Black Ink

Black Ink 2.4
Jan 17, 2025
New: Quick Look support for puzzle files lets you preview puzzles stored outside of Black Ink
New: "Smartened" clue text for prettier quotes, dashes, and ellipses (“”, ‘’, —, …)
Printing improvements
New: Ink Saver option for text darkness in addition to grid darkness
New: Sizing options to specify larger or smaller grid and clues
New: Option to specify that the grid should print to a separate page
Restore header and footer sections on printed pages
Fix a crash that could occur when printing puzzle clues separately from the puzzle grid
In Dark Mode, the "white" puzzle squares are now a little lighter gray, for better contrast
Added a setting allowing automatic movement to next word after filling a word
Added a setting to configure the space bar to switch puzzle direction
Multi-character answers are now drawn inset slightly more from the edge of the square
Overlay images are now drawn on top of the puzzle grid contents and clue numbers
Improved error handling for scenarios where an app like TripMode is blocking network access
Fix a bug that could cause overlay images to draw outside the bounds of the puzzle grid
Escape key now causes About Box and Settings windows to close
Copyright © 2025 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Black Ink 2.3.3
Oct 9, 2024
Fix a bug that prevented the puzzle chooser from defaulting to the previously selected month and year
Non-applicable comments in some visual NYT clues are no longer displayed
Printing improvements to avoid splitting a clue's text across pages or wrapping prematurely
Puzzle timer now records puzzle solve timing even if timer is not visible
If the app is opened in the background, puzzle timer won't start until app is activated
Accessibility Improvements:
Puzzle square status such as being circled or shaded, marked incorrect, etc., are now announced by VoiceOver
Fix a bug that could prevent changed values to cells being reflected by VoiceOver

Black Ink 2.3.2
May 4, 2024
Fix a bug that caused an alert to appear after every entry if "Automatic Correction" is enabled and the puzzle has no answers included.

Black Ink 2.3.1
Apr 30, 2024
New puzzle sources: Lex's Minis and Lex's Crosswords
Improved the accuracy of overlay image drawing over puzzle grid
Fixed the drawing of overlay image drawing in printed puzzles
Attempting to check or reveal answers on puzzles with no answers now displays an explanatory alert
Improve performance when opening the puzzle chooser when it has to search many years for an unsolved puzzle
Now adapts the window size more precisely when screen resolution changes
Fix a glitch that caused the Puzzle Notes text to no longer fit in the popover when detached from window
Puzzle chooser now ensures the selected source name is visible
Fix an issue that caused excessive memory use when opening and closing many puzzles
Now supports entering a hyphen or a period as a special entry answer

Black Ink 2.3
Mar 15, 2024
Now supports puzzles that specify graphical overlays on the puzzle
Now supports puzzles that specify multiple correct answers for a given square
Blank answers that are correct are now treated as such
Small adjustments to size and layout of puzzle title and copyright
Fix a bug that caused puzzles to close without being saved in some cases
Now requires macOS 10.15.4 or later

Black Ink 2.2.9
Feb 4, 2024
Fix a problem that prevented New York Times logins from succeeding
Now requires macOS 10.13 or later
Copyright © 2024 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Black Ink 2.2.8
Improvements to NYT authentication process
Calendar picker favors the current/latest puzzle date if a new puzzle has arrived since last opening
Calendar picker allows selection of valid puzzle days from the next/previous month

Black Ink 2.2.7
Mitigate issues that caused NYT to think Black Ink users are "robots"

Black Ink 2.2.6
Quick fix to restore Auto Check feature while solving

Black Ink 2.2.5
Prevent a superflous error message when canceling Across Lite export
Clicking the circle in the calendar interface now jumps to the current day
Fix a bug that prevented Edit -> Copy from working in the Puzzle Notes popover
Fix a bug that prevented the Puzzle Notes popover from staying open while detached from window
Answers with diacritical marks (like Ñ) are now considered correct even if diacritical is not included
Copyright © 2023 Red Sweater Software, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Black Ink 2.2.4
Puzzle Notes popover is now keyboard navigable
Shift-arrow keystroke now changes focused word without changing the current direction
Puzzle picker now supports left arrow key to navigate from calendar view back to puzzle list
Refinements to focused square coloring
Check for Updates now includes a link to Version History when there are no new updates
Fix some subtle issues with determining the valid dates for downloading puzzles
Fix issues with text encoding of Across Lite puzzles with unicode characters