#photostack

PhotoStack 2 may look very similar to the existing version, but it has been significantly re-written to take better advantage of newer browser features like JavaScript Promises. It’s now a single-page web app, and thanks to Promises, the interface is more responsive during intensive tasks (like exporting).

The main improvement to the editor is that images are now resized using Pica.js, which means photos scaled down in size will no longer appear heavily pixelated. The pixelation effect on earlier versions of PhotoStack was especially noticeable with screenshots and images with text watermarks. There’s also a new sharpness setting for the resize function.

The watermark editor has also been significantly overhauled. Clicking the ‘Manage watermarks’ button in the main editor now opens a popup containing a list of all saved watermarks - along with edit, delete, and export buttons for each. Also, you can now import multiple watermark files at once.

Other improvements in PhotoStack 2 include: keyboard shortcuts, printing support for previews, improved support for Safari, an icon badge for completed exports (only on Chrome, for now), a progress bar for exports, a ‘Clear’ button for clearing imported images, and lots of bug fixes.

Because PhotoStack 2 requires newer browser features, I’m also releasing PhotoStack Classic. The Classic app is a continuation of the 1.x codebase, so it works in browsers as old as Internet Explorer 10, while also containing some improvements from 2.x (like the Clear button). PhotoStack Classic will continue to be supported, and watermark files created in 2.0 can be opened in Classic, and vice-versa.

On the desktop (and tablets), PhotoStack now uses a dual-pane layout that uses all available screen width. A preview is on the left, and all settings are on the right. If your preview image is especially tall, it will shrink to fit your screen’s height. Also, it will always stay in view, even if you scroll up and down the options.

The mobile view has seen the most improvement. Previously, exporting images used to require clicking the menu button, and then clicking the Export button. On small screens, PhotoStack now displays a toolbar permanently fixed to the bottom of the screen, which contains both the Import and Export buttons. PhotoStack is much easier to use this way.

The watermark editor has received the same visual facelift, with a two-pane interface and a fixed toolbar on mobile devices. I think there’s still more I could do in the way of making the watermark editor easier to use, but this is still an improvement.

These interface changes are on top of everything else added to PhotoStack since release, which include a faster multi-process export function for newer browsers, support for the Web Share Level 2 on Android (exported images can be directly shared to installed apps), notifications for finished exports, and more.