Apr 1, 2023

Our new editor is here!

Introducing our new editor - a complete rewrite from scratch! After much hard work and dedication, we are excited to unveil the end result.

We are thrilled to announce the release of our new editor! After months of hard work, we've completely rewritten the editor from scratch. This new version represents a significant upgrade over the old editor in terms of performance, flexibility, and ease of use.

The decision to rewrite the editor was not taken lightly. We knew that it would be a significant undertaking, but we also knew that it was necessary to give our users the best possible experience. The old editor was starting to show its age, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to add new features and functionality.

Early access

We are currently in the process of gradually rolling out our new editor to users. If you are interested in gaining early access to the updated version, please feel free to reach out to us.

What is new?

Layout

We've made some changes to the layout while still maintaining the overall look of the old editor for familiarity. The new editor offers much better use of the available space.

We've reorganized the toolbars and menus to make them more intuitive and easier to use.

New layout

The sidebar is collapsable to give you more space to work with. You can freely move the canvas with our infinite viewer editor.

In contrast to our previous editor, the new version offers both light and dark themes that you can switch between.

Simplified image layer

We've merged static and dynamic image layers into a single image component, which makes it much easier to work with images in the editor.

Better layer control

Previously, when a layer was out of the frame of the canvas, the controls would disappear. If it was moved too far out of the canvas, it became unreachable.

This issue has been fixed in the new editor. Now, you can always access the layer controls, no matter where the layer is located.

Before - controls are hidden when out of frame

After - fully visible

Faster loading time

As we no longer depend on FabricJs, there's a significant improvement in performance. The editor now loads much faster, even when working with large templates or images.

Legacy editor - same image, same fonts, same design

New editor - same image, same fonts, same design

We are only scratching the surface of what we can achieve to improve the editor performance. We have several other techniques and approaches that we plan to implement to further enhance the user experience.

Better text support

By removing the canvas, we can improve the text support in our editor. Although FabricJS performs well in managing text, we have faced several limitations as we attempt to customize it further. For instance, enabling RTL support in FabricJS requires significant effort, and enhancing the text styling is also challenging. However, with our new editor, we aim to overcome these challenges, and you can expect to see more advanced text features in the upcoming releases.

What's coming next?

The new editor allows us to do more in the future - we are excited to work on this feature!

Improved editor experience

The rewrite puts us back on a solid foundation and will help us develop a better editor experience. We're working on several improvements to the user interface and workflow, which should make it easier and more intuitive to create templates.

PDF generation

We're exploring PDF generation with the new editor. Any new templates made with the new editor will have an option to generate a PDF instead of an image.

As we're no longer using a canvas-based template, the generated PDF can include vectorized text, meaning that you can select the text in the PDF. This feature will be especially useful for customers who need to create high-quality print materials, such as brochures, flyers, and business cards.

Editor SDK

We have been eager to implement this feature for some time now. With this new capability, you can seamlessly integrate our editor into your backend system or even set up your own service using our editor.

Feature parity

If you have noticed that certain components, such as graphs, from the previous editor are missing in the new version, please rest assured that we are actively working on integrating them into the updated editor and they will be available soon.

More features!

All these features are planned for the editor, but we also have features planned for the rest of Stencil. Stay tuned!

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In summary, we're incredibly excited about the release of our new editor. It represents a significant step forward in terms of performance, flexibility, and ease of use, and we believe that our users will be thrilled with the new features and functionality. We look forward to hearing your feedback and continuing to improve the editor in the months and years ahead.

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