There is a backup system in place for the license system if lostminds.com is unreachable, but it seems that for the specific issue that happened this time this redirect didn't work as lostminds.com was still reachable and responding even though the databases were down. Hopefully we can use this experience to make the system more robust in case something like this happens again in the future.

Development of our new cross-platform parametric 2d design app Paragraphic is progressing more or less according to plan, and it's now getting close to a finished product. While it's not feature complete or stable enough for release all the major systems are now in place and a first testing phase with external testers is under way. Hopefully this will yield a lot of good feedback on what works and what doesn't.

You can follow the continued development of the app at the Paragraphic development blog. There you can also sign up if you're interested in being a tester, or just to get a notification when the app is eventually released.

A new update of Patternodes 3 has been released. This time it's a feature update with some new features for repeating and replacing elements in designs.

The inspiration to some of these new features comes from our new parametric design project Paragraphic, check it out at paragraphic.design and follow it's development if you're interested.

New features and improvements:

• New Repeat Function node, allowing you to repeat elements with a transformation similar to the Apply Function node. This makes it a lot more convenient to make some gradual scale or offset transforms and adds greater control.
• New Select from group option in the Replace node, allowing you to select the replacement element from an input group instead of using the entire group. This makes it much easier to make patterns with mixed elements without needing Element lists. Just connect all your elements to the replace node and set how to select the replacement from the group.
• Pack and Element info nodes now have an Ignore stroke option to get size and pack elements disregarding and stroke width.

• Fixed function period offsets still being applied even if the change periods option was unchecked.
• Change node apply to Single selection now works with negative offsets as well as positive.
• Fixed some macOS 14 UI layout issues.
• Improved export file writing error handling.
• Fixed some incorrect warnings in disabled nodes.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released, fixing some UI issues and restoring the use to dynamic values for some optional parameters.

Fixes and improvements:

• Fixes not being able to dynamically vary optional parameters like additional point scaling and additional point rotation.
• Fixes tabbing between min/max value fields for newly enabled dynamic varied parameters.

You can download and update from free from within Vectoraster, or download the new version via the product page linked below. If you've bought the app via the Apple App Store the update should be rolling out there as well today.

With the 8.5.10 update released today Vectoraster is now also available to purchase on the macOS App Store:

The application will still be available to purchase outside of the App Store as well and this change should not affect the functionality of the application. Future updates will continue to be released both the App Store and non-App Store version, so you'll get the same functionality regardless of version. It will however not be possible to convert an App Store purchase to a license for the non-App Store version or the other way around.

A small update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This update fixes some minor compatibility issues with macOS 14 and addresses some sanbox file-access related issues some users have been experiencing.

You can download and update from free from withing Vectoraster or download the new version via the product page linked below.

A pair of small updates have now been released for SketchFighter 4000 Alpha, this update mainly fixes some issues where the game would run too fast on some new macs with high or variable refresh rate displays.

• Fix for the game running too fast on high refresh rate monitors on M1/M2 macs
• Minimum OS requirement is now macOS 10.13. Users with older macOS versions can just keep using 1.2.6 this is just related to fixing the issue above on newer macs.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This update modernizes some underlying file reading and writing code that should improve future (and current) compatibility and might get around some tricky permission issues. Along with this there are a couple of other little fixes and improvements.

Changes and improvements

• Fix generation of innermost spiral raster points when generating line rasters.
• New setting to automatically convert background color colorspace to match point color (for CMYK exports for example).
• Add clipping rect to exported SVGs.
• Changes to export file writing and saving APIs.
• Changes to file reading handling when importing source files APIs.