Leo Sketch supports rectangles, ovals, polygons and stars, as well as a full bezier curve editor. You can also add, subtract, and delete shapes to create new ones. Combined with an innovative scale and rotate tool you can draw pretty much anything you can imagine with Leo Sketch.
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Oct
01
2011
Need help testing new Transform and Presentation features
I’ve just updated Leo with two very important features.
First, we now have a transform tool to let you move, rotate, and scale any object. Currently it only works with Paths but I will add support for other shapes soon. I really need feedback on the interface for the transform tool. Currently you select a path, press Command-T, and it will put a circle with some lines and handles on top of the shape to be transformed. Drag the handles around then click somewhere else to make the change permanent. Let me know what you think about how it works and what it should look like.
The other big feature is themes for the presentation mode. Now you can create simple slide decks and switch between 4 prefab themes. Then you can export to an HTML file which contains your entire presentation styled properly, including the custom fonts. Please test this and tell me the bugs you find. Suggestions for good themes and fonts would be greatly appreciated as well. Is there a particular javascript presentation lib that you like to use?
Thanks guys!
As always, please send feedback to the list or to me on twitter.
Aug
14
2011
New Build is UPP!
I’ve just pushed out a new build of Leonardo and Amino. This is mainly to improve fidelity when exporting graphics to Amino JS. Every shape and fill type is supported now, as are shadows if you cache the node.
I’m looking for people to seriously bang on this build before I call it a 1.0. Please try all of the import and export and see what breaks. I’m also looking for volunteers to do some short screencasts and create sample artwork.
Download the latest builds here.
Thanks! – josh
Jun
18
2011
New Build is Up
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on Leonardo because my son was born a few weeks ago. I did get a chance to do a bit of work this evening, however, so I just pushed out a new build.
- I’ve enabled the new bitmap editing mode. It’s super alpha-quality, really more of a proof of concept, but it lets you use a pencil or draw with a brush. It uses a tile based system underneath so that eventually we can have an infinitely large bitmap to draw on.
- Added a TreeView to the sidebar. This lets you see every page and node in your document as a tree. Mainly good for debugging, but it’ll have more features in the future (you’ll see!)
- Added Amino.js export. This is the big one. Now you can export your drawing as nodes using the Amino JavaScript Canvas library. Every shape becomes a node in Amino, so then you can easily add animation and event handling with very little extra code. I’m working on a tutorial to show how this works.
That’s it for now. Time for a nap!
May
07
2011
Beta 2 of Leonardo 1.0 is ready
I’ve just pushed out a new build of Leonardo 1.0 with a bunch of bug fixes. It also has one UI change by anonymous request from the ‘make a wish’ button. The opacity and stroke width sliders now have numeric indicators. Download it now!
Please report any bugs you find. Especially test the translations for different languages.
- spinboxes now use the mouse wheel, arrow keys, and have max/min values
- added numeric indicator to the opacity slider
- fixed bug when duplicating shapes with gradient fills
- fix exporting groups to Canvas code
- added icons for text alignment
- let user delete stops from radial gradient
- fix bug in text node duplication
- set default font to junction
- fix preferences directory on linux
Apr
25
2011
First Beta of Leonardo 1.0
I haven’t been able to do much work on Leonardo Sketch lately due to the impending birth of first child and the nearly as impending release of the HP TouchPad. Before they arrive I want to get Leonardo 1.0 out the door, so I need your help. I’ve just posted what I’m calling the first beta of 1.0. I plan to have a new beta every few days and I need your help testing it. If you find any bugs, please just mail me at joshua at marinacci dot org. The goal is a stable 1.0 product before the end of May (Jesse’s due date).
New since the last build:
- Completely rebuilt fill picker. You can now choose a gradient, color, or pattern
- Rebuilt gradient picker. Directly adjust gradients on the shape, with a mini color picker for the gradient stops.
- Better import / export support for SVG
Please focus testing on editing gradients, changing shape properties, and import/export. And of course we always welcome improvements to our translations. Thanks!
Dec
31
2010
Ruby Red Remixed
The next major release of Leonardo, Glowing Green, is still a work in progress. However, we didn’t want you to have to wait until 2011 for some cool new stuff. So for New Years Eve we’ve got a new release called Ruby Red Remixed with some great new features and tons of bug fixes.
New Features
Just a few of the great new features and bug fixes in Ruby Red Remixed.
Infinite Canvas: The canvas will automatically grow as you add new objects to your drawing, even if they are beyond the edges of the document. Never run out of space again.
Draggable guidelines: create guidelines by dragging them out from the ruler. Objects will snap to them automatically.
Flickr upload support: Now you can upload your creations directly to Flickr as well as Twitter.
Improved SVG Import: Lots of Illustrator symbols can be imported now by exporting them as SVG from Illustrator.
New Rectangle UI: set rectangle corner radius and gradients directly with handles instead of with a palette. Much easier to use.
Improved translations, including Japanese. Edit or create new translations easily using the debug menu in the preferences.
Make stars using the NGon tool Create stars and N-sided polygons with handles.
New group UI New alignment and union/subtraction/intersection buttons show up in the palette whenever you select multiple shapes.
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Other Improvements
- (Mac only) .LEOZ file association. Open files by double clicking on them, or drag to the dock icon in the Finder
- collapsible sidebar
- improved rendering of onscreen graphics when zoomed in
- set a preferred locale to override the default
- actions which only work on multiple nodes will now only be enabled when you actually have multiple nodes selected
- let you clear the Flickr cache from the preferences
- improved look of the rulers
- fixed tons of bugs
Dec
17
2010
AppBundler and a Christmas Surprise
Christmas Snow Simulator
For the past few months I’ve been working on an open source UI toolkit and scenegraph called Amino. While everything I’ve shown so far is traditional 2D desktop features, I have always planned to have 3D support as well. Since Christmas is coming up I thought it would be fun to build a simple snowflake simulator with true 3D graphics.
If you check out the source to Amino you’ll find this simulator under src/org/joshy/gfx/test/threedee/Xmas.java . The code is pretty simple, actually. It creates a bunch of particle objects which are subclasses of TransformNode, the base for all 3D transforms. When particles are created they get initialized with a position, falling velocity, angular speed, and snowflake image. Then I just drop them into a Group inside the scene and turn the crank on every repaint. Pretty standard stuff, but also quite easy to do with Amino since it handles all of the actual OpenGL code for you.
The simulator is fun, and it’s a good test for the 3D scenegraph, but the real magic of this demo isn’t what it does, but how it’s deployed. I built it with a new tool called AppBundler, which can generate a Windows EXE, a Mac .app bundle, a WebStart JNLP, and an executable jar all from a single codebase.
Dec
10
2010
Amino + Swing = Crazy Delicious
Amino, the toolkit that Leonardo is built on, has lots of cool features like a scenegraph, CSS control skinning, and dynamic translation editing. You just have write your app in Amino and you get the cool stuff for free. But what if you have an existing Swing application and don’t want to rewrite it? Don’t worry, Amino’s got you covered.
Amino now has beta integration with Swing. You can drop any Amino scene into a Swing panel, then mix it with the rest of your app. The key is the JComponentWrapper class, which implements JComponent and contains Amino Nodes.
Rectangle aminoRect = new Rectangle(0,0,20,20).setFill(FlatColor.BLUE);
JComponentWrapper wrapper = new JComponentWrapper();
wrapper.setContent(aminoRect);
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
panel.add(wrapper,BorderLayout.CENTER);
That’s all you have to do. JComponentWrapper will process all of the repaints and map Swing events to Amino events. Here’s a screenshot of a more complicated example that embeds a custom Amino chart in the middle of a frame with other Swing components.
To learn more about Amino, you can:
- visit the overview page
- download the source
- Join the developer list
- Visit the Google Code site
Dec
08
2010
More Translations Needed
Leonardo is closing in on Beta One, aka: Glowing Green (R2B1). I’ve revamped the translation system using the new Amino inline translation editor, which lets you switch locales and edit translations on the fly.
Now we really need some volunteers to review the current translations and create new ones. Currently we have mostly complete English, German, French, Croatian and Turkish translations. Want to support a new language? It’s easy to contribute!
Instructions for translating Leonardo:
Launch Leonardo. You can get the latest build from here:
http://projects.joshy.org/Leonardo/daily/
Open the ‘Preferences‘ dialog and check the ‘Enable Debug Menu‘ checkbox. Now restart Leonardo.
Now you will see a ‘Debug‘ menu. Choose ‘Edit Translations‘ to open the translations dialog.
Now you can switch locales on the fly, view any string in the app, see what locales are listed for that string, and update it’s value. After you have edited a translation you can export it to a file with the Export button. Then email the file to me or post it in a issue on the code site.
Thanks!