What’s New with Sketch — Latest Updates and Features (Page 8)

We’ve given the Inspector in the Sketch web app an upgrade. You’ll now see a highlight around Symbols on the Canvas and in the Inspector, plus there’s support for Shared Styles and Color Variables. We’ve also given it a speed boost, and made a whole host of smaller improvements, too.

Open your Workspace to try it out

Documents window improvements

We’ve introduced a new Workspace switcher at the top of the sidebar in the Documents window. You can switch between Workspaces you’re a member or guest of, and only see that Workspace’s documents and projects.

Improvements (3)

You can now quickly access the new Document Settings window with the keyboard shortcut ⌘ ⇧ ,
You can now lock or unlock the ratio of Slice layers from the Inspector.
You can now easily share a link to your prototype right from the Mac app for documents that live in your Workspace.

Changes (1)

Hiding Hotspot and Slice Layers from your designs is only possible via the View menu now. You can no longer do this using the Layer List toggles.

Fixes (20)

Fixes a crash that could occur when inserting Symbols containing programatically edited Text Styles which were missing certain properties.
Fixes a bug where a text layer could sometimes cause an Artboard’s background color to appear across more of the Canvas.
Fixes a security vulnerability related to external library feeds.
Fixes a bug that stopped Library updates from appearing as a notification in your document if you had previously undone a sync to apply those updates.
Fixes a bug where changing the Symbol Source contents would not refresh the Instance’s overrides Inspector in some cases.
Fixes a bug that stopped nested Symbol Instances that used Overrides with Shared Styles from updating on the Canvas if you made edits to the Shared Style that they used.
Fixes a bug that caused values for shadows to change unexpectedly if you reordered them in the Inspector.
The File > Add as Library item will now only be enabled if you have saved your document first, whether that’s in your Workspace or locally.
Fixes a bug that stopped the color picker from working correctly if you had hidden the Inspector.
Fixes a bug that meant icons in the Layer List were difficult to see or invisible if you used Dark Mode with the Graphite macOS accent color.
Fixes a bug that stopped the Inspector from updating to accurately reflect the correct values as you drew polygons or stars.
Fixes a bug where an inner shadow with spread could render inaccurately for paths with small details, such as text.
We’ve improved performance and responsiveness of documents that contain layers with large shadows.
Fixes a bug that caused fills for layers with rounded corners to be visible beyond the edge of an inner shadow.
Fixes a bug that cleared any fill previews and field values when you disabled fills or styles in the Inspector.
Fixes a bug that caused the File > Sync Library Components… process to run slowly. So long slowness, serious speedy syncing is here!
Fixes a bug where the default Artboard presets had the wrong screen size listed for the iPhone SE.
Fixes a bug where guides you added to the Canvas would not appear if you had hidden rulers in another open document.
Fixes a bug where layers with Tints would appear lighter than expected if you exported them in SVG format.
Fixes a bug that stopped blending modes from having any effect when you applied them to shadows on Text layers.

Download Sketch 75

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

Document Settings window

With this update, we’re introducing a new Document Settings window (you can access it from any document via File > Document Settings…). This new window brings together some document-specific settings and preferences that were previously spread across different locations. For now, this includes a document’s color profile, missing or embedded fonts, and Assistants. We’ll be introducing more helpful document settings and preferences here in the future.

Improvements (1)

We’ve added an extra option for Prototyping Links and Hotspots in the View menu. Now you can choose to either show all, hide all or only show them when you select a related layer, group or Artboard.

Changes (2)

If you use a Color Variable for the color of a text layer and then create a new text layer in the same document, your new text layer will also use that Color Variable. Previously, new text layers would use the same color but not the Color Variable itself.
Changing the hex value of a color in the color picker will no longer reset the alpha value to 100%. Instead, it will preserve whatever alpha value you had set for that color before.

Fixes (18)

Fixes a bug that meant applying Linked Data to deeply nested Symbols would not work as expected.
Fixes a few bugs that could cause the Layer List to behave unexpectedly and cause the app to become unstable.
Fixes a crash that could occur if the alignment value for a text layer contained invalid data.
Fixes a bug that meant the Layer List would not immediately show if a layer was masked.
Fixes a bug that stopped you from being able to rename a Layer after you toggled the visibility of the Layer List.
Fixes a bug that stopped combined shapes from correctly reverting to their original colors if you undid the combine step.
Fixes a bug that meant any changes you made to a layer using the steppers in the height and width fields of the Scale tool would not apply after you pressed Finish.
Fixes a bug that meant if you deleted the last component in the Components View and then added a new one, it would not appear until you switched away and back to that view.
Fixes a bug that could cause SVG exports of open paths with borders to render incorrectly in some cases.
Fixes a bug that caused Symbols with Smart Layout properties and hidden, nested Symbols to be an incorrect height.
Fixes a bug where Control-clicking on items in the Components View and Insert Window would not work in some cases.
Fixes a bug that caused rendering issues for shadows that you applied to multiple nested groups.
Fixes a bug that meant Tints wouldn’t immediately apply to layers with blurs.
Fixes a bug that meant ruler guides would not update their color reliably after you changed them.
Fixes a bug that could cause the app to crash if you introduced certain images to your documents (e.g. via pasting onto the Canvas).
Fixes a bug that meant fields you had selected in the Inspector would remain selected after you switched to a different layer.
Fixes a bug that meant new layers you inserted could appear on the wrong Artboard.
Fixes a bug that caused unexpected results when you undid edits to layer names in the Layer List.

Download Sketch 74.1

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

Document Settings window

With this update, we’re introducing a new Document Settings window (you can access it from any document via File > Document Settings…). This new window brings together some document-specific settings and preferences that were previously spread across different locations. For now, this includes a document’s color profile, missing or embedded fonts, and Assistants. We’ll be introducing more helpful document settings and preferences here in the future.

Improvements (1)

We’ve added an extra option for Prototyping Links and Hotspots in the View menu. Now you can choose to either show all, hide all or only show them when you select a related layer, group or Artboard.

Changes (2)

If you use a Color Variable for the color of a text layer and then create a new text layer in the same document, your new text layer will also use that Color Variable. Previously, new text layers would use the same color but not the Color Variable itself.
Changing the hex value of a color in the color picker will no longer reset the alpha value to 100%. Instead, it will preserve whatever alpha value you had set for that color before.

Fixes (18)

Fixes a bug that meant applying Linked Data to deeply nested Symbols would not work as expected.
Fixes a few bugs that could cause the Layer List to behave unexpectedly and cause the app to become unstable.
Fixes a crash that could occur if the alignment value for a text layer contained invalid data.
Fixes a bug that meant the Layer List would not immediately show if a layer was masked.
Fixes a bug that stopped you from being able to rename a Layer after you toggled the visibility of the Layer List.
Fixes a bug that stopped combined shapes from correctly reverting to their original colors if you undid the combine step.
Fixes a bug that meant any changes you made to a layer using the steppers in the height and width fields of the Scale tool would not apply after you pressed Finish.
Fixes a bug that meant if you deleted the last component in the Components View and then added a new one, it would not appear until you switched away and back to that view.
Fixes a bug that could cause SVG exports of open paths with borders to render incorrectly in some cases.
Fixes a bug that caused Symbols with Smart Layout properties and hidden, nested Symbols to be an incorrect height.
Fixes a bug where Control-clicking on items in the Components View and Insert Window would not work in some cases.
Fixes a bug that caused rendering issues for shadows that you applied to multiple nested groups.
Fixes a bug that meant Tints wouldn’t immediately apply to layers with blurs.
Fixes a bug that meant ruler guides would not update their color reliably after you changed them.
Fixes a bug that could cause the app to crash if you introduced certain images to your documents (e.g. via pasting onto the Canvas).
Fixes a bug that meant fields you had selected in the Inspector would remain selected after you switched to a different layer.
Fixes a bug that meant new layers you inserted could appear on the wrong Artboard.
Fixes a bug that caused unexpected results when you undid edits to layer names in the Layer List.

Download Sketch 74

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This release fixes a couple of small bugs you’ve let us know about. Thanks for your reports!

Fixes (4)

Fixes a bug where applying math operators to multiple layers in the Inspector would unexpectedly double the results.
Fixes a bug that would cause layers in the Layer List to disappear if you hid the sidebar and then switched between the Canvas and Components View.
Fixes a bug that meant Linked Data would not refresh for layers, text layers and Symbols with certain properties.
Fixes a bug that caused items in the Layer List to appear misaligned.

Download Sketch 73.1

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This update brings a whole host of small improvements and bug fixes, including the ability to move documents to and from Projects in the Documents window.

Improvements (6)

You can now move documents between Projects within your Workspace, right from the Documents window in the Mac app. Simply drag-and-drop a document’s thumbnail onto a Project in the sidebar, or control-click on a thumbnail and choose Move to Project… from the contextual menu.
We’ve added a new “Shared with Me” tab to the Documents window for each of your Workspaces. Here, you’ll see any documents that have been shared with you in that Workspace — whether you’re a Workspace Guest or a full member.
We’ve increased the size limit for embedding fonts to 200MB — ideal if you like big fonts (and you cannot lie about it).
We’ve improved the accuracy of angular gradients for layers with a non-even width or height.
You can now enter presentation mode (by pressing Cmd + .) while you’re following someone’s cursor during a real-time collaboration session.
We’ve given text properties in the Inspector a spring clean and swapped the Size and Color fields. This should make it easier to click and drag to adjust text size quickly.

Fixes (13)

A huge thanks to all of you who have sent reports and helped us get to the bottom of various performance issues in recent updates. This update fixes many of those issues and we’re continuing to work hard on this.
Fixes a bug where text layers with particular styling, and only whitespace content (e.g. via overrides), could result in that layer’s styling affecting a larger area than it should.
Fixes the Artboard preset size for the 10.9” iPad Air (it was 840x1180 but should have been 820x1180).
Fixes a crash that could occur if a plugin attempted to show a message to you when no documents were open.
Fixes a bug where the View in Browser and Copy Link contextual menu items didn’t work for projects in the Documents window.
Fixes a bug that caused Libraries in Workspaces that you were invited to as a Guest to disappear after you downloaded them.
Fixes a bug where selecting many large Artboards would cause performance issues.
Fixes a bug that meant the Delete and Rename options for your My Drafts project were active in the contextual menu of the Documents window. You couldn’t actually delete or rename My Drafts, so we made them inactive.
Fixes a bug that caused the app to become unresponsive if you attempted to export a layer named with a forward slash (/) only.
Fixes a bug that made it possible to edit the name of your My Drafts project.
Fixes a bug that deselected your Artboard after you converted it into a Symbol.
Fixes a bug that would remove the layers within a combined shape (and the shape itself) when you used the Make Grid handle to duplicate the layers within that shape.
Fixes a bug that meant our real-time collaboration feature would ignore any macOS proxy settings you had set up.

Download Sketch 73

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This release focuses on fixing a few bugs. Thanks for all your reports and feedback!

Fixes (2)

Fixes a bug that caused borders with dashed lines and gaps to display incorrectly in bitmap images.
Fixes a bug that caused Components in the Components View to disappear when grouping or renaming them.

Download Sketch 72.4

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This release fixes some unexpected behaviours with text in overrides. This includes text appearing incorrectly aligned, not updating if you swapped between different components, or not appearing at all. Thanks to everyone who reported this one and we’re sorry for the impact it had on your workflows.

Download Sketch 72.3

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This release fixes a crash and some bugs you’ve reported to us, including one that caused Sketch to run slowly on Macs with certain GPUs. Thanks for all your reports!

Fixes (7)

Fixes a crash that could occur when opening a document that used a Library that was in an unexpected install state.
Fixes a bug that could cause Sketch to use significant memory when you used the color picker.
Fixes a bug that caused the Inspector to display an incorrect text alignment selection.
Fixes a bug that caused a mask to affect the layer above it in a Component, even if that layer was set to ignore masks.
Fixes a bug that could cause Sketch to run slow when launching or creating new documents in Macs with certain GPUs.
Fixes a bug that caused Text Layers placed outside of Artboards to change their position when you duplicated the page.
Fixes a bug that meant a Symbol with Smart Layout would not respect any minimum width settings if you nested it within another Symbol.

Download Sketch 72.2

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

We want you to have more control over who can see and edit your documents. That’s why every Workspace member now gets a private space, perfect for work-in-progress designs and ideas you’re not quite ready to share.

Learn more about drafts

Rendering and performance improvements

This release includes a whole host of rendering and performance improvements. Lots of them are subtle, but they all add up to a better experience. You’ll notice things feel more responsive when you move Symbols and Nested Symbols around the canvas, as well as during exports and saving documents to your Workspace.

Data improvements

We’ve added a new option to the Data menu to choose whether data you insert is picked at random or not. If you uncheck this Insert Data at Random option, Data you insert will follow the order in its source file. We’ve also added support for nested data within Linked Data (JSON) sources. Nested data from a Linked Data source will appear inside a group when you add it to your canvas.

Improvements (4)

You’ll now see image shadows at all zoom levels, where previously they’d disappear as you zoomed in close.
We heard from a few of you who really missed the dedicated zoom controls in the Big Sur toolbar, so we’ve brought them back! You’ll be able to add them by Control-clicking on your toolbar and choosing Customize Toolbar…
We’ve added an @3x option for flattening bitmaps to the Layer preferences panel.
We’ve added a new set of shortcuts for aligning layers. ⌃⌘ and your arrow keys now align layers left, right, top or bottom. ⌃⌘V or ⌃⌘H align layers vertically or horizontally. Add the ⌥ modifier to any of those shortcuts to align layers within an Artboard.

Changes (5)

We’ve given the Assistants UI and layout a fresh lick of paint for Big Sur.
Hey night owls, we’ve made a few tweaks to some colors in dark mode. Nothing major, but subtle things that add up to a more pleasant experience. Enjoy!
We’ve made some changes to how we generate outside borders which improves things for complex shapes.
We’ve tweaked the copy in our notifications to make it clearer when Library and Component updates are available.
We’ve increased the size of Artboard names on the Canvas so they should be easier to read from a distance now.

Fixes (28)

This release fixes a number of bugs that caused issues with Component and Library updates. This includes seeing a Component/Library update notification when there were none available, not seeing a notification when there were updates available, and being unable to update Components/Libraries. Thanks for all your reports and we’re sorry for the impact that this has had on your workflows!
Fixes a bug where applying blend modes could cause Tints to be ignored.
Fixes a crash that could occur if you set an extremely large shadow offset value.
Fixes a bug that caused some Components not to update correctly in your documents, which also meant you’d see a recurring updates notification.
Fixes a bug that would hide document titles and make them uneditable unless you resized your window.
Fixes a bug that could causes styles within Library Components to become unlinked after you applied Library and Components Updates in documents that used that Library.
Fixes a bug where we would not detect and replace an existing local Library if you uploaded it to a Workspace. This meant that any documents that used Components from that Library would still be linked to the local version, instead of the one in your Workspace.
Fixes a bug that caused layers with multiple, blended inner shadows to render incorrectly.
Fixes a bug that would prevent you from adding a JSON file as a Linked Data source if the file’s extension was capitalized.
Fixes a bug that caused shadows with negative spread to render incorrectly on layers with gradient or image fills.
Fixes a bug that stopped Workspace documents from opening and instead showed a “The file doesn’t exist” alert if you kept your macOS Home directory on an external drive.
Fixes a crash that could occur when you clicked Return to Instance while using the Scale tool.
Fixes a bug that caused shadows for text-on-path layers to appear flipped upside down.
Fixes a bug that caused inner shadows on overlapping shapes to render incorrectly.
Fixes a bug where inner shadows on a mask layer could appear darker than they should.
Fixes a bug that caused blurred layers to lose some of their details if you used them as a mask.
Fixes a bug that meant a text-on-path layer could cause other text layers in the same group to render incorrectly.
Fixes a bug that caused layers behind a background blur to render incorrectly when you rotated them.
Fixes a bug that stopped Color Adjustment changes from updating in the Inspector when you used the Undo command.
Fixes a bug that could cause angular gradients to appear pixelated.
Fixes a bug that caused the Fix position when scrolling setting to become unchecked if you applied it to a Symbol that you later detached.
Fixes a bug that could cause poor performance when you selected large text layers.
Fixes a bug where applying a shadow with a negative spread to a shape with translucent fills could cause the shadow to be clipped at its outside edges.
Fixes a bug that meant the hover selection color would not match the accent color you set in System Preferences until you relaunched Sketch.
Fixes a bug that caused shapes with fills, smooth corners and outside borders to render incorrectly.
Fixes a bug that caused SVG exports of layers with tints to have incorrect colors.
Fixes a bug that caused text layers to move unexpectedly if you used Cmd+drag to zoom in or out as you edited them.
Fixes a bug where a layer with a blur with a 0.5 radius would appear unblurred.

Download Sketch 72.1

Requires macOS Catalina (10.15.0) or newer

This release focuses on fixing a number of crashes and bugs. Thanks for all your reports and feedback!

Fixes (6)

Fixes a crash that could happen when you were editing documents with lots of document windows and/or Tabs open.
Fixes a bug that stopped a public Cloud Library from installing or caused it to disappear if your License Key and Sketch account used different emails.
Fixes a bug that stopped the override reset control from appearing and disappearing at the right times in the Inspector.
Fixes a bug that unlinked Library styles from Components after you accepted updates to that Component and Library in your document.
Fixes a bug that stopped some text decoration attributes from updating correctly in the Inspector.
Fixes a crash that could occur if you set the dimensions to be exceptionally large.

Download Sketch 71.2

Requires macOS Mojave (10.14.4) or newer

This release fixes a bug that caused Symbols to detach from their parent Libraries in documents you downloaded and re-uploaded to Cloud. It also fixes a crash that occurred if you enabled Libraries with embedded fonts.

Fixes (6)

Fixes a crash that could occur if you tried to use the Make Grid tool with a set of layers in different groups.
Fixes a bug where saving a Library file would show an incorrect Autosave warning.
Fixes a crash that could occur if you scaled a group of layers and then undid that action.
Fixes a bug were the Recents section in Documents window and File menu would still show files from your Cloud workspace, even after you’d cleared them.
Fixes a bug that stopped some Data Plugins from showing you a preview of content as you inserted it.
Fixes a crash that could occur if you enabled Libraries with embedded fonts.

Download Sketch 71.1

Requires macOS Mojave (10.14.4) or newer

Starred updates

With this release, we’re introducing Starred updates. You can now highlight important updates, control who sees your document’s full version history and choose which Library updates roll out to everyone. Read our documentation to see how Starred updates work.

Linked Data

You can now use JSON files as Data sources to apply matching information to your designs. To get started, simply name layers in your document to match the keys in your JSON file. Once you’ve added your JSON file as a Data source, you’ll find it under a new Linked Data section of the Insert > Data menu. You can also choose Insert > Data and click on a Linked Data source to insert a pre-populated set of layers.

Improvements (3)

When you use the Make Grid tool or handle, we’ll pay closer attention to the existing spacing between layers you’ve selected and use that wherever we can. This one is hard to describe, but it just feels more ‘right’ — try it out!
When you create a group where layers do not sit on whole pixels, we’ll make the group’s bounds fit a little tighter around that content. This only affects new groups and any existing groups you edit with this version of Sketch. This should also fix an issue where some Artboard exports were a pixel wider or taller than their original Artboard.
If you’ve asked us to flip the behaviour for holding Command and scrolling to zoom in or out, this one is for you. You’ll find the option to do just that in Sketch’s Canvas preferences. Happy scroll-zooming!

Changes (4)

We’ve updated our iOS App Icon Template to remove the mask that was being applied on exports.
When you resize multiple layers, we no longer round those individual layers to the nearest pixel. Now, they will perfectly maintain their distance between each other, instead of shifting slightly in some cases. We’ll still round the outer edges of your selection to the nearest pixel, and if you want to round each individual layer you can do this via Arrange > Round to Pixel.
Command-O will now reveal the Documents window so you can easily access documents in your Workspace(s). Shift-Command-O now opens the System’s file browser to choose a local document. You can override this in your macOS System Preferences, if you need to.
We’ve made it clearer if Components belong to your current document when you select and switch between them in the Inspector.

Fixes (28)

Fixes a bug that caused the Recent Documents view in the Documents window to appear blank when you signed in with your Sketch account.
Fixes a crash that could occur on the macOS 11.3 Beta, if you opened the Plugins pane in Sketch’s Preferences.
Fixes a crash that could occur when you copied groups of PNGs that contained indexed colors.
Fixes a bug where reducing the file size of some bitmaps could cause some white areas in them to change to cyan.
Fixes a bug that could make Sketch become unresponsive when trying to offset a path that had been rotated before.
Fixes a bug where document placeholders in Documents window would not update when you switched between dark and light mode.
Fixes a bug that could cause a letter to appear inside the shape of the icon when using icon fonts with a fill or when converting them into outlines.
Fixes a bug that caused the editing area for page names to appear wider than the page name pill itself in some cases.
Fixes a bug that meant inner borders with gradients could render incorrectly on certain shapes.
Fixes a bug that caused text on a path to display incorrectly or disappear if it was part of a Symbol instance that you scaled up or down.
Fixes a bug that caused previews in the Components View to display colors in the wrong color space.
Fixes a bug that caused the wrong document thumbnail and sidebar item to appear selected when you opened the Documents Window using File > Cloud > Show in Documents Window from an open document.
Fixes a bug that caused Symbol overrides menus to show different sized symbols, even if the option to only show the same size Symbols was enabled, in some cases.
Fixes a bug that placed new vector points incorrectly on very small Artboards, if there were other Artboards nearby.
Fixes a bug that caused Libraries to show as “not found” in Preferences after you’d made an edit to them and saved the Library document.
Fixes a bug that meant text alignment controls wouldn’t immediately show as enabled after you changed a text layer’s alignment type to be Fixed Size.
Fixes a bug that caused Point Types you selected in the Inspector to appear deselected if you clicked on it multiple times.
Fixes a bug that caused the position overlays for rulers to appear slightly offset from the ruler markers themselves.
Fixes a bug that caused the length field in the Inspector to stop updating if you selected multiple lines and adjusted them.
Fixes a bug that drew an Artboard at an angle, if you drew it within an angled, nested group.
Fixes a bug that would enable the Original Size button in the Inspector when you dragged an image onto the dock icon, even when the image hadn’t been scaled in any way.
Fixes a bug that meant Symbols at the same level would not appear in the overrides menu if they were part of a Library nested one or more levels down from the current Library.
Fixes a bug that corrupted layer names and could cause a crash when you converted text layers that contained SF Symbols to outlines and exported them.
Fixes a bug that prompted you to replace missing fonts for Library Components in your documents. Now we’ll prompt you to replace or embed missing fonts in the original Library document instead.
Fixes a crash that could occur if you tried to edit a text layer that used the Chivo Black Italic font.
Fixes a bug that caused SVG code you copied from a layer’s contextual menu to also include code for any overlapping layers.
Fixes a bug that would revert Sketch to trial mode, even if you were signed in with a Sketch Account and had access to the Mac app, if you unlinked a license key while offline.
Fixes a bug that stopped text Symbols from scaling correctly using the Scale tool if you had applied a Text Style override to them.

Download Sketch 71

Requires macOS Mojave (10.14.4) or newer

In the latest version of Sketch, we’re introducing Linked Data — a new way to work with data in your designs. With it, you can use JSON files that combine different sets of data in meaningful ways, making it easier and more realistic when you stress-test your designs.

Learn how to use it

This release fixes a JavaScript issue that could cause crashes if you work with certain plugins, including Framer Pasteboard, Origami Export, and InVision DSM.

Download Sketch 70.6

Requires macOS Mojave (10.14.4) or newer