crmne/zapfast v0.16.4

ZapFast v0.16.4

on GitHub

ZapFast 0.16.4 connects and notifies right away when it starts hidden in the tray, draws text as sharply as the rest of your desktop at fractional scales such as 133%, and trims Settings down to the choices that matter. It also moves onto fastframe, the shared foundation ZapFast now shares with Spotifast, RekordFlash and TonePush, which brings a few small fixes of its own.

Download ZapFast: Mac · Windows · Windows ARM · Linux · Linux ARM · Flatpak · Debian/Ubuntu · Fedora

On a Mac, brew install --cask crmne/tap/zapfast. On Arch, yay -S zapfast-bin.

A conversation at 133% display scale (demo content).

The leaner Settings page.

Fixed

• Starting hidden in the tray connects right away. With "keep running" on and ZapFast set to start hidden (at login, for example), it now links, opens your archive and sends notifications as soon as it starts. Before, nothing connected until you opened the window. This had been broken since starting hidden arrived in 0.16.0. By @crmne, found while reviewing @LisandroNahuelH's #185.
• Text looks like the rest of your desktop. At fractional scales such as 133%, message bubbles were drawn between pixels and looked soft next to the chat list; they are now as sharp as everything else. Light text in the dark theme on Linux has the same weight as GTK apps instead of looking heavier. By @crmne.
• Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and other scripts sit on the line. Words in a script ZapFast's own font lacks no longer ride above or below the Latin text around them. More scripts and symbols find an installed font (Yi, for example), macOS now finds its Chinese fonts, and a Chinese desktop gets a Chinese font for Han characters rather than a Japanese one. By @crmne, building on fixes @OnCloud125252 (crmne/spotifast#334), @kevin9327 (crmne/spotifast#314) and @AndrewMason7 (crmne/spotifast#97) contributed to Spotifast.
• The language follows your whole list of preferred languages. With the language on Auto, ZapFast picks the first language in your desktop's list that it has a translation for, instead of looking only at the first and falling back to English. By @crmne.
• Windows: a left click on the tray icon always shows the window, instead of hiding it when it was already open; the menu opens on right click. By @TnZzZHlp in Spotifast (crmne/spotifast#310), now shared through fastframe.
• macOS: clicking the Dock icon brings back a minimized window. By @marijnbent in Spotifast (crmne/spotifast#67), now shared through fastframe.

Changed

• Text follows your desktop's font settings on Linux. ZapFast reads the hinting and antialiasing your desktop asks for, through the desktop portal or fontconfig, so a desktop set to full hinting or to no antialiasing gets it in ZapFast too, and a change applies without a restart. By @crmne.
• A leaner Settings page. Fewer switches, shorter text, and sections in a clearer order (Appearance, Chats, Notifications, Privacy, System, Account, Files, About). The removed options now always behave one way: labels show as chips once you have a label, sender pictures show in groups only, names from your address book always come first, and Ctrl+B always collapses the chat list to its column of pictures with unread badges. The two "pause music" switches are one, Pause other media while recording or playing, which stays off if you had turned off either. Show shortcut hints moved into the Keyboard shortcuts dialog, and Also save to your phone's contacts is now a checkbox in the new-contact dialog, starting from your earlier choice. By @crmne.
• The update helper keeps a log. If installing an update fails, the message names helper.log in the update's folder, which is worth attaching to a bug report. By @crmne.

Known limitations

• The text changes were measured against GTK on Hyprland on Linux, at 133% and 160%. On macOS text is now drawn without hinting, as macOS itself draws it. Windows keeps the text weight it had in 0.16.3 until it has been measured the same way.
• Removed settings are not coming back as switches. If one of the fixed behaviours gets in your way, please open an issue.

Thanks

@TnZzZHlp, @marijnbent, @OnCloud125252, @kevin9327 and @AndrewMason7, whose fixes in Spotifast now reach ZapFast through fastframe, and @jdubba1, whose local palettes and live Omarchy themes (crmne/spotifast#392) are now the shared theme code. @LisandroNahuelH for #185, whose review turned up the start-hidden bug. And everyone reporting problems as they find them.

Full changelog: v0.16.3...v0.16.4