Porchlight Slideshow › What's New

Changes

Porchlight Slideshow and Porchlight Player share one version number. Updates within version 1 are free for license holders.

1.3.0

Porchlight Slideshow

• Free to try, with a one-time license ($39) for the full version. The free version builds and previews a whole slideshow (one scene, up to two songs and 99 slides); a license adds Publish Slideshow, Export Video, map pins, the YAML editor, more scenes, songs and slides, song trimming and photo timing. Buy at porchlightslideshow.com/buy, then enter the emailed key in Settings → Enter License….
• Slideshows already made keep everything; only adding more, and sharing, need a license.

Porchlight Player

• Still free, with no limits.

1.2.6

Both apps

• On a Mac, both apps are now signed and notarized by Apple, so they open without the "unverified developer" warning, and so do the downloads.
• Now published by Mark Richmond (previously Never Never Gear). Help and support: support@porchlightslideshow.com.

Porchlight Slideshow

• The upgrade window's Buy a License button and the Publish dialog's name for screen readers now match the rest of the app.

1.2.5 (not released)

• Made only to test automatic updates; its build didn't run. 1.2.6 replaces it.

1.2.4

Porchlight Slideshow

• Porchlight Slideshow now checks for updates when it opens. When there's a newer version, the start screen offers Update and Restart; nothing is installed unless you click it. It shares only your IP address and version with GitHub, where updates are published (see the Privacy Note). Copies from 1.2.3 and earlier can't update themselves, so install 1.2.4 by hand.
• A long slideshow name stays on one line in the toolbar, ending in "…", instead of wrapping and making the toolbar taller. Click it to see and change the whole name.

1.2.3

Porchlight Slideshow

• A calmer toolbar: Visual | YAML, Preview (with Launch Player in its small arrow menu), an orange Publish (with Export Video in its arrow menu), then Undo, Redo, Help and Settings as plain icons. The Share menu is gone.
• The Publish dialog has a single Publish button that opens the folder chooser, replacing the Save to list.
• The update files for automatic updates are now published correctly.

1.2.2

Porchlight Slideshow

• Publish has one button, Publish to Location…: it opens the folder chooser and publishes where you pick.
• Slideshow settings › Screen ratio uses the same 16:9 / 4:3 / pencil control as Preview.
• Screen ratios are limited to between 2:1 and 1:2.
• Installed copies can now be updated automatically (the check itself is still switched off).

1.2.1

Porchlight Slideshow

• Open a photo (double-click it, or select it and press Enter or Edit Slide) to see it large, with its file name (click it to rename the photo), when (📅), where (🌎) and with which camera (📷) it was taken, and a map of the spot you can pan and zoom.
• Set how many seconds a photo stays on screen (full version). Left empty (the usual case), it shares the scene's music with the other photos as before; set, the other photos share what's left, and the reset arrow beside it clears it.
• Photos now dissolve into each other without dipping toward the background, so the same photo twice in a row no longer flashes between the two.
• The Intro Screen has a bright Done button that moves on to the first scene.
• The Mac Designer now carries the Mac Player too, so Publish can include it without installing anything first.
• Press Space with one slide selected to preview from it.
• Switch the screen ratio from Preview: 16:9, 4:3, or a pencil (type any width and height, such as 9:16) in the top-right corner. It changes the show's Screen ratio, and Undo puts it back.
• Text slides get the same reset arrow beside "Seconds on screen" (back to 5 sec, or 2 for the Intro Screen). Photos with their own seconds show them on their tile, and text slides show theirs the same way.
• Also written as an optional delay on a photo slide in slideshow.yaml.
• Clearer scenes: MUSIC and SLIDES headings with a summary of each ("2 songs · 3:24", "39 photos · 3.2 sec each"); songs are soft rows instead of a box, and the slide buttons sit under the Slides heading.
• The status bar sums up the whole slideshow: "10:21 slideshow length · 2 scenes · 3 songs · 140 slides", the length matching Preview and the exported video.
• Export Video: sizes listed smallest first with their shape and pixels; formats named HEVC and H.264.
• A new Intro Screen stays up for 2 seconds (in previews and videos). Text can be bigger (size up to 20). One-scene slideshows are called "Slideshow". Edit Slide opens a photo or text slide.
• Choose Light, Dark or System (following the computer) in Slideshow settings › Appearance.
• Thumbnails are calmer: no map pins (the photo view has the map) and no Delete button (select, then the Delete button above the grid or ⌫); hovering a photo's date shows its town on a second line. Slide numbers sit in a small outlined box, apart from the date.

Porchlight Player

• Honors a photo's delay. (Older Players ignore it and share the music as before.)

1.2.0

A new look

• Porchlight amber throughout, the lit-"i" wordmark, and new lantern app icons (the Player's has a play badge).
• Porchlight Player's own screens (choosing a folder, loading, errors) match, list the keys, and explain problems in plain words.

Porchlight Slideshow

• A first-run welcome, and friendlier empty scenes and music lists with Add Photos… and Add a Text Slide buttons.
• Help (?) opens the User's Guide in the app; About shows the version, credits and open-source licenses.
• Smoother dragging in big scenes (hundreds of photos).
• Accessibility: every field labelled, a keyboard way to select slides and open songs, better contrast.
• Every song shows its Delete button; + Add Song sits under the songs; the add and sort buttons sit above the slides; the slides scroll on their own under the scene title and songs.

Porchlight Player

• L shows the open-source licenses it's built from.

Behind the scenes

• Automated tests, and a cleaner Designer codebase.
• Licensing and automatic updates are built in but switched off.

1.1.0

• Renamed: Slideshow Designer is now Porchlight Slideshow, and Slideshow Player is now Porchlight Player. Published copies contain Porchlight Player (Mac) and Porchlight Player (Windows).
• Renaming photos by scene and slide number turns .jpeg into .jpg.

1.0.0 (as Slideshow Designer and Slideshow Player)

The first release.

Player

• Plays a slideshow folder fullscreen: photos crossfade in time to the music, text slides show for their seconds, and scenes each have their own songs.
• Space starts and pauses, the arrow keys step through slides, and Esc quits. Tab moves the show to the next display, F switches fullscreen off and on, and I shows the version.
• With more than one display, it opens on the external one (a projector or TV).
• Runs from a USB stick without installing (Windows), or beside the show (Mac).

Designer

• Build a slideshow by dragging in photos and songs; reorder slides and scenes by dragging.
• Text slides with several blocks of text, in Playfair Display, Roboto or Dancing Script (regular, bold and italic), or a font of your own.
• Trim songs on a waveform, with blends between them and fades at the edges.
• Preview the slideshow, or edit its slideshow.yaml directly, with a built-in guide.
• Sort photos by the date they were taken; show where a photo was taken on a map.
• Publish a ready-to-play copy (a zip or a folder, e.g. on a USB stick) with the Players for Mac and Windows, optionally naming photos by scene and slide number.
• Export a video (720p, 1080p, 4K, or 4:3), in HEVC or H.264.
• Opens slideshows made for the old Flash player, converting them.