The user interface has revamped: new icons, the search bar is now visible at all time, you can filter layers or slices, the alignment tool moved in the inspector, one click flip transformation. There is no more mini toolbar under the big toolbar. Things moved a little. It feels fresh.

“ Everything is in its right place ”

Inspector

The inspector is only one level deep. Fonts and color picker are not in a sub level anymore. A lot of other features have been moved there. The logic is quite simple, everything that was misplaced in Sketch 2 has been moved into the inspector where it belongs.

Artboards

The way to create artboards is a little different now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps2FQBdu6b0

It used to be one of theses annoying things. You are now able to select a background color for all your artboard, and if you want to have it during the export. No more locked rectangle at the root of your artboards and that’s more than welcome.

You can find this option in the artboard settings inspector

Insert

The insert menu includes the new features. In a very logic way, some Sketch 2 features that used to be lost in the interface have been moved into this menu.

Shared elements

Customize the toolbar by right clicking it and “Customize Toolbar”

Like many other feature, Shared elements has been rehabilitated. Less buried and more practical.

They also added one of the most requested feature: symbols. You will now be able to create, edit and share elements across pages.

Symbols

Every time I was explaining the reasons I switched to Sketch, there was a recurrent question “Is there symbols like in Fireworks?”. I know for fact that this was the most requested feature and these Bohemian coders don’t mess with their users. They built it in a smart and efficient way.

As you can imagine, it will make your life a lot more easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFEOP3g9NaI

Layer styles

The interface to create, access and modify the layer styles is now easier to work with. This feature was there and handy in Sketch 2 but very hard to use. There was no ability to name or distinguish similar styles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gmiQDTWeA0

On the left, when a shape is linked the icon turns purple.

Text styles

Very similar to what was there before, just more easy to use. There is still some limitation to their usage as shown in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8qKzOAf3m8

Export

Exporting has been re-imagined to be closer in your flow. It’s not a separate mode anymore. You can set up your slices and their parameters as your design. Creating and exporting has never been so easy. Using the slice tool makes me realize how much time I spent creating artboards at a specific size to export my assets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_bQzoubrUU

One of the very cool new feature is that you can use multiple export sizes presets or setup your own. If you ever designed for Android, this feature will save you a lot of time and trouble. It is also very flexible for any future device density. They added an option that allows you to customize the suffix of the filename.