Ringce Releases Slammer 1.0

Ringce has announced Slammer 1.0, an update to their unique designer's layout and geometry utility for Mac OS X. Suitable for graphic designers, web and application developers alike, Slammer is a universal layout tool which embraces the grid system. Effortlessly make blueprints by sectioning a canvas using flexible grid systems, fibonacci series, golden sections or harmonious sections.

Featuring a gorgeous and natural user interface, Slammer is used as an overlay on top of any application while tweaking any layout and aims to serve as a single solution for any design environment. Web and print designs, app interfaces, or anything imaginable can all be quickly viewed under a very flexible grid system. Users can easily adjust the spacing and positioning of the grid itself, as well as change the color so it doesn't blend in with what is underneath.

Templates created using Slammer serve as layout blueprints which record the thought process. These templates can be exported and imported within the application. Among only one of Slammers neat features is its ability to save a template and share them with the community or coworkers, making it a great addition to any developer's tool chest. In order for designers to interactively layout a design, Slammer offers a click through mode where it can stay on top of any application while allowing them to manipulate objects underneath.


Slammer supports 4 types of grid distributions, and can be oriented in any direction on the canvas. A unique feature of Slammer is that overlays can be grouped into layers. Layers can be restricted with margins allowing designers to create sections of a page with different grids. For example, web designers can create layers for header, footer, sidebar and content for a website design.

Uniform grids allow for columns (or rows) and gutters with specified widths. The Fibonacci series creates sections based on the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc. starting with any value. Golden Sections divide the canvas in the divine proportion 1.618. Opposing Golden sections offer three columns, and Harmonious sections divide the canvas into equal sections.

Slammer sports pixel-perfect rulers that support 5 different units (Pixel, Pica, Inch, CM and MM), a resizable magnifier that can display both in frame and as a separate HUD window, as well as a color picker that allow true color sampling of objects underneath the grid. This color can be copied by simply pressing CMD + C. The application also allows users to grab a screen capture of the area below slammer (with or without the grids) as well as export the grid as a composite image.

Feature Highlights:
* 8 way resizable sculpted frame and ruler
* Pixel perfect Rulers that support 5 different units (Pixel, Pica, Inch, CM and MM)
* Flexible Ruler origins
* Layers can be used to section the canvas
* Overlays add grids within the layers
* Themes Support
* Uniform (Typographical grid), Fibonacci Section, Golden Section and Harmonious (equal) distributions
* Screenshots with or without the grid
* Composite image of the grid
* Click-through mode for interacting with the objects below
* Resizable Magnifier that can display both in frame and as a separate HUD window.
* Magnifier, Crosshair and Color Picker
* Export templates as JSON


Based on excellent user feedback, version 1.0 introduces customizable themes. Slammer ships with 6 themes built-in (Unibody, Dark, Blue, Purple, Glass and Bordered Dark). These can be easily customized and new themes can be created. The default Unibody theme has been polished and is even more stylish and sleek. Slammer has a measurement mode that greatly simplifies the interaction. Users can just click and drag to measure - no modifier keys required. Pressing the shift key keeps the lines straight. Ruler origins can now be set to arbitrary values in the new preferences window.

Additionally, Slammer now allows the layout templates to be exported to JSON format. This is great for developers to integrate layouts created in Slammer with other applications. Part of this release is also jSlammer, an open source jQuery plugin for displaying the grids created using Slammer on any website. It uses the HTML canvas element to draw the Slammer layers and overlays from the exported JSON data. Integrating this with a web page is as simple as a function call.

Ringce is also releasing a new website devoted to layouts: onLayout. It aims to be a one stop resource for layout schemes that have been identified across different time periods and mediums. onLayout also serves as a gallery for layouts created using Slammer. Slammer templates can be downloaded and used from onLayout free of charge.

Pricing and Availability:
A staff pick on Apple Downloads under the Development Tools category, Slammer 1.0 is available for the introductory price of $20.00 USD (Regular $25.00). Slammer is a free update and a recommended upgrade for all customers.


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