Well, you’ve guessed it, TypograFix 1.6 is out!!! There’s been lots of additions which, I’m happy to say, were driven by need rather than a desire to just code something. Here is a summary of some of the things that have been implemented recently.

• Freeform images like . These images are not only generated inside the program by Direct2D, but they can also be automatically uploaded to a web server of your choice (I’m using a good old-fashioned Asp.Net web service here), so posting text rendered as images on any online resource is suddenly very easy.

  On a small sidenote, this functionality is one of a very small number of features that I’ve made using C++ instead of C#. Deployment got a lot tougher, but the advantages are well worth it.

• Graphs. Yes, I’m only just getting started with graphs here, but already I’ve got some successes, weaving a DSL into my editor and managing to produce pretty graph structures, like the one seen on the right. The only thing I have failed to make (stupid me) is any support for subpixel hinting. Bizarrely, those same methods that have worked for me in the process of generating WPF images have totally stopped working when using the Automated Graph Layout. Which is just sad, really.

• I’ve managed to add syntax highlighting and discriminator tags for a few languages, most notably Boo. Syntax highlighting is still a pain for many reasons (none of them being my fault), but at least I’m getting to a state where this feature is universally usable.

• Autoinsertion options save a lot of time. Basically, the F1—F12 keys can be customized to emit strings when pressed. For example, my F2 keys emits a close-of-article mark,  ■, in HTML. Very useful.

• There are some all-round UI improvements. To improve update speeds as well as mitigate potential problems, I’ve implemented caching for images, and have also added a feature where text transformation can be temporarily suspended so that 10-sec delays do not throw you off if you’re doing something important.

• Last but not least, I’ve added support for M:tG symbols. It may not seem like much, but now I have a very efficient shortcut for typing RGBWU and getting rendered on the page. It’s one of those little niceties when you write your own editor.

That’s all for now. As always, after any serious release, I’ll be off to test all this stuff and iron out the bugs. Rest assured, version 1.7 is already in the works.