News

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 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 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.

A new small update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This is another small update that fixes some UI issues in recent versions and macOS updates.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This is a smaller update that primarily fixes some issues on macOS 14.

Changes and improvements

• Fix issue with collapsed bottom UI panels still showing on macOS 14.
• Improved load times for files with large source images.
• Removed deprecated EPS export format on macOS 14 and later (still available on earlier macOS versions).

It appears that Apple has removed system support for the EPS format in macOS 14 Sonoma, which means that sadly importing or exporting EPS files in Vectoraster and Patternodes will no longer work on macOS 14.

This was unexpected, so unfortunately current versions of Vectoraster and Patternodes will not give you any warning about this and may behave erratically trying to load/save EPS data as they relied on these system features. It's unlikely EPS format support will come back at this time, so if you're still working with EPS files, now is a good time to switch over to SVG or PDF.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This adds some initial CMYK color support and interface optimizations along with a couple of bug fixes.

Changes and improvements

• Added support for CMYK and other non-rgb color models in static colors (varying dynamic point colors will still convert to RGB in rendering and exports). CMYK colors are only supported in PDF exports.
• Improved interface performance.
• Improved support and handling of pasting graphics as source image layers.

• Fixed bug where exporting to CSV or SVG would result in the preview going blank.
• Fix issue with new source images pasted in getting the wrong initial size.
• Fix issue with importing vector graphics with very large sizes causing memory issues.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This adds some new functionality with support for complex unicode characters in text rasters (like SF symbols and ligatures) and some new point index options where you can chose to vary raster parameters based on the row or columns in the raster pattern for some new interesting effects.

• Added new point Row, Column or Row+Column index source options, letting you base parameters on the row or column of the point.
• Added support for complex multi-byte unicode characters like SF symbols and ligatures in text rasters.
• Added Lost Minds Mastodon link to Help menu.
• Added some more helpful information to error messages when failing to load files.

• Fix issue with importing vector graphics with very large sizes causing memory issues.

Another smaller patch of Vectoraster 8 has now been released with some fixes and smaller changes, this time relating to file imports.

Fixes and improvements

• Fixes issue with incorrect physical sizes when importing image source layers.
• Better error messages on file access permission issues when importing files.

Another smaller patch of Vectoraster 8 has now been released with some bugfixes and smaller changes.

Fixes and improvements

• Point size is now renamed Line length for simple line points.
• Properly deactivate color well and close the color picker when hiding an active color parameter.
• Fixes the preview sometimes not reverting correctly back to the current time after exporting an animation.
• Fixes an issue where the source layers list would not display correctly after reordering sources.
• Fixes some precision issues in applied Multiscale when using the slider instead of the scale field.
• Sparkle version checking framework updated.

A smaller patch of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This updates some legacy components for future compatibility and fixes some issues introduced in the 8.5.0 update.

Changes and improvements

• Updates components for future compatibility, raising minimum required macOS version to 10.15.
• Fixes a bug where animation exports would not correctly apply a scaled export size.
• Fixes using the animation export panel size slider while the height or width field is active.

A new bigger update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. The new version brings support for multiple custom point shapes, something that has been requested for a long time. So now you can use a set of different imported shapes or images for the points, and use them in sequence, at random or based on your sources. Along with this the backend has also been rebuilt a little to make rendering and generation more responsive along with a bunch of other improvements and fixes.

Vectoraster 8.5.0 Changes and improvements

• Multiple custom shape support use different imported point shapes based on sources, index or at random.
• Improved generation/rendering with better performance, responsiveness and stability.
• Source opacity point removal with a new alpha threshold parameter. Makes it easy to remove points regardless of size where the source image is transparent.
• Animated GIF import support for Video source layers.
• Point fill opacity can now be applied to bitmap custom shapes as well.

• Fixed a bug with Multi-scale where clicking Apply button while typing in a value would not apply the scale.
• Fixed an issue with quicktime video exports dropping frames if the encoder was busy.
• Fixed a bug where animation export panel size fields would show the wrong values.
• Fixed a bug where some settings would reset when re-opening the settings panel.

Another small update of Vectoraster 8 has been released today. This update fixes a couple of issues with bitmap based format exports and makes the animation timeline a little easier to work with.

• Fixes a bug with jpg export pixel aspect.
• Fixes an export dialogue bug whith bitmap format height/width would not be displayed correctly.
• Clicking in the animation timeline now deselects any selected value field, so you can use spacebar to play/pause.

A small update of Vectoraster 8 has been released today. This update is just a bug fix to a bundle validation issue that caused an error message when trying to start v8.4.9 on some systems.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This update updates SVG support, fixes some bugs and adds a nice new convenience feature to re-center source layers when updating the document size.

8.4.9 Changes and improvements

• Improved SVG image mode imports/rendering (Upgrade to IJSVG 3.0 framework).
• Added an option to re-center centered source layers on document size change, making it easier to resize a document to a new source image.
• Added link to user Discord channel in Help menu.

• Fixed being able to select the source measurement channel parent item in the parameter sources menu and not just the items.
• Removed a tooltip in the sources menu that was interfering with selecting items in submenus.

A new update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This update makes a number of small improvements and fixes a lot of issues related to converting/importing more complex projects from Vectoraster 7.

8.4.8 Changes and improvements

• Optimized Randomization distortion.
• Improved generation and rendering progress updates for long processes.
• Updated manual and bundled sample files.
• Improved conversion of legacy source measurement exponent parameters when importing Vectoraster 7 files.

• Fixes a bug with dynamic distortion strength parameters in rasters with raster offset.
• Fixes initial loading preview image incorrect aspect for zoomed in rasters.
• Fixes source color/light filterers not being applied when the document legacy blur setting was enabled.
• Fixes an issue with converting some dynamic distrortion strength settings from legacy Vectoraster 7 files.
• Fixes an issue with importing legacy Vectoraster 7 files with invalid incremental step parameters.
• Fixes an issue with importing use source color mix parameters from legacy Vectoraster 7 files.
• Fixes an issue with converting separate Y spacing in alternating grid legacy Vectoraster 7 files.

Some users have started a Discord channel for users of Vectoraster and Patternodes.

So if you're interested in discussing the apps, looking for help or want to connect with other users with check it out: Vectoraster and Patternodes discord

A new smaller update of Vectoraster 8 has now been released. This fixes some smaller issues after the recent macOS sandbox security update.

• Fixed missing Print permission in sandbox entitlements.
• Fixed drag highlight outline being shown on file areas even if the dragged file was not in a supported format.
• Fixed incorrect disk write protection warning in the technical log.