2.3 Sneak Peek

We recently wrapped up development of forScore version 2.3, and we’re very excited to share it with you, so we’ve put together this sneak peek highlighting some of the biggest changes it includes:

The most significant revisions have been made to forScore’s annotation feature. We’ve redesigned the controls, added undo/redo support, and taken the drawing presets and stamps features to a whole new level.

Since we first included support for annotations, we’ve been battling to balance two important things: the accessibility of the annotation controls versus the extent to which they cover up the page. The new control bar is bigger and much easier to use without accidentally touching the drawing area, but it also solves the problem of obscuring the page by fading away whenever you start annotating. And, with the extra space we’ve gained by enlarging the controls, we’ve been able to add undo/redo buttons in a way that’s far less confusing than it otherwise could have been. Due to memory constraints, undo support is limited to 5 levels for now, but we’re hoping to expand that in the future as iPad hardware evolves.

That’s just the beginning, though! We’ve really taken our drawing presets up a notch, allowing users to create an unlimited number of presets with full on-the-fly editability. Our new style editor is simple to use and includes a beautiful live preview of your preset as you adjust hue, saturation, brightness, transparency, and size. It’s an unparalleled level of customization that we think will set us apart from our competition even more.

We’ve extended this philosophy to our redesigned Stamps feature, too. The new page-based panel allows you to select a particular design before you place it, giving you a much more useful indication of the stamp’s final placement as you drag your finger around on the screen. The new panel is also customizable: tap the edit button and rearrange or delete any of the 58 pre-loaded symbols to best suit your needs. If you need a symbol that’s not included by default, or if you’d like to adjust one of the existing stamps, you can use the new stamp creator to draw and save designs right from within the app. You can even import stamps from 48×48 PNG files added via iTunes file sharing!

Annotation is a big part of this update, but it’s not the only part. We’ve added support for password-protected PDF files, significantly improved the speed of sequential page turns, and added search and “check/uncheck all” capability to the batch edit picker.

A lot of apps out there promise all sorts of “great new features coming soon!” and it’s easy to get jaded when those features never materialize. We’re proud of what we do, and we’re happy to be consistently fulfilling that promise with rich updates and constant improvement. This year has been an incredible ride for us, and we can’t wait to keep pushing our own limits in 2011. Your feedback has led to strong updates like these, and we’re not going to stop working to make forScore the best app it can be!

Sincerely,
The forScore Team