ImageFramer 2.4.7 now adds the option to limit the shadow from the frame to be only inside the frame. Designs that use this will have export image size to be same as without shadows but all the shadows and bevel lighting inside the frame will be intact, giving your more flexibility.

Also, we’ve added 10 new frames (actually 3 of them are variations of the same original frame).

As always, use auto-update or download from the regular location.

Also, make sure to see the latest newsletter. Subscribe, if you aren’t subscribed yet. There’s ImageFramer 3 preview in there.

This is the relevant part of our press release.

Apparent Software announced today that it has acquired Blasted, a productivity booster application from Ted Roden. The application places all recently used files at user’s fingertips, providing fast and easy access to them. This acquisition promises an exciting future for the application, which already has hundreds of enthusiastic users. As part of the acquisition the application is renamed to “Blast” and an important upgrade, version 1.2, is released.

Blast keeps track of all the files the user has been recently using on his Mac. With Blast, all these documents are just one click away. The user can access the file list anytime by clicking on the application icon in the menu bar. Some benefits of using Blast:

• User doesn’t need to worry about where he just saved a certain file – it’s in his menu bar
• User can drag downloaded files directly into any application without opening finder and send email attachments faster
• User doesn’t need to search for a document he was reading yesterday. It is in Blast list, one click away
• As part of the launch, Apparent Software releases a major update to the application

Version 1.2 includes the following new features:

• A preview for all the files in the list allows the user to find his file visually just by looking at its icon
• A favorites sidebar allows user to save his favorite folders and files to be accessed at any time
• Application shows the list of recent files even after it was closed and the computer was rebooted
• Improved user interface with several new features, like showing the path to the file

See more about Blast.

We’re glad to announce that Cashculator is now distributed in Japan by ACT2. ACT2 has been distributing ImageFramer in Japan for almost 2 years now, since version 2 was released.

Cashculator 1.1.4 is fully localized in Japanese including the tutorials and the user manual. ACT2 provides local support in Japanese.

You can learn more about Cashculator in Japanese http://www.act2.com/products/cashculator.html

Today’s release of ImageFramer 2.4.5 adds 11 new frames into Larson Juhl’s set in Manufacturer’s collection. As always, use auto-update or download from http://www.apparentsoft.com/imageframer/download.

Today we released ImageFramer 2.4.4 with several little changes:

• FIX: Now when loading a design on application launch, the frames selection pane will open.
• FIX: More robust license key check to prevent erroneous rejects of licenses, in some cases.
• NEW: ImageFramer version is now displayed in Finder’s Get Info panel.

You can download ImageFramer as always from download page or use the built-in auto-update mechanism.

We’ve released ImageFramer 2.4.3. It now fixes several issues that lingered for some time without a fix plus added a couple most requested features such as dropping images from iPhoto and overwrite warning when dropping to Finder or during batch processing. Full release notes:

• NEW: Now supports dragging from iPhoto.
• NEW: Added a warning on export if file exists when dragging and when saving on batches.
• FIX: Saving a JPEG no longer produces black border. Now uses background color.
• FIX: No more frame artifacts on Snow Leopard on high size exports.
• FIX: When automatic startup settings file doesn’t exist, ignore the setting. This prevents a bug where users report that they can’t add mats.
• CHANGE: Now doesn’t lock Finder while saving large images.
• CHANGE: Reduced shadow blur radius for faster operation.

Download ImageFramer at http://www.apparentsoft.com/imageframer/download.

A crashing bug was reported by David Zizza in the variations drawer handling. David also suggested a small usability feature regarding loading variations. Here’s the changelog:

• Fixed: a critical bug that caused ImageFramer to crash when working with variation that used different frames.
• New: When loading designs into the variations drawer, if they were not named specifically before saving through the variations table, they’ll now be loaded and shown in the table using their file name. If the user did change the default variation name before saving, it will be shown instead of the file name. So both approaches now produces easier variation handling
• Fixed: In french localization, the save setting dialog could become too narrow, causing the buttons on the buttom to collide. Fixed by limiting the minimum width of the save dialog to accommodate the longer french text.

Download the new version from http://www.apparentsoft.com/imageframer/download.

ImageFramer version 2.4.1 is out with the following changes:

• Added new option in File menu to save the image over original image. Defaults to same target image (if tif, png or jpg) and size derived from original.
• Saving to TIFF files now adds ‘.tif’ extension instead of ‘.tiff’

Above changes allow for easy interoperability with other applications that use ImageFramer as an external editor, like Adobe Lightroom. You can now add ImageFramer as an external editor in Lightroom. Then in Photos menu select Edit In > ImageFramer.

Let Lightroom render the file as 8-bit TIF and launch ImageFramer for you. When you add your frame, select File > Save Image… from the menu and it will default to overwrite the original file with the size derived from it as well. The framed image will be nicely stacked (if you chose so) with the original in the Library.

ImageFramer 2.4 has the following changes:

• Snow Leopard fixes for the frame filters. No other known problems exist in Snow Leopard. Report if you find any.
• French localization. Now ImageFramer is available in English, French and Japanese.
• Some memory leak fixes.

Enjoy and let your friends know about ImageFramer.

A fix was found and implemented that deals with the issue of chopped frames in ImageFramer on Snow Leopard. See previous post for the details of the problem.

Release is expected on Tuesday or Wednesday, together with updates to Japanese translation and possibly an additional French translation.

Those in hurry to use ImageFramer on Snow Leopard before the update arrives, please contact us to get a preview version.