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Black Ink Changelog

What's new in Black Ink 2.3.1

May 2, 2024
  • New puzzle sources: Lex's Minis and Lex's Crosswords
  • Improved the accuracy of overlay image drawing over puzzle grid
  • Fixed the drawing of overlay image drawing in printed puzzles
  • Attempting to check or reveal answers on puzzles with no answers now displays an explanatory alert
  • Improve performance when opening the puzzle chooser when it has to search many years for an unsolved puzzle
  • Now adapts the window size more precisely when screen resolution changes
  • Fix a glitch that caused the Puzzle Notes text to no longer fit in the popover when detached from window
  • Puzzle chooser now ensures the selected source name is visible
  • Fix an issue that caused excessive memory use when opening and closing many puzzles
  • Now supports entering a hyphen or a period as a special entry answer

New in Black Ink 2.3 (Mar 17, 2024)

  • Now supports puzzles that specify graphical overlays on the puzzle
  • Now supports puzzles that specify multiple correct answers for a given square
  • Blank answers that are correct are now treated as such
  • Small adjustments to size and layout of puzzle title and copyright
  • Fix a bug that caused puzzles to close without being saved in some cases
  • Now requires macOS 10.15.4 or later

New in Black Ink 2.2.9 (Feb 6, 2024)

  • Fix a problem that prevented New York Times logins from succeeding
  • Now requires macOS 10.13 or later

New in Black Ink 2.2.8 (Sep 23, 2023)

  • Improvements to NYT authentication process
  • Calendar picker favors the current/latest puzzle date if a new puzzle has arrived since last opening
  • Calendar picker allows selection of valid puzzle days from the next/previous month

New in Black Ink 2.2.7 (May 2, 2023)

  • Mitigate issues that caused NYT to think Black Ink users are "robots"

New in Black Ink 2.2.6 (Feb 19, 2023)

  • Quick fix to restore Auto Check feature while solving

New in Black Ink 2.2.5 (Feb 16, 2023)

  • Prevent a superflous error message when canceling Across Lite export
  • Clicking the circle in the calendar interface now jumps to the current day
  • Fix a bug that prevented Edit -> Copy from working in the Puzzle Notes popover
  • Fix a bug that prevented the Puzzle Notes popover from staying open while detached from window
  • Answers with diacritical marks (like Ñ) are now considered correct even if diacritical is not included

New in Black Ink 2.2.4 (Jul 15, 2022)

  • Puzzle Notes popover is now keyboard navigable
  • Shift-arrow keystroke now changes focused word without changing the current direction
  • Puzzle picker now supports left arrow key to navigate from calendar view back to puzzle list
  • Refinements to focused square coloring
  • Check for Updates now includes a link to Version History when there are no new updates
  • Fix some subtle issues with determining the valid dates for downloading puzzles
  • Fix issues with text encoding of Across Lite puzzles with unicode characters

New in Black Ink 2.2.3 (May 19, 2022)

  • Puzzle picker improvements:
  • Undownloaded puzzle dates are now emphasized in the calendar
  • Fix an issue that sometimes prevented the latest puzzle being opened
  • Restore ability to press return in the Puzzle Chooser to open the selected puzzle
  • The puzzle picker calendar now stays in the same general timeframe across subsequent openings
  • If a valid puzzle is not found for a chosen date, the next available puzzle is now downloaded
  • Puzzle appearance:
  • Restore previous darkness of the puzzle highlight color in Dark Mode
  • More improvements to positioning of letters in puzzle cells
  • Reduced the spacing between clues in the clue lists
  • General usability:
  • New preference supports automatically closing window after solving a puzzle
  • Fix a rare issue that prevented special answers from being verified/corrected/revealed correctly
  • "Start Over" now clears any puzzle status flags as well as the entered answers

New in Black Ink 2.2.2 (May 4, 2022)

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

New in Black Ink 2.2.1 (May 3, 2022)

  • 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

New in Black Ink 2.2 (Apr 12, 2022)

  • 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
  • The app now prompts to open another puzzle after finishing with one
  • New York Times enhancements:
  • Support for shaded squares (previously they were shown as circles)
  • Support for italics, bold, and special characters in clue text
  • 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

New in Black Ink 2.1.9 (Nov 1, 2021)

  • Fix an issue importing October 31, 2021 NYT puzzle
  • NYT Puzzles with "shaded squares" now appear as circled squares
  • Restored compatibility of saved NYT puzzles with Across Lite

New in Black Ink 2.1.8 (Sep 13, 2021)

  • Circled squares now appear correctly in NYT puzzles

New in Black Ink 2.1.7 (Aug 10, 2021)

  • Now downloads NYT puzzles without requiring Across Lite format
  • Improved memory usage performance when opening and closing puzzles
  • Prevents editing and deletion of built-in puzzle sources. Disable them if you want to hide them from the list.
  • Further improvements to the compatibilty of saved puzzles with Across Lite

New in Black Ink 2.1.6 (Aug 10, 2021)

  • Mac App Store only: Fix an issue that prevented premium feature purchases from being validated correctly

New in Black Ink 2.1.5 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Saved puzzles are now compatible with being opened in Across Lite
  • Add a new Edit menu item to "Copy Clue" for the selected word
  • Fix a bug that could cause puzzle clues to print over the grid in some layouts
  • Fix a crashing bug when printing some puzzles
  • Improve VoiceOver behavior with respect to focused word after switching focus direction

New in Black Ink 2.1.4 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Support for downloading NYT puzzles that are released the night before
  • Fix a bug that caused NYT downloads to fail from certain time zones with positive offsets from GMT

New in Black Ink 2.1.3 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Restored support for logging in to download Premium NYT puzzles
  • Fix visual glitches with puzzle source icons after switching between dark and light modes
  • Fix a bug that could cause puzzle source icons to draw very large in the Open Web Puzzle menu
  • Improvements to letter alignment within puzzle squares
  • Fine-tune the placement of the focus ring when entering special answers
  • If special entry is open while the window is resized the field now moves with the window
  • Remove Chronicle of Higher Education whose puzzles are no longer updated

New in Black Ink 2.1.2 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Added Washington Post Sunday to the web puzzles list
  • Added Liz Gorski's Crossword Nation premium puzzle
  • Fix a crashing bug that could occur while printing or soon afterwards
  • Fix a bug that could distort the puzzle shape when zooming in or out of full screen mode
  • Fix a bug that caused part of a checkbox label in preferences to be cut off

New in Black Ink 2.1.1 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Adapt to support puzzles that mix diagramless and regular formats
  • Fix a bug that prevented puzzle window from being resized by dragging the window's edge
  • Selected clue is now scrolled to visible with a little buffer area around it in the clue list
  • Now marks any incorrect answers in the puzzle when enabling the "Automatic Correction" preference
  • Remove "move to unsolved after switching direction" preference as it was not behaving well

New in Black Ink 2.1 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Performance enhancements for Apple Silicon based Macs
  • Now supports printing very large puzzles that require more than 2 pages
  • Fix issues printing in landscape mode or to small paper sizes

New in Black Ink 2.0.9 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Work around a crashing bug at launch in some versions of macOS

New in Black Ink 2.0.8 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Improved positioning of clue numbers and letters in puzzle grid
  • Improved layout of puzzle grid when printing
  • Web Puzzle panel now defaults to the last puzzle source opened
  • Added menu items for switching puzzle direction and moving to next and previous words
  • Fixed a crash that rarely occurred while printing
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when opening a new puzzle

New in Black Ink 2.0.7 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Improved animation when entering full screen mode
  • Fix a bug that caused the timer to pause while entering a special answer entry
  • Fix a problem that caused the puzzle to leave a blank space at edge on some Macs
  • Fix the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Period for canceling a puzzle download
  • Fix some grid layout issues on non-Retina displays
  • Fix a bug that caused the first-launch registration panel to contain placeholder strings

New in Black Ink 2.0.6 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Typing a number to jump to a clue now automatically commits without pressing enter
  • Change default navigation preferences to not pause cursor movement when changing directions
  • Fix the appearance of circled cells to prevent the circle being shifted a little too high
  • Fix a crash that could occur when tabbing in a puzzle with squares that do not correspond to any clue
  • Fix a bug that could change other answers when revealing a multi-character answer
  • Fix a bug that caused the wrong clue to show when reopening the app with a down clue selected

New in Black Ink 2.0.5 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Heads up, New York Times fans! A recent change to the site prevents Black Ink from automatically logging in and downloading the latest puzzles. Existing users will be able to continue downloading puzzles for the time being, but new users will have to download puzzles from the NYT web site. We hope to find a workaround to this in the future.

New in Black Ink 2.0.4 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Added support for The Inkubator puzzle source. They are offering a free, two-month trial!

New in Black Ink 2.0.3 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • General improvements to puzzle printing
  • Fixed a bug that caused puzzle clues to print in bold when fitting to a single page
  • Fixed the appearance of the Puzzle Notes when Dark Mode is enabled
  • Improved the centering of circles when drawn in puzzle squares
  • Decreased the severity of the shadow drawn on text in selected cells
  • Fixed a bug that caused the last row/column to be slightly shorter/narrower than other cells
  • Typing a clue number to jump to a clue now favors clue in the same direction as selected
  • Removed Emoji & Symbols menu item since it's not suitable for puzzle answer entry
  • Direct navigation by typing clue number now favors the orientation where the answer is not yet entered

New in Black Ink 2.0.2 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Accessibility:
  • Improve "Speak items under the pointer" to speak the right clue for across or down depending on current focus
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue that caused downloads of older WSJ puzzles to fail
  • Fixed a bug that caused the puzzle window to drift off screen when making it larger
  • Fixed an issue that prevented logging in to American Values Club accounts when passwords contain particular characters
  • Fixed a bug that caused the timer to not be visible/started by default
  • Improved error handling when a downloaded puzzle cannot be saved for whatever reason

New in Black Ink 2.0 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Major new release featuring VoiceOver support, a refined visual interface, streamlined solving, and a free-for-all mode with limited features.

New in Black Ink 1.6.11 (Jul 18, 2021)

  • Update puzzle information for American Values Club

New in Black Ink 1.6.10 (Jun 20, 2018)

  • This update addresses a problem that prevented some puzzle downloads over HTTPS secure connections from completing as expected.

New in Black Ink 1.6.9 (Oct 23, 2017)

  • Fix downloads from the premium AV Club puzzle source.

New in Black Ink 1.6.8 (Jun 5, 2017)

  • Fix a login problem with some authenticated puzzle sources.

New in Black Ink 1.6.7 (Jan 21, 2017)

  • Fix a problem where puzzle grid answers could shift slightly while solving
  • Add NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching to Info.plist to depending on high power GPU
  • Workaround a bug that could cause Black Ink to crash when waking a Touch Bar Mac from sleep

New in Black Ink 1.6.6 (Jan 9, 2017)

  • Tabbing to a new word now skips completed words when "Move to Blank" preference is set
  • Fix a crash that could occur when opening a damaged puzzle file
  • Fix a UI glitch that caused multi-character entry focus ring to be wider on one side
  • Eliminate some issues caused by entering single-character answer in multi-character entry mode

New in Black Ink 1.6.5 (Sep 26, 2016)

  • Disable system window tabbing on macOS Sierra, because it doesn't work well with puzzle document windows.

New in Black Ink 1.6.3 (Nov 18, 2015)

  • Black Ink will now try to download an earlier puzzle if the latest puzzle from a source is already downloaded
  • Fix an issue that could cause NYT login to fail repeatedly even with good login info
  • Switch to using Helvetica consistently across the board for printout text

New in Black Ink 1.6.2 (Nov 5, 2014)

  • Fix an issue that prevented NY Times Premium login request from appearing
  • Fine-tune drawing of clue numbers so they aren't so close to the left edge of squares

New in Black Ink 1.6.1 (May 6, 2014)

  • New support for premium puzzle downloads from New York Times and American Values Club.
  • Fix a bug where the puzzle chooser would appear upon launch even when already opening a document.
  • Fix a crash that could sometimes occur while closing a puzzle.

New in Black Ink 1.6 (Apr 9, 2014)

  • Sandboxed for increased security
  • Now supports autosave and document version browsing on 10.7 Lion or later
  • Clue list rows now resize height to guarantee showing entire clue
  • Puzzle solving - improvements to the mechanics of when checked and revealed indicators are shown
  • Fix an issue where typing a clue number too high for puzzle could crash
  • Fix a crash when starting the puzzle Timer on Mac OS X 10.6.8

New in Black Ink 1.5.3 (Jul 9, 2012)

  • Fix broken behavior in 1.5.2 where clicking on the Dock didn't re-open the puzzle browser
  • Support GateKeeper for Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X 10.8

New in Black Ink 1.5.2 (May 28, 2012)

  • Fix an issue that caused the puzzle browser window to erroneously report and expired evaluation period.

New in Black Ink 1.5.1 (May 24, 2012)

  • Fix printing bug that omitted the puzzle grid by default for new users
  • Only show Tool Tip content for squares that have special characters

New in Black Ink 1.5 (Apr 18, 2012)

  • Support new options for printing puzzle grid at the bottom of the page
  • Cleaner printing layout for fit-on-one-sheet printing
  • Improve speed of printing puzzles

New in Black Ink 1.4.1 (Aug 5, 2011)

  • Fix clue lists scrollbar appearance on Lion
  • Fix a problem where puzzles would no longer open after installing official Across Lite app

New in Black Ink 1.4 (May 20, 2011)

  • Printing improvements:
  • Support a new "fit on one sheet of paper" print option
  • Support live-updating of print preview as settings are changed
  • Fix issues with printing when clue list printing is disabled
  • Work around a printing issue on a pre-release version of Mac OS X
  • Other Fixes:
  • Prevent possibility of crashes with some accidental keystrokes in puzzle view
  • Remove Houston Chronicle as it stopped publishing Mar 25, 2011
  • Prevent double-quoting titles of puzzles already in quotes
  • Further fixes for Mac OS X 10.4 functionality
  • Fix to show puzzle document names as "Black Ink Puzzle Document" in Finder
  • Restore ability to add custom puzzle sources to the default list

New in Black Ink 1.4 Beta 1 (May 17, 2011)

  • Printing improvements
  • Support a new "fit on one sheet of paper" print option
  • Support live-updating of print preview as settings are changed
  • Fix issues with printing when clue list printing is disabled
  • Work around a printing issue on a pre-release version of Mac OS X
  • Prevent possibility of crashes with accidental keystrokes in puzzle view
  • Remove Houston Chronicle as it stopped publishing Mar 25, 2011
  • Prevent double-quoting titles of puzzles already in quotes
  • Further fixes for Mac OS X 10.4 functionality
  • Fix to show puzzle document names as "Black Ink Puzzle Document" in Finder
  • Restore ability to add custom puzzle sources to the default list

New in Black Ink 1.3.1 (Feb 16, 2011)

  • This release restores functionality for 10.4 based Macs.

New in Black Ink 1.3 (Feb 9, 2011)

  • New web puzzle sources:
  • LA Times Daily & Sunday
  • Newsday
  • USA Today
  • Universal
  • Rework the Startup preferences to be more user-friendly with reopening puzzles
  • Give keyboard shortcut Cmd-K to "Check Current Letter"
  • Now includes automatic crash reporter
  • Fix a bug that caused Black Ink to hang when printing on rare occasions
  • Fix a bug that caused puzzle timer to be placed off screen edge
  • Fix a bug that could prevent puzzle solving menu items from being enabled
  • Fix a bug that prevented canceling a stalled puzzle download from working

New in Black Ink 1.3 Beta 1 (Feb 5, 2011)

  • New web puzzle sources:
  • LA Times Daily & Sunday
  • Newsday
  • USA Today
  • Universal
  • Rework the Startup preferences to be more user-friendly with reopening puzzles
  • Give keyboard shortcut Cmd-K to “Check Current Letter”
  • Now includes automatic crash reporter
  • Fix a bug that caused Black Ink to hang when printing on rare occasions
  • Fix a bug that caused puzzle timer to be placed off screen edge
  • Fix a bug that could prevent puzzle solving menu items from being enabled
  • Fix a bug that prevented canceling a stalled puzzle download from working

New in Black Ink 1.2.3 (Jan 3, 2011)

  • Fix crashing bug on launch with 10.4-based computers
  • Fix possible crash pressing return in puzzle browser when no source selected

New in Black Ink 1.2.2 (Nov 23, 2010)

  • Fix behavior of Open as Unsaved when the puzzle is not already open
  • Fix issues with showing and hiding the puzzle Timer window

New in Black Ink 1.2.1 (Jul 23, 2010)

  • Fix issue with puzzles that have e.g. a blank center square (NYT 7/22/10)

New in Black Ink 1.2 (Mar 23, 2010)

  • Printing improvements:
  • New option lets you choose whether the grid appears on left or right of page.
  • Clue text is now less likely to be split across two columns.
  • Puzzle zoom factor is now remembered when you open new puzzles.
  • Supports horizontal scrolling with Mighty Mouse and trackpads.
  • Fix an occasional crashing bug when downloading puzzles.
  • Fix a crash when trying to use OS X definition hotkey over puzzle grid.

New in Black Ink 1.1.9 (Mar 14, 2010)

  • Update the Philadelphia Sunday and Wall Street Journal puzzle sources.

New in Black Ink 1.1.8 (Feb 26, 2010)

  • NOTE: The New York Times seems to have (temporarily?) stopped publishing their weekly free puzzle. We're leaving the puzzle source in Black Ink in the hopes they will reinstate functionality soon.
  • Support a new 'Start Over' menu item to clear a puzzle's contents.
  • Fix a bug that caused automatic app update checking from working as expected.
  • Fix an issue with puzzle sources failing silently after one failed puzzle load.
  • Fixed some issues with puzzles that have special character answers such as É in them.
  • Fix the timer window so it starts below puzzle window even when opening multiple puzzles.

New in Black Ink 1.1.7 (Sep 16, 2009)

  • Puzzle Sources:
  • Fix the Chronicle of Higher Education source.
  • Remove Syndey Morning Herald - the paper has stopped publishing new puzzles.
  • Fix a bug that could cause downloads to stop working until relaunching the app.
  • Bug fixes and minor improvements:
  • Can now hover over a long puzzle title to see a tool tip window with the entire content.
  • Fix a visual bug with "Open As Unsolved" when the puzzle is already open.
  • Fix a bug that prevented numeric answers from being checked correctly.
  • Fix a bug that caused direction to change abruptly in puzzle that starts in "down" mode.
  • Multi-character answer improvements:
  • When revealing a multiple character answer, make sure the "revealed" color applies to all characters.
  • Fix check-as-you-type for multi-character answers.
  • Enter Multiple Letters menu item is now called "Enter Special Letters".
  • After entering multiple character answer, now jumps to next square same as when entering single.
  • Fix a bug that caused reveal/correct to fail on some multi-character answers.

New in Black Ink 1.1.6 (Jan 14, 2009)

  • Fix a crash that could occur while changing preferences.
  • Fix more issues with puzzle corruption when entering multiple character answers.

New in Black Ink 1.1.5 (Dec 12, 2008)

  • Fix a puzzle corruption bug when entering multiple characters.

New in Black Ink 1.1.4 (Dec 8, 2008)

  • Fix a bug where the selection jumped inappropriately to end of word.
  • Fix a crashing bug related to selecting the wrong starting square on puzzles with black square in top-left.

New in Black Ink 1.1.3 (Dec 4, 2008)

  • New puzzle sources:
  • Chicago Reader.
  • Onion AV Club.
  • Chronicle of Higher Education.
  • Remove Little Rock Daily Record - no longer published.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Fix a problem with opening the wrong puzzle source when a source is disabled.
  • Fix an issue printing puzzles of unusual dimensions.

New in Black Ink 1.1.2 (Jun 26, 2008)

  • Fix display of the "puzzle correctly solved" dialog
  • Fix to make sure download dialog closes after download
  • Fix problems with duplicating and adding custom puzzle sources
  • Fix a bug that caused last few clues of a puzzle to sometimes not print

New in Black Ink 1.0.8 (Dec 20, 2007)

  • Automatically stop timer when puzzle completed successfully
  • Fix a bug that caused drawer edge preference not to be respected
  • Update Houston Chronicle puzzle URL
  • Fix a rare hanging bug when keyboard navigating some puzzles

New in Black Ink 1.0.7 (Oct 9, 2007)

  • Menu items for making puzzle larger/smaller
  • Add keyboard shortcut for opening web puzzle chooser
  • Fix correctly-solved detection for puzzles with multi-character answer