Hi |FNAME|,

Spring has well and truly arrived here in Southern Ontario. After a Canadian winter, spring always feels incredible to me. It puts me in a creative mindset, which ties right into our new Project Halfmoon.

We got great response for the Halfmoon. We've started inviting many of the people who applied and putting the community together. It's quite fun to hear how creatives get work done.

I know the header above doesn't exactly scream "springtime" — this one's for Tisha and everyone else who prefers cooler weather.

As always, thank you for reading, and you can always email me - ez@zsa.io.

All the best,
Erez

Let's make a deck of cards together

To celebrate Project Halfmoon, we are creating a collaborative art showcase: A beautiful deck of playing cards. We'll be featuring eight different artists, and are currently looking at portfolios. Full project specs and application form on the site. If this sounds interesting for you or someone you know, please apply or share the link.

Featured User Interview

Jon Arrien

Senior Developer at Whitebox

Jon told us about his favorite text editors and the interesting mods he’s made to his Moonlander, and wait until you see the custom ebike he built to take on the mountain trails near Bilbao!

"I switched to an e-bike recently and am having double fun…I built it myself."

Layout of the month

Layout of the month: Sheng's lesser thumb usage layout with åäöé

Hi! I am Sheng and I'm a Taiwanese web developer living in Sweden. I want to save my thumb muscle for playing games after work with game controller as it requires pushing the analog stick with thumb a lot, therefore I created a layout with lesser thumb usage. This layout is an US International layout so it's based on Qwerty.

Layout of the month: Sheng's lesser thumb usage layout with åäöé

Things we liked

Typatone →

Turns typing into music

Type something. Then stop and listen. Hypnotic, chill, and beautiful. By Lulltatone.

Tak →

An elegant abstract strategy game

I love abstract strategy games like Chess and Hive, and was delighted to find Tak. Simple, deep, and elegant. It is easy to DIY your own set of Tak pieces in real life: I made one out of a thrift-store Jenga set. This online version lets you experience the game in just one click. No AI — real-time multiplayer.

Colemak Academy →

Learn Colemak, a bit at a time

A fun and simple website for getting the hang of the Colemak layout (I’ve been using Colemak for years and find it very comfortable). Has a nicely graduated training system that makes you type real words rather than gibberish. Not overly gamified, and entirely free.

Krita →

Digital painting. Creative freedom.

A cross-platform, free, and powerful painting app. Has several brush engines, lots of brushes out of the box, and a compelling animation mode. Check out the “Let’s Animate My Neighbor Totoro” video on the Features page.