Aug, 27 2019

Reflections on randomness

Some time ago I dipped my toe into generative art. While I was looking for an inspiration I stumbled over a work titled Interruptions by Vera Molnár. A plotter drawing from 1968/69 showing hundreds of thin short lines, more or less randomly placed at a random angle on a square canvas.

Immediatley I realized that this was the spark I was looking for. That all I needed was a line. That the subject of my project had to be randomness. Because on one side we need random number generators to produce this kind of art and on the other side we try to control the outcome.

Experimenting with this idea, I finally came up with this:

Watch the randomness slowly entering the orderly world. Having mutations of various forms. Then breaking the rigid casting trying to keep it in check and finally, at the end, possibly, entering our world.

I really enjoyed this small creative project of mine and I very much hope that it will be not my last.

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Aug, 20 2019

Welcome to the Dark Side

I admit it. At first I haven’t been the biggest fan of macOS Dark Mode. But now, when I see Posterino vested in its new dress, I just love it. Today I’d like to give you a quick look on what is taking shape on my developer’s desk:

In real life it even looks better because the sidebar has a nice discreet material design. While I was at it I gave the whole UI a bit of love. Everything looks lighter, fresher and more modern now. As a nice addition I made Posterino pick up the system accent color. As usual a beta version will be ready for you soon. If you can’t wait for it and need to see more, have a look at the screenshots I posted on Twitter ;)

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Aug, 02 2019

Posterino and Catalina

As usual, here comes my yearly notice regarding the state of Posterino and the upcoming new macOS. This year we can welcome macOS 10.15 “Catalina”.

I already mentioned this on Twitter but I think it doesn’t hurt to repeat a word of warning here: If you don’t have to, stay away from the Catalina (and iOS) betas for now! Currently the iCloud support is unstable and you may loose your data.

Regarding Posterino though, things look pretty good. In case you already run Catalina, update to the latest Posterino 3.5.1 and you are golden. 

Posterino App Icon

From your feedback I know that you love my short lists of personal favorite background information regarding the new macOS. So here it is:

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Apr, 10 2017

Working with Style(s) in Posterino 3

Posterino has some built-in magic to support you in your work on a Posterino document. For example, you start a plain document and e.g. add a red border to all existing images. When you then add a new image, it comes with a red border automatically. Kind of what you would expect to happen, right? This Posterino behavior is powered by a feature we call Styles. In short, styles are:

 A fast and easy way to customize the look and feel of your document.

Generally Posterino Styles work their magic in the background and you don’t have to spend any thoughts on them. But there are ways to bend the power of Styles to your will. This post explains how.

Let’s assume we are working on this sample document:

Note that the images of our sample document not only have different frame colors but also various image filter, metadata and caption settings. The document looks like a mess and we should clean it up a bit. We like to align the overall look of our document. In the following you find several examples of how to achieve this goal.

Copy a style from one image to another

To copy the style of e.g. the blue framed image to the red framed image do this:

1. Control-click the image which should serve as the source of the style and choose Copy Style from the context menu. In our example, we copy the style of the image with the blue frame:

2. Control-click the destination image (the one with the red frame) and choose Paste Style:

Now we have copied the style of one image to another. Not only did we copy the color and thickness of the frame but also the image filter, frame edge setup and all additional layers of the source image like the caption layer:

Align the style

To align the style of all images of a document:

1. Control-click on the document or one object and choose Align Styles from the context menu:

The selected images are now align to a common style which based on what the majority of images look like:

Copy a style from one image to all others

To align the look of all images to the look of one particular image:

1. Control click the image which should serve as the blueprint for all other images. For our example, we pick the image with the white frame. Choose Align Styles to Selection:

Now all images look like the selected “blueprint” image:

Summary

As you can see, there are several very handy ways to help you get the overall look of your document right. Also the methods described above are a great way to “play” with different looks fast and easily.

Did you enjoy this article? Did I miss something? What should be the topic of my next How-To post? Just let me know in the comment below!

Don’t miss the next How-To blog post: Follow me on Twitter

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Jan, 24 2017

Posterino spring-cleaning

In gardening you have to compose remains of dead plants, cut back branches and plant new seeds every spring to get your garden ready for a new cycle. The very same things apply to “gardening” an app if you like it to grow and blossom in the future.

Over the past weeks I took the time to remove old and obsolete code, handled OS deprecation warnings, updated various frameworks and did some overall code improvements. To make sure I did not cut off any essential “branch”, I’d like to sent the new spring-cleaned Posterino through a short beta phase.

Posterino App Icon

Long story short, I’d like to invite you to give the new beta a spin. All details on the Posterino beta page.

If you are wondering if you can run the beta and your current version of Posterino side by side: Yes, you can. See the Beta Installation Guide on the beta page for details.

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Jul, 27 2016

Posterino and macOS Sierra

Today I’d like to deliver a quick update on the state of Posterino regarding the upcoming macOS 10.12 Sierra.

siri

Since the first beta of macOS 10.12 Sierra became available, we did run detailed tests and I’m happy to report, that things are looking good. Posterino 3.2.12 is ready for the new OS!

Sure thing, the latest update will also run great on macOS 10.11 El Capitan. As usual this release is a free update to all customers of version 3.

Since there is still plenty of time until macOS 10.12 Sierra is released this fall, here are some behind the scenes insights to get you ready:

macOS Sierra – Apple’s next-generation Mac operating system A detailed look at what’s new in macOS Sierra. Recommended!

Apple reveals macOS Sierra with Siri, Apple Pay, and other new features

– Apple’s macOS 10.12 Sierra beta program for those of you how like the thrill

– I’d also like to remind you of our ongoing Posterino beta program

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Oct, 07 2015

Posterino loves El Capitan

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is officially available now. As is Posterino’s support for the new and shiny Mac OS. Posterino 3.2.5 is a free update for all customers of Posterino 3.

ElCapitan

So, fire up Posterino’s built-in software updater or Mac App Store and get the latest release! You’ll find all details on the Posterino web page:

From your feedback I know that you love my short lists of personal favorite background information. So I did it again:

– OS X 10.11 El Capitan: The MacStories Review. This one is epic and the perfect start for a detailed view on El Capitan.

– El Capitan FAQ: Everything you need to know about OS X 10.11. El Capitan in a nutshell.

– How to install OS X El Capitan. Here you’ll also find details on “Get your Mac ready for OS X 10.11 El Capitan”.

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Jul, 15 2015

Posterino 3.2 with new Mosaic-Crop feature

Wouldn’t it be nice if Posterino could automatically create a mosaic like the one in the middle of this image:

 

 

At least this has been the question of Posterino user Danny. By the way, check out his awesome work at http://smartdoll.jp. His feature request made me think. And well, as of Posterino 3.2 it can!

To create a mosaic from an image, just select a set of image frames:

apply_mosaic_crop_step_1

And Drag & Drop one image from the image browser to one of the selected image frames:

apply_mosaic_crop_step_2

Basically that’s it.

In case of ongoing work on a mosaic where you e.g. manually improve the layout, there is a “Apply Mosaic-Crop” context menu command to bring your mosaic crop back in shape when you select all image frames in question:

update_mosaic_crop_step_2

 

Posterino 3.2 is a free update for all customers of version 3. Enjoy!

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Jun, 12 2015

Posterino 3.1.3

We just released Posterino 3.1.3 featuring the following improvements and bug fixes:

  • Maintenance update of the image browser.
  • Fixed a crash that could bite you when removing a grid layout parameter.
  • Handled a typo in the Dutch language support.

This build is a free update recommended for all users!

Depending on where you did make your purchase, open Mac App Store to update or run the built-in updater.

Enjoy!

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.
Mar, 16 2015

Posterino supports Apple’s upcoming Photos app

After the dust of Apple’s last keynote has settled and we’re now all exited about the new Apple Watch and Mac Book, let’s not forget about the upcoming Yosemite release featuring Photos. Apple’s new photo editing app replacing iPhoto and Aperture.

Apple's new Photos app

Since some of you already did ask me about Posterino’s support for Photos, here comes the good news: We just made available a Posterino beta featuring exactly that.

On the beta page you’ll find all details on downloading, installing and running the beta. You can always turn back to the latest stable release. In short: it’s painless as usual. And since it features some nice improvements, you also benefit if you’re not yet running Photos.

Also, I stumbled over some web pages featuring juicy details on the upcoming Photos app which you might find useful too:

– What you need to know about Photos for OS X (recommended reading)
– Apple’s Photos preview page
– Apple’s OS X beta program

So much for now. I’ll keep you posted.

For questions, comments, tips, or feedback, find me on Twitter, Mastodon, or just email me.