Curio 33 Release Notes 📖

Improvements

Smarter Importing

Major rewrite of import code to classify groups of similar dropped files so we can support a use for all similar files in this drop checkbox. If Option held when dropping, indicating aliases to files, then you can also choose the file-sync direction (bidirectional, export only, import only).

Relatedly, the status bar will now indicate if a figure you're hovering over syncs with a file.

Here we've dropped several files including mixed markdown text, markdown list-only files, and csv files.

Select Options

It's now much easier to select only figures or only scribbles. Just click and hold on the select tool to choose a specific option. No more magic modifier key incantations.

Glow Options

Sometimes it's hard to tweak your figure borders and colors and make minor positioning adjustments when selection glows and grab handles are in the way. Now you can tap W to toggle off glow and ⇧W to toggle off handles making it easier to see what you're doing while the figures remain selected. Tap the keys again to toggle them back on. These are temporary overrides just for the current idea space viewing.

1️⃣ Normal selection glows and grab handles:

1️⃣ Tapped the W key so glows are off but and grab handles are still visible:

1️⃣ Tapped ⇧W so now both are off, but remember the figures are still selected:

Async URL Figure Meta and Previews

When dragging an URL into Curio all website meta data, including icon and preview images, are now loaded asynchronously (in the background) using a hybrid of Apple's native LinkPresentation framework plus a custom website OpenGraph description parser, instead of synchronously retrieving and parsing all meta info using custom code. If you've enabled URL figure previews via Format > Default Figure Settings > By Default Show URL As Preview then a normal link figure is shown until the loaded meta info comes in then the figure refreshes with the preview.

In short this means no more pause when dragging in links; they are now placed instantly and will silently refresh a few seconds later.

More Improvements

• Status Shelf
  The Status shelf and code related to the background retrieval of tasks in opened and unopened projects has been significantly refactored to make it much robust and prevent race conditions, potential deadlocks, and synchronization issues.
• Better Backups
  If you've enabled Curio's built-in automatic backups, Curio will now store a zipped version of your project, instead of a simple copy, in the specified Backups folder. This saves space, makes backups faster with cloud-synced backup folders, and backed-up projects won't be found by Spotlight meaning you won't accidentally open your backups instead of your real projects. The zipping happens asynchronously so won't slow project opening.
• Window > New Window
  When you choose Window > New Window, Curio will now store the current project and session state (Organizer selection, etc) before opening the new window so it appears in the same state.
• Arrange > Lock Position
  You are now able to add/remove/rearrange items within a collection/composition that has its position locked via Arrange > Lock Position.
• Figure Auto Spacing
  The auto spacing algorithm is now more robust for figures that have Resizes should move figures closely underneath checked in the Geometry inspector panel.
• Smarter Project Link Resolution
  The Project Mappings file (in Curio's app support folder) is now updated with the project ID → project URL mapping at every project open and save. This means curio:// links, which contain project ID's, will automatically work without resorting to an internal Spotlight search or asking the user to locate the project.
• Markdown Code Blocks Enhancements
  Like the new language code blocks, regular code blocks now support padding, border, and inserted blank lines before/after the block.
• Markdown Code Blocks with Tildes
  You can now use 3 tildes as an alternative to 3 backticks for a code block. This brings Curio into compliance with CommonMark and is easier to type than backticks on certain international keyboards.
• Markdown Master Style Font Sizes
  For your master markdown styles you can now specify a font-size with a px suffix to indicate pixel units like 16px, as opposed to standard points (where 12pt=16px), or with a % suffix like 85% which specifies a font size as a percentage of the default or body font size. The latter is handy if you want your language code block to be a tad smaller than surrounding body text, like Github's 85% or ChatGPT's 87.5%.
• Markdown Master Style Padding/Border
  Curio can now handle more advanced values for attributes like padding and border-width when used with markdown block quotes, code blocks, and language code blocks. Like their CSS counterparts you can now specify up to four numerics:
  padding:10 = all four sides
  padding:10 10 = top/bottom, left/right
  padding:10 10 10 = top, left/right, bottom
  padding:10 10 10 10 = top, right, bottom, and left.
• Markdown Master Changed
  

  After making changes to the master markdown file Curio will ask if you want to re-render all your idea space previews when you close the project, or right now, or manually via the Organizer > Regenerate Idea Space Previews menu. Regardless of what you choose Curio will always make sure an idea space’s thumbnail and underlying preview are up to date when you select, export, or print the idea space.

• Print Markdown Figures As Text
  When you select a markdown figure containing a list and choose Share > Print Selected Figure As Text, the lists will now neatly wrap according to their indentions.
• Export As Markdown Into Separate Files
  When you select multiple figures and choose to Share > Export As > Markdown you will see a new Export figures as separate markdown files checkbox. When checked instead of going into a single markdown file each figure will export into its own sequentially numbered markdown file.
• Color Specifications
  Colors specified in your Curio settings or Master Markdown Styles have long supported syntax like #ff0000 and rgb(255, 0, 0) and rgb(255, 0, 0, 0.35), and has now been extended with more accepted syntax such as rgb(255, 0, 0, 35%), rgb(255 0 0 / 35%), rgb(100% 0% 0%), rgb(100% 0 0 / .35), rgb(100% 0 0 / 35%) for those more familiar with those CSS rgb syntax formats.
• Figure Share Sheets
  Our Share hierarchical menu no longer has entries that connect to macOS Share services, as those have been deprecated by Apple. So now the menu has a Share As Text Via Share Sheet and Share As Image Via Share Sheet which will pop up the standard macOS Share sheet over the figure.
• Video Poster Artwork
  For video files, if no poster frame or start frame is specified by the user then Curio will try to find an embedded poster art in the video's meta data and use that. If it can't find anything then it defaults to the first frame of the video.
• Remove Instant Document
  The Insert > Instant Document > Remove Instant Document item is now a submenu so you can immediately remove a user-added instant document (instead of showing the internal app support folder which was flakey on Curio for Mac App Store).
• Project Library Thumbnails
  The rendering of project library thumbnails is now smarter: either a low-level image thumbnail request for images or a Quick Look thumbnail request for other file types. Either case is completely asynchronous and controlled so a large library doesn't swamp the system with thumbnail requests. One convenient side effect is thumbnails for PDF's now show annotations such as highlight coloring. Plus there's a new right-click Refresh Thumbnail to refresh its image.
• Opening Projects With Same ID
  The warning that appears if you open two projects with the same project ID, like if you duplicate a project, is now smarter.
• URL Detection
  When importing files as lists or tables, when creating individual figures within that collection Curio now detects non-website URLs like curio:///blah and imports them as link figures.