Monday, November 11, 2013

Version 1.2.0 Released

Version 1.2.0 of Palette Jigsaw was just released. Here is a list of the relevant changes. They apply almost exclusively to the iPad version of the app. The iPhone version is relatively unchanged.

In-App Purchases:

  • Camera - purchasing this item will allow the user to take images with their device's camera or to select a picture from their photo library. When purchased, a new icon appears on the tool palette that looks like a camera lens. Tapping this icon opens a dialogue where the user can take photos with their camera or select a photo from their library. Note: there is a known issue where the live preview screen of the camera tool displays sideways when using the app in landscape orientation. This makes composing the image difficult. The image actually captured is oriented properly. A fix to this issue will be in the next build.
  • Remove Ads - Without purchasing this item, advertisements are displayed when the user exits the preferences screen. Purchasing this item suppresses these ads.
  • Additional images. There are both free and paid image packs available for download. Additional image packs will be made available on a regular basis in the future. At this time there is no subscription available, but that is something that may be added in the future. The new images are not available using the swipe or double-tap gestures. Instead, the user double-taps this icon to activate an image selection screen:
Additional Functionality:

The tool palette has been moved to the bottom of the screen. The reason for this is that panning down from the top of the screen interfered with the iOS notification drop down. Unfortunately, with the advent of iOS7, the Control Screen appears when the user swipes up from the bottom. Fortunately, this can be turned off by going to Settings > Control Center and turn off Access within Apps. You will still be able to access the Control Center from the home screen.


Color tool change - the color tool icon, the one that looks like a blue and red puzzle piece, works differently now. The original functionality, where pieces of a similar color to a single piece on the top palette are selected when the icon is tapped still works. However, whereas previously, this icon was greyed out when there was some other number of pieces on the top palette, now it is not. If there are more pieces on the top palette, tapping the icon will sort all the pieces by color. Here is an example of a palette arranged by hue and saturation.


There is now a marquee tool. Use a marquee tool to select a subset of the pieces on a palette. To use the marquee tool, press the [+] icon to create a blank palette. Next, drag it by two opposite corners. Doing this turns the palette into a marquee tool. It becomes semitransparent so you can see what you are selecting. Simply drag your fingers around on the screen until you have enclosed the pieces you are interested in. When you release your fingers, those pieces will be moved to the marquee palette, and it no longer functions as a marquee tool but is just another palette. In the image, below, the sunset picture was used for the puzzle design and cut up into 150 pieces. The color tool was used to arrange the pieces on the large palette. Next, the [+] icon was tapped to create a new palette. Two opposite corners were dragged to the position shown. The palette is transparent so the pieces can be seen through the palette.

When the fingers are released, the pieces are transferred to the new palette thus (if auto-grid is selected in the preferences screen, the pieces will be arranged in a grid):


Double-tap the icon with the landscape picture on it to select a new image. Both built-in images and images downloaded as part of an in-app purchase can be selected this way. The first time pictures are accessed this way, scrolling may be delayed as the images are extracted from the download. The old way of selecting pictures still works, but you can select only the built-in pictures that way.

As before, single-tapping this icon displays the reference image, or removes it if it's already showing. If the image is tapped while it is being displayed, you will be given the option to navigate to a website. The website is specific to that picture and may contain additional information about the picture or information on how to contact the artist.

Now when building the puzzle, a progress bar instead of a spinner is displayed.

The loupe tool that displays when using the eyedropper tool has been fixed. The cross hairs no longer disappear. Additionally, the image displayed within the loupe is at the correct magnification.

3 comments:

  1. I purchased the new image pack but can't figure out how to access the pictures. It just keeps scrolling through the original free images.

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    1. The image packs require downloading from the Apple servers. That happens in the background by the operating system. If you are using Palette Jigsaw when he download completes, you will get an alert that the download completed. Then you access the images by double tapping the icon that looks like a landscape - the same icon you single tap to show the reference picture

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