After basing my software-oriented website on a hand-assembled set of pages, I recently decided it was time to introduce some automation. Suddenly there were too many pages that needed to be updated every time I released a new version of one of my apps. Additionally, I was writing more apps and utilities, so this process could only ever become more onerous if I continued with a manual set-up.
Author Archives: smittytone
pdfmaker 2.0.0 released
I’ve just released version 2.2.0 of pdfmaker. You can view the source code here, and download an installer package here.
You can now convert a PDF to a set of images.
For a more detailed post about pdfmaker, click here.
How to provide file icon thumbnails in macOS
Update My PreviewMarkdown app, which provides Markdown file previews and icon thumbnails in Catalins, is now available from the Mac App Store.
Providing content-based icon thumbnails in macOS Catalina follows the same pattern as generating file previews: QuickLook runs code from an app extension and calls a function within that code to draw the image that will be placed on the icon.
How to create file previews in macOS
Update My PreviewMarkdown app, which provides Markdown file previews and icon thumbnails in Catalina, is now available from the Mac App Store.
macOS Catalina introduces a new mechanism for providing file previews and content-based file icons. The system for doing this is still QuickLook, but the standalone or app-hosted QuickLook generators that have been in use for some time have been deprecated in favour of delivering this functionality through app extensions.
pdfmaker 1.1.0 released
I’ve just released version 1.1.0 of pdfmaker. You can view the source code here, and download an installer package here.
You can now select a single source file, not just a folder of files, and you specify the output PDF’s filename as part of the specified destination path, rather than separately (so the --name switch has been removed).
For a more detailed post about pdfmaker, click here.
How to fix iCloud bookmark sync glitches
Has iCloud and/or Safari just borked your bookmarks? This happened to me yesterday; here’s how I fixed it…
How to make one PDF from multiple images on macOS
Google the title of this post and you will get plenty of results, but all almost all of them steer you toward opening the image or images in macOS’ Preview app and exporting to PDF. Yes, this method works, but it doesn’t give you much control over the process, and it’s not scriptable.
macOS image manipulation with sips
macOS has long included a command line tool called sips. It’s a comprehensive image manipulation tool that can also be used to apply ColorSync profiles. Being a command line tool, it’s available to be used in scripts written to perform repetitive tasks.
A case in point: I regularly apply a fixed set of attributes — height, width, format, dots-per-inch (DPI) resolution — to batches of image files, and sips allows me to do that without firing up Pixelmator or Gimp to change each image individually.
Continue readingReview: WD PiDrive, a 314GB hard drive for the Raspberry Pi
I like solid-state storage, but there’s a time when you want the storage capacity that only a hard drive can bring — at least until SSDs become much, much cheaper. Of course, SD cards are pretty cheap to buy and to support in hardware which is why the format was chosen for the Raspberry Pi in the first place. At high capacities, the price:gigabyte ratio isn’t as attractive as that of a hard drive, but you get a single point of access for all your computer storage just as you do with any modern laptop or desktop.
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