A ChessUp user sent me some feedback asking about pre-defined color styles.  (Style = square/text/background colors).  I think this is a great idea.
Of course, now I actually have to come up with some pretty styles.

If anyone has any suggestions, leave them in the comments or send me some feedback.  I’ll try to come up with some on my own.  Also, give your style a descriptive name.

If you need some inspiration, be sure to check out the gallery.

There was a bug where choosing “Black To Play” would make the diagram say “White To Play.”  The issue has been fixed.

Just a simple update: I added algebraic chess coordinates to the side of the chessboard on the main interface. So, now users see the letters “a-h” running along the bottom of the board, and the numbers “1-8″ running along the left side.

For users running in an 800×600 resolution, you’ll probably get a horizontal scroll bar now.  I tried to avoid this for as long as possible, but I simply needed more width.  I recommend running your system in at least a 1024×768 screen resolution for best results in all programs, not just ChessUp.

I updated the Help page.  Actually, it’s more accurate to say that I added the Help page, since there was practically nothing there to begin with.

I also added a Gallery to show off the wide range of diagrams that ChessUp can create.

I’m going to explain this more when I write the help docs, but I want to put up a quick post about how to use the color picker.

The color picker works via Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders.

The Hue slider is the rainbow.  Drag the target to the color you want.

The Saturation slider determines how colorful or gray the image is.  To make the color really saturated, slide it to the right.  To turn it gray, slide it all the way to the left.

The Lightness slider determines the brightness of the color.  Slide it to the right to move the color closer to white.  Slider it left to move the color closer to black.

Remember this:

The color will be black if the lightness slider is all the way to the left.  It does not matter what the other sliders are set at.

The color will be white if the lightness slider is all the way to the right.  It does not matter what the other sliders are at.

The color will be a shade of gray if the saturation slider is all the way to the left. It does not matter what the other sliders are at.

I find HSI sliders to be easier than RGB (Red/Green/Blue_ sliders, because once you get the Hue you want, you can subtley adjust the brightness and saturation easily.

ChessUp has been updated in a big way. In fact, I’d say that over half the code was re-written. But enough technical details…what’s new?

Drag And Drop. Pieces are placed by dragging and dropping them onto the board. To remove a piece from the board, drag it off.

Color Choices. Users now have 100% control over the board, text, and background colors.

Piece Styles. There are now 4 different sets that can be chosen for pieces. They are all fairly similar, but the color scheme is different. The old Wikipedia graphics are gone. (They were nice, but they were blended with the backgrounds, which made it impossible to add the color-chooser).

Board Coordinates. A new detail is available: board coordinates. Toggling them on will show the traditional algebraic coordinates along the left and bottom sides of the board.

ChessUp requires JavaScript to be enabled in order to work. Cookies are not required, but they are recommended. Enabling cookies will allow ChessUp to remember the last board position and color choices you submitted. This makes it easy to hit the “Back” button and do little edits without starting from scratch.

The next big “To Do” is to add some context-sensitive help.

OK, enough talk. Here are some quick example images I put together to show off the new flexibility.

The new release is imminent. The color picker and drag ‘n drop are working, and images can be created from positions. Oh, there’s another new option that some of you might like, but I’ll leave that as a surprise.

All I have to do now is make the descriptive text work again. I’d like to be smarter about how that works, but in reality, I’ll probably just release it with the old functionality and then improve it over time.

I hope to have the new content out by Sunday night.