It’s been a while since the last beta, and a lot has changed since then. We’ve added a tonne of new features and polish to this latest build (much more than is listed in the release notes below). We’re working hard to make Squash the bet compression app on the Mac, I really hope you love where it’s going
Here’s a few screenshots highlighting some of the new features and UI.
One thing to note, we removed third-party AI support from this build, and are focusing on adding support for on-device AI features, such as image and caption descriptions using Apple Intelligence. Doing it this way means it’s free and your images are private and stay on device.
Please take this new build for a spin, and let us know if you hit any issue or are still missing a feature!
What’s New in beta 4?
New Liquid Glass icon, designed by Parakeet.
Redesigned Liquid Glass UI.
Text watermarks are back, and you can now add up to five, mixing images and text.
Added Smart Crop, with social media presets and per-image crop adjustments
Added Smart Rotate, which fixes sideways and upside-down photos automatically
Added Oxipng compression for PNGs, and it’s now the default
New preview controls to zoom, rotate and crop each image
Drag to re-arrange sections, and right-click to hide or show them
New drop zones to add or replace images. Replaced by mistake? Press ⌘Z to undo
New + menu in Rename for adding tags
Remove All Images has moved to the File menu (⌘⌫)
Updated libpng, zlib, pngcrush and Zopfli
Get the Squash 4 Beta
Squash requires macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later, on Intel or Apple Silicon Macs.
The AI filename descriptions requires macOS 27 or later, on an Apple Intelligence-compatible Apple Silicon Mac.
Glad to see cropping in this build! To me the addition of features like that are where the real productivity gains are because I don’t have to run it through numerous programs to do one operation.
When you talk about AI filename descriptions is that the feature that can tell that the orange in the picture should be called should be titled something such as ‘orange’ or ‘orange hitting the water?’ That is the feature that requires MacOS 27?
Really liking the new icon and the general look of the interface. Very stoked. Mahalo for the watermark updates too.
@dan For some reason though, I am still not able to get updates from within the application itself. Is there a specific server that it goes out to look for an update? I’m asking so I can whitelist it in case Intego is blocking the connection. But I suspect that might not be the case, because it comes back with a response that the app is up to date already, but with the previous version.
I really want this to be my default image processing app! I love the direction you’ve taken it in. Two comments:
I’d like to be able to both see and toggle a feature. I recall that the previous beta 4 had a blue dot you could click to turn on or off the feature; currently, if the feature is on, it is blue, but to turn it off you have to go into a menu in the feature and select ‘none’ or ‘Original’ or something else like those to turn the feature off.
Please add the ability to manually select a portion of the image and redact it, as a solid color block, a blur, or pixelation. Regarding those last two, include the ability to select the amount, as well as add a feathered edge (I’ve never seen that one anywhere!)
You can save presets so it’s easy to jump between different settings for exporting images (menu at the top of the settings on the right hand side).
However, if you’re referring to colour profiles, then no we don’t have that feature. If this is something you want, could you go into a little more detail so I understand the feature requirement?
This is very strange, do you get the updates for Elements? (they all come from the same server address afaik). I’ll ping @tpbradley and see if he knows what might be going on.
I think most users are getting updates, so the fact you have Intego installed is ringing alarm bells for me. I’m not saying it’s the cause, but it’s certainly worth double checking. i.e. grab an old build of Squash, and make sure intego is disabled and try the update again…
This is an interesting one, I’m not sure how to neatly implement this (UI wise). I’ll give it some more thought It might have to be on the right-click to keep things clean. Would this work for you?
btw. if a setting is applied, the group will have an orange icon, you can right-click to reset the setting. perhaps this helps?
I agree this would be quite useful. I’ll see what we can do!
Yes, I have no problems getting the Elements updates. Although I have a vague memory of there being a problem like this in the past. But I don’t recall how we fixed it.
It is not a huge problem as long as there is a link to the latest version that I can use to download it directly from your server.
BTW, Intego was not running at the time I tried to do the update, so I don’t think it was the problem.
When you enter text e.g. ‘TESTING’ - the after view shows ‘TESTIN’ (G is dropped).
You delete the trailing G and then the after view shows as ‘TESTING’ i.e. it has added in the G.
@dan Need to check the watermark for text. When I change position it doesn’t show in the preview unless I change something such as the opacity … It’s messier than in Squash 3.
When you save for web in PS or Affinity, if the image is a not sRGB, somewhere in the process it gets converted. So if you are using the Squash app for web images it would be nice to have that feature to convert to profile.
On the toggling, I note a few things that may be helpful as you noodle this:
Just a usability observation: Clicking anywhere on the title bar of each of the features either opens or closes the feature’s ‘options panel’, depending on its current state. Yet you also have a ‘>’ on the right side of each title bar that points down when the panel is open. Perhaps to visually let people know there is more to see if you click on that arrow? I’m thinking that seems superfluous. Especially if you need some real estate/want to keep things clean.
Your older betas had toggles on the right side of each feature title bar. Current beta has a toggle on the Borders feature. You could go back to having a toggle on all of them, yes? That would do it for me
If cleanest UI is a concern, maybe make the toggles a bit more compact?
If the only option is right-click on the bar to toggle on/off, I could live with that. Not as intuitive as a toggle though
Thanks for looking into those enhanced redaction suggestions!
It might have to be on the right-click to keep things clean. Would this work for you?
