LayoutSplat: publications, templates, and file exchange

LayoutSplat v0.2 is the SplatWorks publication editor. Open LayoutSplat. Create flyers, brochures, newsletters, business cards, catalogs, greeting cards, labels, posters, menus, invitations, certificates, and other publications locally in your browser. The interface shares the suite's Apps launcher and original six language choices.

Start with a template

Choose Template library in the top menu. Browse 270 original editable designs: 18 industries × 15 publication types. Filter by industry, type, orientation, or search; choose the publication language and palette. Download this collection saves the filtered templates as JSON files in a ZIP. Extract it before opening an individual template. The seven quick-start categories remain under File → Templates.

These are independently created designs. They do not contain StockLayouts files, artwork, or copy. Replace the sample text, merge placeholders, and picture frames with your own material. A local illustration fills picture placeholders.

Edit and arrange

Use rulers in inches, centimeters, picas, points, or pixels. File → Page layout offers custom dimensions, margins, columns, rows, baseline guides, ruler origins, bleed, safe insets, guide locking, and facing-page preview. Unit and zoom changes preserve the publication's physical measurements.

Text stories flow through linked frames. Select a frame to change font, size, color, bold, italic, underline, alignment, direction, tracking, columns, drop caps, AutoFit, and WordArt effects. The rich editor applies formatting to selections. AutoFit can shrink to a minimum size; Grow overflowing frame is an explicit action. Continue on next page adds another linked frame. Picture wrapping is rectangular; drop caps are suppressed in wrapped frames and the checker explains that limit.

Shift-click for multiple selection; group, align, distribute, resize, rotate, lock, or change stacking. Shapes opens one picker for rectangles, ellipses, lines, hexagons, triangles, arrows, stars, hearts, callouts, border art, and custom paths. More tools includes tables, drawing, watermarks, and a format painter. Each layer has a transparency slider: 0% is opaque and 100% is transparent. The selected object also has a transparency control in Properties; locked layers cannot change. Preview and Design checker are under File. Masters hold reusable background objects and support page assignments, left/right variants, editing, and local hidden-object overrides. Creating a master moves the chosen objects into it.

Right-click imports

Right-click an object for actions relevant to it. Mac Control-click or Command-click and Shift+F10 also open the menu. Text frames offer import, append, paste, rich editing, and continuation. Pictures offer replacement, crop, watermark, and motion preview. Replacing content preserves the existing frame's size, position, and rotation.

Text imports support TXT, Markdown, CSV/TSV text, HTML text, DOCX, ODT, and WriteSplat JSON. Word imports retain supported direct character formatting; page layout, pictures, headers, and document tables are not placed through this text-frame action.

Open Publisher and other layout files

Choose File → Open project for .pub, .layoutsplat, .layoutsplat.json, SVG, IDML, Scribus SLA, interchange ZIPs, LayoutSplat HTML, or PDF.

Microsoft Publisher decoding runs inside a bundled WebAssembly worker. It does not require LibreOffice, a desktop helper, or a conversion service. Supported text, graphics, and embedded pictures become editable objects; the original PUB is retained with the project. This import is experimental: review fonts, older encodings, effects, fields, and linked text against the source. If old text is garbled, choose its encoding under File → Publisher import settings and reopen. There is no native PUB export. Files are limited to 32 MB and decoding times out after 45 seconds; Cancel terminates the decoder.

JSON is the lossless native exchange format. SVG, IDML, and SLA support a useful subset of external documents. LayoutSplat's own interchange exports include a native payload for faithful reopening. IDML/SLA packages include links and a conversion report; sophisticated effects may be flattened. Target InDesign/Scribus application fidelity has not been certified. Keep originals and compare conversions. PDF imports place a selected page as a picture, with non-editable text.

Images and video

Browser image formats, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF, and Photoshop composite previews have local decoding paths. Additional image/container formats are attempted through the bundled FFmpeg converter. Support depends on the actual codec and file variant; the file picker is broader than a guarantee that every variant will decode. Layered, multi-page, HDR, and color-profile content can be flattened.

MP4/WebM and supported browser videos play locally. Containers such as AVI and MOV can be converted to MP4/H.264 when supported. Video and animation retain a picture poster for print/PDF and play in interactive HTML. File imports are limited to 96 MB; raster pictures to 40 megapixels. Import failures preserve the publication.

Exchange SplatWorks content

Use File → Import SplatWorks content to place native WriteSplat, ShowSplat, GridSplat, or ListSplat JSON content in a LayoutSplat publication. Ordinary Open still routes another app's JSON file to that app in an isolated draft.

WriteSplat imports become linked text frames with supported character formatting. ShowSplat imports become publication pages. Spreadsheet/database values become editable tables split across pages with repeated headers. Charts, database relationships, cell styles, and formulas are not evaluated or reconstructed.

Export & share offers native JSON for the same four apps. WriteSplat receives complete text stories; ShowSplat receives editable slide elements; GridSplat and ListSplat receive publication tables. The included conversion warnings explain omitted content. These formats serve different document models and are not a lossless substitute for saving the original LayoutSplat project.

Mail merge

Choose local CSV, TSV, or XLSX data, select a worksheet, map headers to {{fields}}, filter records, and preview. Check every record before generating publications. Labels fill consecutive slots across sheets. Generated publications contain the personalized values; the recipient source table is not saved with the template. Generation supports up to 500 pages per batch.

Save, print, export, and share

Save creates a portable .layoutsplat ZIP; Export & share → LayoutSplat JSON makes an explicit editable JSON file. Both preserve stories, masters, assets, and rich formatting. Browser autosave and previous-draft recovery remain device/browser/domain specific. Download backups regularly, especially before moving to SplatWorks.org.

File → Clear saved browser data removes this LayoutSplat workspace's draft and recovery copy, clears the current publication and undo history, and reloads into a blank publication. Cancel keeps the work. Downloaded files and other apps' drafts are preserved. The blank starting state persists until you begin editing again. Each domain has its own browser storage; clearing DrawSplat.org does not clear SplatWorks.org. In an isolated imported tab, the action clears that tab's workspace.

Print / Save as PDF preserves browser-shaped selectable text and vectors. The dedicated downloadable PDF is a high-resolution flattened proof. PNG/JPEG offer 150/300/600 ppi; PDF proofs can include bleed, crop marks, trim boxes, and an ICC output intent. Page ranges apply to visual exports; native project and desktop or SplatWorks interchange exports contain the full publication.

HTML exports include fixed-layout media and a separate reading edition. Shared files are prepared before a second Share click invokes device sharing. Unsupported devices download the file. Email preview prepares a draft; attach the downloaded file yourself. Nothing is sent automatically.

Pack and Go gathers JSON, HTML, a reading edition, PDF proof, pictures, motion media, bundled licensed fonts, printer specifications, and checker findings. Its optional Ghostscript helper converts a proof with a printer-supplied CMYK profile and checks PDF/X-3 structure independently. Neither an ICC output intent nor these structural checks constitutes exhaustive PDF/X certification; obtain printer approval.

Deployment and remaining work

Serve the repository over HTTP(S); file:// is unsupported. Runtime fonts, media decoders, and the Publisher worker are bundled locally. Publisher/media codecs download only when used. Updated source suite packages must include the shared MediaSplat FFmpeg runtime. Previously published download ZIPs retain their contents until rebuilt; the live application and GitHub source receive this update first.

The progress log and approved plan track further wrapping/typography fidelity, external interchange validation, larger-document performance, stronger print preflight, and refreshed district release packaging. Bundled-library notices.