Black Ink

Black Ink 2.3
Mar 15, 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

Black Ink 2.2.9
Feb 4, 2024
Fix a problem that prevented New York Times logins from succeeding
Now requires macOS 10.13 or later
Copyright © 2024 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Black Ink 2.2.8
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

Black Ink 2.2.7
Mitigate issues that caused NYT to think Black Ink users are "robots"

Black Ink 2.2.6
Quick fix to restore Auto Check feature while solving

Black Ink 2.2.5
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
Copyright © 2023 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Black Ink 2.2.4
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

Black Ink 2.2.3
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

Black Ink 2.2.2
Fix a crashing bug when opening NYT puzzles on some Macs
Fix drawing of clue text with superscript and subscript characters

Black Ink 2.2.1
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

Black Ink 2.2
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
New York Times enhancements:
Support for shaded squares (previously they were shown as circles)
Support for italics, bold, and special characters in clue text
The app now prompts to open another puzzle after finishing with one
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
Copyright © 2022 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.