A new version of graphic design package ArtWorks has been released - and it fixes bugs dating back to the olden days of Computer Concepts. Version 2.75 was produced before work begins on the next milestone, 2.8, due for release at next year's Wakefield show.The new release includes 20 "significant fixes", including updates to the software's internal gubbins, changes to the the alignment dialogue box and text to shape conversion, plus a fix for an issue with static shape clipping on ARM9-powered computers - an issue that rendered intersection, hatching, pattern fills and Draw export of graduated fills unusable on A9homes.
It also comes with two minor new features: a new option in the alignment dialogue box which allows users to align objects to the page boundaries and a minor improvement to rotation and scaling. The latter now uses the geometric centre of a polygon rather than the centre of its bounding box.
This latest update can be downloaded for free by all AW 2.7 users from a password protected area on the MW Software website.
Programmer Martin Wuerthner, who took over development of ArtWorks from original publishers Computer Concepts, said this week: "Just before a major release there is usually little time for fixing long-standing known bugs, so quite a few of them have accumulated over time, many of them dating back right to ArtWorks 1.0.
"On top of that, some minor problems have surfaced with features adding more recently. So, I have finally decided to spend some time on tracking down and fixing bugs before starting work on the next major release, ArtWorks 2.8, which is scheduled for next year's Wakefield Show.
"As usual, details will be announced in time."
The freely available ArtWorks document viewer AWViewer has been updated to version 2.10. It can display multi-page files and can now be used as a very basic presentation package in full-screen mode.
Also, a while ago, Martin also released ABIMod 2.88 to address crashes seen with Impression and ArtWorks 1 with RISC OS Select 4.
Links
MW Software website