Version History

Development timeline and changes

Latest Release

Data and files

Metadata ids now match the cleaned-up names of the uploaded images: the id Bowl 01 finds the image Bowl_01.png, and ids that contain a dot, such as US.12, are kept whole (before, they were cut at the dot)
.tif files are now loaded (the upload accepted them, but they were silently ignored)
Uploading the images after the spreadsheet no longer deletes the spreadsheet
Drawings with a transparent background (such as the PNG files exported by PyPotteryTrace) keep a white background when captions are on, instead of turning black

Captions and sorting

Unticking every metadata field now writes only the file name (it wrote all the fields)
The Random sort order is the same in the preview and in the exported file, and it changes when you select it again

Preview

The preview sorts all the drawings first and then shows the first 25, so page 1 matches the beginning of the exported plates
The notice that the preview is limited now appears whenever it is (before, only above 100 drawings)
Only the page you see is rendered, and the previews of the previous settings are removed, instead of piling up in the outputs/ folder

Reliability

Fonts and icons are served from the app, so the interface looks the same without an internet connection
Crashes are reported with a timestamp and the name of the thread that failed, which makes problems easier to diagnose
When started from source, the app listens only on the local computer (127.0.0.1) and no longer runs in debug mode

New features:
- Independent top spacing control for grid and puzzle layouts, separate from the outer page margin
- Margin border overlay now also included in SVG exports (previously PDF/JPG only)
- Table numbering: added “Bottom Left” and “Bottom Right” position options
- Interface redesigned to match the shared PyPottery design system (header, tabs, buttons and “About” panel now consistent with the rest of the suite)
- Settings panel reorganized into “Basic” and “Advanced” tabs
Reliability:
- The app now shuts itself down a few seconds after the browser tab is closed, freeing memory automatically, with a confirmation prompt to prevent accidental closures
- Fixed a startup issue that could keep the app from launching correctly when the PyPottery Launcher had to fall back to an alternate port

New features:
- Flexible filename↔︎metadata matching: extension and case are now ignored when linking images to metadata rows
- Scale can now be entered as a ratio (e.g., 1:2) in addition to a decimal factor
- “Show sort value as chapter title”: prints the current Primary Sort value once per group, right-aligned in the page margin
- Table number label is now inset from the page border when Show Margin Border is enabled
- “Bottom Right” added as an Object Numbering position
- Loading overlay shown while images are uploading, so the app no longer looks stuck on large batches

Key Features:

Key Features: