Acorn 6.6 is out. You can update to this release via the App Store as or the Acorn ▸ Check for Updates… menu if you bought it directly from us.

Originally this was going to be a bug fix release but I kept on adding useful things and it snowballed into a feature release. As usual, the full release notes have all the details about what was updated.

The main new features are with the Shape Processor. If you're not already familiar with the shape processor, it's a neat ability Acorn has to take shapes on vector layers and pipe them through a series of actions, similar to how Automator or Acorn's bitmap filters work. Only instead of working on pixels, the processors will alter the shapes by scaling them or moving them around, or changing colors or blend modes. There's even a processor which will generate shapes for you- so if you want your canvas to fill up with hundreds of stars, you can do that.

Acorn 6.6 adds new processors which let you set the stroke, fill, and blend mode of your processed shapes. You can now also flip your shapes and even shift colors.

Chaining these processors together can get you some neat looking images. You can make interesting desktop backgrounds, as well as textures for your photos. Or if you just need a bunch of hexagons arranged in a circle, that's just two processors stacked together.

Have you made something interesting with the Shape Processor? I'd love to see it either via Twitter (I'm @ccgus) or via email.

There are of course the usual bug fixes and other minor details. And if you don't already have Acorn, a no-strings attached free trial is available on our website. Try it out, and we're always looking to hear from you about feature requests, thoughts, and anything else.