Hi everyone! This is the official but "temporary" blog on all things Tagxedo. It's still under construction, and I hope you don't mind the dust.

I'd like to announce that a major revision of Tagxedo has just gone live!

---

Tilde Support in Words

You can use tilde (~) to enter phrases, and it works across all three methods (file, URL, and direct entry). For example, "San Francisco" are two words, but "San~Francisco" is a single phrase.

---

Custom Theme Support

There is a new "add themes" button in the Theme menu. You can enter your own theme (for example, "Pineapple 64997D 283C00 ED8F45 F1A930 FECC6D" means a theme named "Pineapple" with five colors. The RGB values of the first color are 0x64, 0x99, and 0x7D. The RGB values of the second are 0x28, 0x3D, and 0x00...). Moreover, you can also configure how to extract the background out of the theme (choices of black, white, darkest, brightest, farthest, first, and auto).

---

Custom Font Support in "Word-as-Shape"

Not only can you use words as shape, but you can also specify what font to use for the shape.

---

More Shape Selection

The shape manual has been significantly expanded! Trees, fruits, heart, music note, animals, signs, and so on. 30 shapes in total, all free!

---

"Image-as-Shape" Editor

When you open an image as shape, you will now have the opportunity to optimize the image for best effect in Tagxedo, allowing images to be simplified and made stencil-like. Real-time feedback is provided as you change the parameters.

---

Increased Maximum Word Count

The maximum number of words is raised from 300 to 600. Higher word count does impact performance, but is sometimes necessary to fill difficult shapes.

---

Custom Background

You can change the background color of the theme using the advanced color picker. Real-time feedback is provided as you change the color.

---

Improved Responsiveness

I made a big effort to improve the usability of the tool by (1) giving more feedback about what the tool is doing, and (2) running the job in the background and thus providing a smoother experience. More enhancement in this area will come later.

---

Last but not least, please don't forget to check out the latest gallery. Just like you, I'm still exploring what Tagxedo can do. The more familiar you are with Tagxedo, the more amazing tag clouds you can make!

Hope you all enjoy it, and please help me spread the word!

-- Hardy Leung (4/17/2010)