{"version":"https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1","title":"Skulkworks updates","home_page_url":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates","feed_url":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates.json","description":"Release notes and studio news for the Skulkworks Mac apps: what shipped in each version, and why.","author":{"name":"Andy Miller"},"items":[{"title":"RasterFox 3.2: JPEG XL","date_published":"2026-10-15T00:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates\/rasterfox-3-2","url":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates\/rasterfox-3-2","content_html":"

RasterFox 3.2<\/strong> adds JPEG XL, the newer image format that makes smaller files than JPEG at the same quality and also keeps transparency and full color depth. Safari, Preview and Photos already open it, and now RasterFox can make it.<\/p>\n

Two new output formats<\/h3>\n

JPEG XL<\/strong> and JPEG XL Lossless<\/strong> sit in the Convert To menu alongside WebP, AVIF and PNG, and they work from anything RasterFox opens: JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, and JPEG XL itself. Lossless keeps every pixel exactly, transparency included, so it's a good home for screenshots and artwork you might want to edit again.<\/p>\n

JPEG is the case I like best. Save a JPEG as JPEG XL Lossless<\/strong> and RasterFox doesn't decode and re-compress it. It repacks the original JPEG data more efficiently instead. The file gets smaller with nothing lost, and the exact original JPEG can be rebuilt from it, byte for byte, whenever you need it back.<\/p>\n

Each preset has its own JPEG XL quality, and Settings and the compare window's inspector both have a JPEG XL section with Quality<\/strong> and Effort<\/strong> sliders. Higher effort makes smaller files and takes a little longer to encode.<\/p>\n

Opening JPEG XL files<\/h3>\n

RasterFox now opens .jxl<\/code> files as well. Optimizing one with Same as Original<\/strong> keeps it lossless or lossy, whichever it was, and never hands back a bigger file. Choosing JPEG XL<\/strong> for a lossless file converts it to the smaller lossy version. JPEG XL images can also be resized, upscaled, have their background removed, or be converted to any other format.<\/p>\n

The command line too<\/h3>\n

The rasterfox<\/code> command-line tool gets the same in 2.3.0<\/strong>: --to-jxl<\/code> (or -x<\/code>) converts to JPEG XL, --jxl-lossless<\/code> makes it lossless, --jxl-effort<\/code> sets the effort, and .jxl<\/code> files work as input everywhere. Update with brew upgrade rasterfox-cli<\/code>, or install it with brew install skulkworks\/tap\/rasterfox-cli<\/code>.<\/p>\n

3.2 is a free update for existing RasterFox owners.<\/strong> The direct download will offer it through the app, or get it from the RasterFox page<\/a> or with Homebrew: brew install --cask skulkworks\/tap\/rasterfox<\/code>. The 14-day trial includes JPEG XL along with everything else, and converting to it is part of Pro afterwards, like WebP. Pro is $9.99 once. Everything is in the changelog<\/a>.<\/p>","summary":"RasterFox 3.2 saves and opens JPEG XL, in lossy and lossless versions, from every format it reads. The rasterfox command-line tool gets the same in 2.3.0.","date_modified":"2026-10-16T01:14:26+00:00"},{"title":"VectorFox 3.1: straight lines stay straight, and a cleaner trace from small images","date_published":"2026-10-05T00:00:00+00:00","id":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates\/vectorfox-3-1","url":"https:\/\/bigtwo.dev\/updates\/vectorfox-3-1","content_html":"

VectorFox 3.1<\/strong> is out. I spent a few days tracing the same dozen test images over and over, looking hard at where the results fell short, and this release fixes the four things that bothered me most. The one I kept coming back to was buildings.<\/p>\n

Straight things stay straight<\/h3>\n

Trace a city skyline with Balanced<\/strong> in 3.0 and the windows came back as soft, slightly melted lozenges. You could fix it by going up to Detailed<\/strong>, but that doubles the file size for something that should have been right in the first place.<\/p>\n

The tracer smooths every outline before it fits curves. That's what you want for a wobbly hand-drawn edge. It is wrong for a window. So 3.1 looks for the straight stretches of an outline first, draws each one as a real line, and puts the corner back exactly where the two sides meet. Curves are left alone: a side has to end in a genuine corner to count, so circles and rounded shapes trace as they did.<\/p>\n

On my skyline test image, Balanced in 3.1 is now as accurate as Detailed was in 3.0, at less than half the size. Pixel art benefits too. A character sprite that used to come out as rounded blobs keeps its square steps.<\/p>\n

Enhance<\/h3>\n

Small images are hard to trace well. There just aren't enough pixels along each edge. Upscale<\/strong> helps by doubling the image first, and 3.1 adds Enhance<\/strong> right beside it, which does that job with a small model that cleans the image up as it enlarges it. Soft edges come back crisp, JPEG fuzz goes away, and thin outlines that a plain upscale loses are kept.<\/p>\n

It runs on your Mac in a fraction of a second. Nothing is uploaded. On flat illustration, logos and AI-generated art it gives a cleaner result with 30 to 60% fewer paths at the Detailed preset, which also means a smaller file.<\/p>\n

But it isn't for everything, so it's off by default. It makes pixel art worse, and it does nothing useful for a photograph. It works on images up to 1024 px, when Upscale is doubling the image.<\/p>\n

No more grey fringes<\/h3>\n

This one was a bug I'm glad to be rid of. The soft, anti-aliased edge of a flat shape looks like a tiny color ramp, and the tracer was faithfully fitting a gradient to it. The result was a faint grey halo around logos and mascots, and a much bigger file than the artwork deserved.<\/p>\n

Gradients are now fitted on the inside of each region only. My skyline went from 244 gradients to 37 and came out 30% smaller. Flat artwork loses the halo completely.<\/p>\n

Also in 3.1<\/h3>\n