Spiny Updates Comictastic to 2.1
Sparta, WI – October 23, 2003 — Spiny, developers of applications for
Apple Mac OS X, is proud to announce the update of their shareware
comic-strip viewer Comictastic to version 2.1. The job of Comictastic is to
make finding and viewing your favorite comic-strips a quick and convenient
process. Supporting 18 strips out-of-the-box, all you have to do is choose
your favorites, and Comictastic does the rest. Version 2.1 is a free
upgrade for all registered 2.0 users.
FEATURES:
– Support for 18 comics built-in.
– Auto-find makes adding your favorite comics easy — simply type in the
web page address.
– Download comic archives automatically.
– Select only your favorite comics to be displayed and downloaded with
Subscriptions.
– Simple, intuitive interface.
– Disk caching, so you can view previously downloaded comics, even when
you’re offline.
– Save comics in JPEG, TIFF and PNG with drag-and-drop.
– Export comic definitions, or import definitions created by other people,
enabling you to instantly add support for new comics.
– Zoom in on comics to make reading easier.
– Automatic update checking.
– Built-in help system.
MAJOR CHANGES IN THIS VERSION:
– Simple downloading of comic archives — now you can catch up on missed
days with ease!
– Spanish localization of the user interface.
– Activity Viewer window to monitor and cancel comic downloads.
– Improved compatibility, works with more comics now.
– Improved performance and speed of downloading.
– Interface improvements.
COMPLETE CHANGE LIST:
– When adding a comic automatically, we skip images that have a small size
specified in the HTML. This results in dramatic speed increases, especially
for modem users.
– Archive downloading. You can download the archives of a comic by choosing
“Download Archives” from the Comic menu.
– Improved error reporting. Instead of displaying a sheet hanging on
nothing when the main window is closed, we display the error in an alert
panel.
– Added Spanish localization, thanks to Jorge Salvador Caffarena.
– Greatly improved compatibility of the comic auto-finder.
– Fixed bug causing comics with only one image stored on disk to display an
empty calendar.
– Comics are immediately downloaded after being created automatically,
instead of requiring you to refresh them.
– The calendar is scrolled when you select a new date so that the new date
is visible.
– If a comic can’t be located on a website, it will be rescanned
automatically, which should virtually eliminate “leading HTML not found”
errors.
– Due to a limitation in Cocoa, a limited number of comics can be selected
and displayed simultaneously. Now, instead of acting oddly when you select
too many comics, an error is displayed.
– Modified the behavior of the Refresh All button to include known outdated
comics in the refresh as well as comics that are supposed to be updated.
– Improved how we decide if a comic has been updated since you last viewed it.
– Moved the zoom level indicator to an image overlay that appears when you
change the zoom level.
– In some cases, we no longer download images that has already been
download, which can speed up Refresh All quite a bit.
– Implemented drag-scrolling in the image viewer. To drag-scroll, hold down
Command and drag the image.
– Added log window containing useful debugging information.
– The main window can be closed without the application quitting.
– Mail.app-style activity viewer, allowing easier canceling of specific
downloads.
– Menu items to toggle the main, log, and activity windows.
– Dock menu item to Refresh All Comics.
– Dock icon badging of number of unread comics with a preference to control.
– Added “Default image format” preference; affects drag-saving and regular
saving default.
– The window splitters won’t do that annoying proportional resize when you
resize the window anymore.
– Fixed bug where the Date Offset wouldn’t get copied over if you
duplicated a comic.
– Updated support for several built-in comics, and added support for Tastes
Like Gravel.
– A string of text can be downloaded and displayed along with the image.
This feature is not accessible through the interface — you must manually
edit the definition file. See the Penny Arcade definition inside the
application bundle for an example.
– Preference to have the window automatically resize to fit the selected comic.
– The scroll bars on the viewer disappear when they aren’t needed, instead
of just disabling.
– Improved performance when switching between comics, especially when the
calendar is hidden.
– The progress bar that shows when automatically adding a new comic now
shows something useful.
– We can recognize dates encoded in an image filename, which means we can
decide which date a comic image belongs to much better now.
– Improved date-switching performance when “Apply Date to All Comics” is
selected.
– You can tab between the comic list and the viewing area, allowing you to
select and scroll comics without touching the mouse.
– Miscellaneous bug fixes and enhancements.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Any Macintosh running Mac OS X 10.2 or higher with an internet connection.
PRICING:
Comictastic is Shareware. Registration codes are available for $15 from the
Spiny website. Although Comictastic can be used indefinitely without
purchasing it, you will be reminded on every launch to register. There are
no other limitations in the unregistered version.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Visit our web site at: http://www.spiny.com/software/ Or go directly to the
Comictastic product page: http://www.comictastic.com/
Spiny is a developer of interesting applications for Apple Mac OS X. Other
products include Xbench, a benchmarking program, and Logorrhea, an
easy-to-use iChat log viewing and searching utility.
