LayoutSplat: publications, templates, and file exchange

LayoutSplat v0.3.0 is the SplatWorks publication editor. Open LayoutSplat. Create precise publications locally in your browser. The original six-language picker and shared Apps launcher remain available. DrawSplat remains the whiteboard and its existing tools; SplatWorks is the ecosystem brand.

Templates

Choose File → Templates. Browse all designs or jump to Avery labels/name badges, business cards, or menus. There is one template library, with 305 editable designs and six publication-language editions. Filter by industry, publication type, orientation, palette, or search. Descriptive card titles identify the design; industry remains a filter. Download a filtered collection as JSON files in a ZIP.

The library includes 42 menu presets across 12 composition families, including café, fine dining, diner, bistro, pizza, bakery, tapas, Asian, coastal, farm, buffet, and hotel layouts. Business cards have six compositions and replaceable logo examples. Other publications also include appropriate branding examples. The SplatWorks example logo can be replaced from its picture context menu. These are original templates, without StockLayouts artwork or copy.

29 Avery sheet geometries cover 127 product codes, including US Letter and A4, address/shipping/return labels, file-folder labels, and insert/adhesive name badges. Search a product number; label cards lead with Avery stock numbers rather than industries. File → Label sheet & printer alignment adjusts horizontal/vertical printer offsets and the first unused label. Merge fills remaining slots and then new sheets. Print at actual size, without browser headers/footers or scaling. Stock list and measurements.

Page layout, objects, and text

File → Page layout controls page size, margins, columns, rows, baseline guides, ruler origins, bleed, safe insets, and facing pages. Rulers support inches, centimeters, picas, points, and pixels. Units/zoom do not change physical geometry. Preview, Print / Save as PDF, and Design checker are also grouped under File.

Text flows through linked boxes. Shift-select two or more boxes, right-click, and choose Link text boxes. Unlink splits the chain while retaining text and formatting. A single-box link action lets you choose a target. Continue on next page adds another frame. Supported rich text includes bold, italic, underline, columns, drop caps, AutoFit, alignment/direction, WordArt, and format painting.

Properties offer serif/sans-serif selection, font metrics kerning or no kerning, letter spacing (tracking), word spacing, horizontal text scale, ligatures, and line spacing. File → Import → Fonts accepts local TTF, OTF, WOFF, and WOFF2. Imported fonts are embedded in native saves and portable HTML, and included in Pack and Go. Limits: 16 MB per font, 16 fonts and 64 MB total. Import fonts you are entitled to use. Exact fonts improve metrics, but paragraph composition and unsupported effects can still differ between programs.

Shapes contains rectangles, ellipses, lines, hexagons, arrows, custom paths, and other shapes. Group, align, distribute, rotate, lock, and reorder objects. Layers have transparency sliders: 0% opaque to 100% transparent. Tables, drawing, watermarks, border art, and masters provide reusable publication elements. Picture wrapping is rectangular; wrapped drop caps remain a checker limitation.

Right-click, Mac Control/Command-click, or Shift+F10 opens contextual actions. Import/append text into a text box or replace media in a picture box while keeping its geometry. Text imports support TXT, Markdown, CSV/TSV, HTML text, DOCX, ODT, and WriteSplat JSON; document tables and page layouts are not placed through this text-box action.

Open versus Import

File → Open LayoutSplat project restores this editor's native JSON, .layoutsplat ZIP, or exported HTML with its native payload. File → Import offers alphabetically named source formats and converts them into LayoutSplat objects or page artwork. Native JSON is the lossless format; other applications use different document models.

Publisher conversion does not require LibreOffice, a server, or uploads. File → Import → Publisher import settings handles legacy encodings. Input is bounded to 32 MB, with a 45-second timeout and worker cancellation. No native PUB writer. Preserved crops, paragraph leading/alignment, bitmap fills, and text scaling improve accuracy. Compare source fonts, composition, and unsupported effects before printing. Accuracy findings and remaining work.

Images, video, and suite exchange

Local decoding covers common browser images, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF, PSD composites, and supported EPS/PS. Other image/video containers are attempted through bundled FFmpeg; actual codec and file variant determine support. Layered, multipage, HDR, and color-profile material may be flattened. Media input is bounded to 96 MB; raster pictures to 40 megapixels. Videos retain a print poster and can play in HTML.

File → Import → SplatWorks content places native WriteSplat, ShowSplat, GridSplat, and ListSplat content. File → Export offers those four apps' native JSON. Text stories, slides, and tables are converted; formulas, charts, relationships, and all cell styles are not reconstructed. The conversion report describes omissions. Opening another app's JSON through ordinary project handoff opens that app in an isolated draft. Saving the LayoutSplat original remains the lossless backup.

Merge, saving, and output

Mail merge reads local CSV, TSV, and XLSX worksheets. Map fields, filter, preview, and check records before generation. Labels span sheets and skip used positions. Recipient source tables are not saved in generated templates. Batches are bounded.

Save produces a portable .layoutsplat ZIP. File → Export offers native JSON, fixed-page HTML, an HTML reading edition, PDF proofs, high-resolution PNG/JPEG, SVG, IDML, Scribus SLA, suite content, and Pack and Go. Visual exports support page ranges; native and interchange projects contain the publication.

Print / Save as PDF preserves browser-shaped selectable text and vectors. The downloadable PDF proof is flattened. Print preparation includes bleed, crop marks, trim boxes, ICC output intents, and 150/300/600 ppi image output. Pack and Go collects the project, media, fonts, HTML editions, proof, checker findings, and printer instructions. Its optional Ghostscript helper offers PDF/X-3 conversion with structural checks; exhaustive PDF/X certification and printer acceptance remain separate validation work.

File → Clear saved browser data clears this workspace's draft/recovery and undo, then reloads a blank publication. Cancel preserves the current work. Other apps' drafts and downloaded projects remain available. Browser drafts are specific to browser/device/domain: save a project before moving from DrawSplat.org to SplatWorks.org.

Installation and roadmap

Serve over HTTP(S), including the supplied loopback launcher for offline use; direct file:// opening is unsupported. Bundled fonts and decoder workers run locally. Keep shared assets and the MediaSplat FFmpeg runtime with the app. The current release packages include a standalone LayoutSplat ZIP, the five-app SplatWorks suite, and the complete district installation. Downloads.

Milestones 1–2 are implemented; the core tools in 3–4 are implemented, with further composition fidelity and direct suite data-source integration remaining. Milestone 5 has print preparation and packaging, with stronger preflight, exhaustive PDF/X, large-document optimization, and external application validation still remaining. Progress · Approved plan · Library notices.