I Build with 💖 in Public

Replaced autosave with reliable manual save system and added Facebook field to user profiles.

The Download Center has been refactored with a focus on user experience. The core features remain the same, but the interface is now more user-friendly with a bigger preview window, more prominent presets, and a smoother workflow for exporting your decks.

The Marketplace now has sharing links that creators give to people who buy or get access to decks, allowing them to download decks directly. If they create an account, they get access to advanced features like saving decks and using the playground.

The Playground now has a feature to browse through decks with next and previous card controls.

Complete redesign of the color picker interface in the template builder to make color selection simpler and more intuitive. The new modal-based design provides better organization and clearer explanations for all color options.

Multiple refinements to the color palette system based on Thalia's alpha testing feedback. Better visibility, improved workflows, and a new direct edit feature make working with color palettes much smoother. Also includes template builder improvements and various other bug fixes.

Two days of progress, both based on Rachel’s first onboarding feedback. First, a bug fix: background illustrations now display correctly, and you can control their alignment (top, center, bottom). Second, borders! You can now add borders not just to icons, but also to images, text, and shapes — everywhere. And finally, the sharing menu has been fixed to properly display the full description and help text.

The Template Builder just became incredibly powerful! Upload any image (bitmap or SVG) directly into your templates, add shape components for sophisticated layouts, and use redesigned controls that give you pixel-perfect precision. It's like having Canva, but specialized entirely for card creation.

I usually advise against making card-ocuments (i.e. cards with a lot of content), but I'm a realist - there are some use cases where yes, you need cards with a lot of details. So I've added markdown support with typography controls, plus improved responsive scaling so everything scales perfectly with card size.

The Template Builder has been completely transformed! What used to require Tailwind CSS knowledge is now fully visual. Design your card templates using intuitive mouse controls - adjust layouts, styles, spacing, and everything else without writing a single line of code.

No changes this week. I took a one-week break. See you next week for the latest changes before opening to the first alpha users.

AI suggests icons for individual cards or your entire deck at once. It can choose between thousands of Lucide icons or emojis, and watch your deck come to life.

Import just got smarter! Now handles all card fields and can merge into existing decks with intelligent category matching. Perfect for adding cards from multiple sources without the hassle of file preparation.

Sometimes you need to slow down and solidify. This last few days was all about fixing the small friction points, polishing rough edges, and ensuring existing features work reliably. No flashy new features - just the essential work that makes the platform feel solid and professional.

With the new Early Preview system, creators can now share unfinished decks publicly. This fundamentally changes how card decks are built and shared - no more waiting until everything is perfect to get feedback and user can start playing with the deck immediately!

Apart from the landing page links, no flashy features this week, just the essential groundwork for alpha testing. Built invitation management, fixed critical bugs, and polished the rough edges that make or break user experience. Sometimes the most important work is the least visible.

The printing workflow is now complete! Generate professional-quality PDFs for both home printing and print shops with a single click. No more complex settings, no more design tool frustrations - just click and print.

Major code refactoring of the Visual Template Builder and Export Center. While not flashy new features, this foundational work prepares the codebase for upcoming capabilities like PDF export and an even better template builder.

Icons are an easy way to add meaningful visual information to your cards, especially when you're not a designer. Now you have access to thousands of icons and emojis with a simple icon picker that makes finding the perfect icon super easy.

You can now build card templates visually instead of coding them. The first version of the Visual Template Builder lets you create templates with a simple interface. Take any existing template and remix it by changing the layout, content organization, and design.

Import content and create decks in I💖Cards with ease. Copy your data from Excel or Google Sheets, paste it into our importer, preview, and import. AI automatically maps your columns to the right fields with 99% accuracy.

The color system has been completely revamped! Now you can style your entire deck in under 2 minutes with intelligent color schemes that automatically calculate perfect text contrast ratios. Just pick a color scheme and paint your deck - the system handles all the complex color calculations in the background.

The template system has been totally refactored! The AI template generator has been improved and it also paves the way to a drag and drop UI for your to create your own templates. Second big update, the images of your cards and decks are now optimized based on the use case: faster to load for the web, better quality for the export.

You can now share your deck to the world! Public decks are now visible from /explore. Each public deck has its own landing page with your bio.

You can now define a back template for your cards, for either the full deck, a category or just one card - just like you do for the front.

First iteration of the "playground", with already a lot of love. Pick a card randomly,reverse a card! You can even stream your screen thanks to the green screen background. Select a deck, and start playing by clicking on the play button in the top right corner.

The first version of the Magic Onboarding, create your first deck in 30 seconds.

A proof of concept that you can export your cards as PNG and SVG with great fidelity.

This is the initial pre-alpha release of the app.