Next-Level Writing for Medium

Summary

Medium has introduced new writing features including mobile app editing, drop caps, TK support, and improved typography and layout for enhanced writing and reading experiences on various devices.

Abstract

Medium's latest update emphasizes a commitment to a simple yet deep writing experience, introducing mobile editing capabilities through their iOS and Android apps, allowing writers to make changes on the go. The platform now features drop caps for a touch of elegance in typography, and supports the use of 'TK' as a placeholder for unfinished sections, aiding in the writing process. Additionally, Medium has improved its typography and layout to ensure content looks great on both small and large screens, and has implemented new interactive features such as user mentions and an API for external writing integration. These updates are part of Medium's ongoing efforts to provide a seamless and enjoyable writing environment, complete with a refreshed design and enhanced communication tools between readers and writers.

Opinions

Medium values a minimalistic editor design that prioritizes the writer's focus on content creation over UI complexities.
The company believes in making writing fun, ensuring all posts benefit from beautiful, world-class typography and layout.
Medium acknowledges the importance of flexibility in the writing process, enabling inspiration-driven writing and editing from anywhere, at any time.
The introduction of drop caps is seen as a way to add pacing and typographical delight to stories.
TK support is presented as a nod to publishing traditions, simplifying the management of the writing process.
The platform's commitment to continuous improvement is evident through the mention of iterative updates to notes and other features.
Medium seeks direct communication and feedback from its users, inviting them to share their thoughts on the updates.
The company is focused on catering to both writers and readers by optimizing the layout and typography for various screen sizes.

Next-Level Writing for Medium

Here at Medium, we care very much about our editor. We strive for it to be a simple, minimalistic tool, but also one with a great amount of depth and delight. The austerity serves an important purpose — writers can focus on sharing ideas, thoughts, and stories rather than fighting with the UI. Depth and delight? We want writing to be fun, and everyone’s posts to have beautiful, world-class typography and layout.

Today, we’re introducing a few new features for writers on Medium:

Writing and editing anywhere With our newly updated iOS and Android apps, you can write and edit 24/7. How many times did you publish a story on your laptop, only to see a pesky typo in line at the bank, unable to change it, bothered by how people will be looking at it for hours and judging you before you get back to your desk? Now, you can use our app on your smartphone to fix it right then and there.

Or, do the exact opposite: start writing whenever inspiration strikes, and then publish immediately… or finish and decorate at home.

A story published on a big screen, with a typo edited on a small one.

Drop caps You might have noticed another new editor feature already. It’s drop caps — those enlarged initials you can use for pacing, starting a new chapter, or just a little typographical delight. Just select a first letter in the paragraph, and you can toggle the letter to be a stylized initial. And it should behave well no matter what you throw at it — a quote, a short word, a digit, or a number.

A drop cap (and a half) in action.

TK support We’re also launching another small feature: support for TK in our editor. TK is a publishing tradition that helps managing the messy process of writing. Put TK anywhere in your draft as a placeholder, and Medium will make it easier to spot it and take care of it before publishing.

A story with two TKs in it. Medium warns in yellow that this story might not be ready to be published yet.

There are more changes happening today. You can now mention other people during writing and use our API to write elsewhere. We also launched the first iteration of our new notes, which have been simplified for direct communication between readers and writers. (They aren’t perfect yet, but we’ll be improving them in the coming months.) And, on your stats page, you can now see your stories grouped by date — something that could make it easier for you to keep track of your cadence of writing, whether you want to write monthly, weekly, daily, or… whenever the inspiration strikes.

Then, there’s refreshed typography, and we also made some layout changes that will make it easier for stories to shine on small screens as much as they do on big ones: we adjusted and simplified the sizes of headlines, changed our emphasis style, and reduced the size of link cards.