sketch 2.1 available
We’re thrilled to announce that Sketch 2.1 is finally available. Time really does fly; the last update to Sketch was already almost two months ago. However, we’ve been far from idle during that time.
Top priority for this update was full compatibility with the new Retina displays. There was quite a bit of code that we had to update and of course more than hundred graphics that needed to be changed as well.
making sketch better
That is however just the tip of the iceberg. There are a few dozen items on the change log, some of them huge changes, some only small. Probably the biggest change is that we now have support for multiple borders, shadows, inner shadows and glows. Note that we’ve merged the Glow & Shadow sections as they are very similar except for the ‘spread’ option.
Together with that we’ve also improved the rendering of inner shadows and glows and these effects now no longer force pixel mode when you zoom in. They really look a lot better and even render faster.
Another big change is that layers can now sit between pixel boundaries if you want. We went to great lengths to prevent this happening accidentally, but if you want, this is now possible.
Another big improvement is in Speed. Working with any kind of document should feel significantly faster and especially saving documents should be much much faster.
We’ve made great improvements to Artboards in Sketch. There’s a setting in the preference to automatically hide the layers in the layer list that are not contained in the artboard. Likewise, when you move or duplicate an artboard you can choose to move/duplicate the layers inside it with it. We can also adjust zoom the document when you switch from one artboard to the next; perfect for checking multiple resolutions of the same icon for example.
retina canvas
In our previous post we asked you what you would expect from Sketch on a Retina Macbook Pro. Thank you all very much for your feedback. The main thing we learned is that it’s a very confusing topic for everybody. But I think we made the right call.
By default the canvas on the new Retina Macbook Pro will look the same as the canvas on the old models (apart from looking sharper of course). When you export a Slice, and open the image in Preview.app, it will display it at half size (compared to Sketch) because Preview.app shows images at the native pixel size. If you prefer the Canvas to look the same size as the output, you can turn on “Scale down for Retina” in the preferences.
minor changes
What follows is a list of small changes/improvements that I think will still please a lot of people:
- You can now open a preview of an artboard in a separate window to make it easy to stream to an iOS device for example
- @2x exports no longer go in their own subfolder
- You can now hide the layer list and inspector if you want; especially useful on smaller screens
- Improved behaviour on duplicating layers
- Improves zooming behaviour
- Adds an easy way to see all content in the canvas by going to View > Center Canvas
- You can now double-tap to zoom in/out on artboards & the canvas in general
- Significantly improves SVG import
- Hand tool now also works when inserting shapes
- Now when you include a ‘/’ in the name of your slice, Sketch will put it in a subfolder. For example, naming your slice “nav/tile” will create an image named “tile” in a folder named “nav”
- The inspector now has proper Tab behaviour.
Last but not least we fixed many little bugs and made a ton of small improvements. We’re determined to make Sketch the best app for designers out there and we’re sure this gets us one (big) step closer to our goal.
Sketch 2.1 is a free update for everybody; both App Store customers and volume licensees outside the App Store.
If you haven’t purchased Sketch yet, we also have good news. As we’re really thrilled to have this update finally out there, we’ve decided to run a little sale. Sketch 2.1 will be available for just $29 for the next 7 days, that’s $20 off the normal price!
murphy
Thanks for the update. Great work! Very good.
Matt Bainton
Did you also improve the app icon? I’ve always wished it looked a little more like the promo image on the site (less blue, crisper). Since the update I feel like the icon has been rendered a little sharper, but can’t tell if I’m making that up.
Thanks for the update guys!
aholsteinson
This is a fantastic and feature rich update! Great work!
tom
Great update, but imho you need tighter releases with focus on stability, bugs, ui and svg support. The feature set and workflow is already great (and even better now!). But we need to be able to trust Sketch to work at all times.
Pieter Omvlee
@Matt we did indeed. We had to provide a 1024×1024 version and we took that opportunity to polish the icon a bit more
@Tom We’ve made a lot of fixes and done a lot of stability improvements in this update and the three that came before it. Indeed this update took longer than expected, but that was mostly because of all the work involved with Retina.
Geppy Parziale
Thank you for your work and thanks for the update. This tool is fantastic.
Sketch 2.1 adds Retina support, more
[...] Retina support, more Posted by Dave Caolo on August 17, 2012 The folks at Bohemian Coding have released Sketch 2.1, with an emphasis on Retina display support. The update required many coding changes and [...]
Bob
Great improvements! Now if you could add symbols or another way to reuse layers I can finally dump Fireworks and start using Sketch for bigger projects
Sketch 2.1 adds Retina support, more – ntcinfo.com
[...] folks at Bohemian Coding have released Sketch 2.1, with an emphasis on Retina display support. The update required many coding changes and [...]
aholsteinson
I heard you guys were working on eps support, is that still in the works? Would be awesome if I could just open eps files in Sketch instead of having to open them in Illustrator and then copy/paste the elements in it to Sketch =)
Also, really love that we can now hide the Inspector and Layer List, but in the menu they don’t have a shortcut key, is there a hidden shortcut to hide them? It would be nice.
In any case, Sketch is fantastic and you guys keep making it better. I made the switch from Fireworks to Sketch for my web design work and it has been a blast. Great stuff.
Sergio Maldonado
How can I view the x and y position of an object, relative to the parent instead of the rulers, like in previous versions? This was very helpful for absolute positioning elements in CSS. I looked for a checkbox or something in the app preferences, and even clicking the labels below the text fields (like switching between RGB and HSL) with no luck.
Jordan Borth
I’m sold with this update.
I commend you guys for what you’re doing and the challenge you’re taking on; an app of this caliber coming from two guys is simply astounding. I should have made this purchase ages ago, especially before the sale; I feel like I’m stealing it
Keep up the great work Pieter and Emanuel! You guys are awesome.
Updated Sketch 2.1 Gets Retina Support, Faster, And More
[...] Coding, the developers behind Sketch, have released a brand new update for the Apple Design Award-winning graphic app. Sketch 2.1 comes with support [...]
Alexander
This is such an absolutely wonderful update.
Technable | Making you Technically Able
[...] folks at Bohemian Coding have released Sketch 2.1, with an emphasis on Retina display support. The update required many coding changes and [...]
Pipo
Nice update. If you introduce symbols and the option to name and group style presets (a better way to organize presets is really important) now Sketch would be nearly perfect.
Disappointment
Really disappointed with this update, it has given me only instability. The application does not launch properly , neither opens my old documents. It is now very slow and ressources consuming. In addition, it crashes with a surprising regularity. The old version does not open the documents I have edited with the new one…Support does not answer to my ticket… I have just read that there are only two of you, so I better understand now.
I hope you will see this comment and that it will be possible to fix all these issues.
Ryan
I just bought Sketch. I *REALLY* want it to replace Fireworks in my daily life of pushing pixels. I’m serious FW jockey – but that horse is nearing it’s end-of-life. Pretty soon Adobe will put it to rest I’m sure. The day I have NO Adobe apps on my machine will be a great one.
Nick
Please, better text handling! And “Convert to Shapes”. Thank you.
Johhny Mann
Hi Keep up with the excellent posts. Thank you
Michael
“@2x exports no longer go in their own subfolder”
8)
Doug Young
Sorry that I missed the sale – any way to be notified if it goes on sale again?
btw. the description on the App Store still mentions the discount (implying that the current price is discounted by $20)
Piotr
What is hte shourtcut for Edit? For Transform it is Command + T and for edit?
Pieter Omvlee
Press Return to edit.
Build & Ship | Week 4: Features, Details and Asking Questions
[...] Sketch App – 50% off [...]