How does it work? Simply name layer groups like the files you want to create, and Layer Cake will extract them individually. Enjoy complete freedom to move, obscure and even hide these named layer groups without affecting the extracted images. Find out more at macrabbit.com/layercake and revolutionize your PSD workflow.

Because we want every designer and developer out there to be unshackled from Save For Web, Layer Cake is launching at a ridiculously affordable $19.99 intro price. It’s available exclusively on the App Store. Get your copy now!

PS: We’ll be releasing Espresso 2.0.2 with some very nice goodies soon as well!

Espresso 2 is out now, and we think it will make a lot of people very happy. CSSEdit is now exclusively integrated, with advanced new visual tools for CSS3 gradients, shadows and more. Also making the jump from CSSEdit are X-ray, Live Styling and Overrides — the awesome technologies that have made CSS styling on the Mac fun and productive for years.

In addition to CSSEdit’s goodness, this major upgrade also includes new or much-improved language support for HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Python, Apache, and Markdown. Want to extend Espresso even further? You can now write your own actions using the brand new JavaScript-based Sugar APIs. To make publishing websites quicker than ever, Quick Publish and Server Sync have a brand new, improved interface that builds on a completely rewritten FTP/SFTP/S3 engine. Espresso 2 polishes every aspect of its workflow, right down to the animated gears you see when adjusting Project settings.

We invite you to take it for a spin today, and see how you like it! Find details, download and upgrade info at macrabbit.com/espresso.

With mixed feelings toward our loyal and awesome friend, we bid adieu to CSSEdit as a standalone application. That’s right: CSSEdit 3 is a tightly integrated part of Espresso, bringing the best features of CSSEdit’s tools and previews to Espresso, and likewise introducing the flexibility and power of Espresso’s publishing system, editors, themes, and more to our CSSEdit users.

Was CSSEdit’s transformation the only reason for the long wait? No. Long story short, we bit off more than we could chew. In addition to a completely re-architected publishing engine, we improved and significantly future-proofed many aspects of Espresso. Instead of ruthlessly limiting the scope of the new version, we allowed the schedule to spiral out of control. In the future we will try to trade some of our traditional “splash releases” for more regular incremental improvements.

Espresso 2 is not quite as polished as we would like yet. At the same time, we think the included improvements outweigh the remaining rough edges for most users, and since many of you have reminded us that you are eagerly awaiting it we’ve decided to release a public Kaboom. Visit macrabbit.com/espresso/2 for all the details on our plans for Espresso 2, the Mac App Store, and to help us test and refine the final release. Thank you for listening, and we hope you enjoy the new Espresso!

“Ian,” he said to me, “this just won’t do. How good are you at harvesting carrots? And incidentally I could also use someone to help out with support and quality assurance.”

“Well,” I replied, “that sounds like fun, but what’s in it for me?”

“How do you feel about fresh radishes?” said he. “Oh, and helping make Espresso even more fantastic than it already is?”

I don’t know how he guessed, but I’ve always been a sucker for really crisp, fresh radishes.

Starting today, I will be handling the bulk of MacRabbit’s support, doing quality assurance, developing internal Sugars, and just generally making sure that using MacRabbit products is as easy and care-free as can be for you folks.  I’ve been developing Sugars and themes for Espresso on my own time since the early semi-private betas, so I’m ecstatic to finally be able to give Espresso and CSSEdit my complete focus and offload some of the tasks from Jan that were slowing down the pace of development.

I look forward to talking with you in the forums and via our support email!

• Day 1: Frank Jonen
• Day 2: Kaylo Naivaklam
• Day 3: Mike Mullikin
• Day 4: Christoph Budzinski
• Day 5: Martin Taylor
• Day 6: Giulio Lucci
• Day 7: Shan Huang
• Day 8: John Sjöberg
• Day 9: Chris Kinsman
• Day 10: Mark Howson
• Day 11: Brian Morykon

We’ll be updating this post as the Funny Nag Contest goes on. An important note: there’s no need to send your idea on a specific day to have a better chance of winning. Every day we take our favorite of all the nags we’ve received so far. Today was definitely a challenge, because there were lots of really fun entries!

Xmas is near, 11-days-near to be precise. Seeing all those ones makes you want to add more, so every day the next 11 days we are giving away 1+1 copies of Espresso 1.1. How do you win a copy for yourself and a friend? By being part of a MacRabbit tradition: the Funny Nag Contest! Invent a hilarious and convincing demo “buy now” message for Espresso. Nags can be stories, dialogues, statements, really anything. Send your ideas to @espressoapp on Twitter or mail them to espresso@macrabbit.com. Every day until Xmas we will pick our favorite nag in the pool and surprise the author.

We wish you Happy Holidays, Espresso 1.1 delight, much inspiration and an excellent sense of humor!

If you like Espresso now, you will love 1.1. If you haven’t made up your mind, we invite you to give it a whirl in less than a month!

Few people know this, but MacRabbit was a one-student venture for a long time. It was born out of a love for beautiful design and software, and slowly grew from a hobby to something resembling a one-man company. For Espresso, a great friend stepped in to become the second developer/rabbit. The rush of creating an awesome new app made us announce early, but then life caught up with us and took revenge.

Lénaïc and I started our last year at university after the announcement, which turned out to come with a crazy workload while feedback for Espresso was reaching unprecedented volumes. Long story short, juggling this double life led to the current situation where people wonder if MacRabbit lives. This is unacceptable. I would like to apologize for the situation and commit to a brand new MacRabbit.

We will soon both be working on our software full-time, which means the extreme interference caused by our academic lives is at an end. MacRabbit 2.0 starts today, but it will take a while to rectify the mistakes 1.0 made. At the moment we are systematically going through our e-mail feedback and while we may not be able to reply to every single feature idea, please be sure we’re taking note of your requests.

Expect an Espresso maintenance update soon, which will bring us one step closer to the goal of making our FTP engine compatible with nearly everything. Be sure to send any server problems to us, as it is the only way we can know and do something about it. To make the development process a bit more manageable, we’ll also be switching back to hand-picked Kaboom testers that are happy to test unfinished releases. Simultaneously, we’re working on the more significant 1.X Espresso releases that will gradually add many of the most obvious features. We’ve also learned our lesson when it comes to pre-announcing, so we won’t be saying anything about what or when.

Last but not least we would like to thoroughly thank our most awesome users, who have been supportive even at the worst of times. We’ve made it hard for you at times, but we’re dedicated to restoring your trust as MacRabbit evolves into a true company with a bright future ahead of it.

Unfortunately, that process has been hindered because of broken auto-updating up to version 1.0.1. Up to now, Espresso didn’t check for new versions on launch which hid great improvements from many of our users. Version 1.0.2 (out now) sports a fixed auto-updater along with many other improvements, so we’d like everyone to update their copy as soon as possible! Tell your Espresso-using friends and spread the word: Check for Updates under the Espresso menu.

We’ve been receiving tons of feedback about Espresso, which we’re going through as fast as we can. We try to respond to your e-mails, but due to the sheer volume of feedback we may not be able to reply personally to every feature request. Even when you don’t receive an acknowledgement of your feedback, know that it’s not going into a black hole. Thanks for shaping the future of Espresso!