What's new for users since v0.11.0:
- A restyled interface: Medium Dark with a coral accent by default, a choice
of accent colours, and a Classic colour scheme (User Interface › Color
Scheme) with the neutral greys of earlier versions.
- New tools and commands: Object › Intertwine and the Intertwine tool, the
Dimension tool, Export for Screens name patterns, folders and presets,
File › Automate › Batch, Sample Color from Screen, Release Guides into
paths, Update Selection, Rotate View to Selection and Rotate View presets,
Outline Object, the Halftone Pattern effect, canvas scroll bars, the
Hyphenation dialog, Legacy .ai export and portable mode on Windows.
- Canvas editing: the ellipse pie widget, the Shaper Group arrow, E for an
enclosed marquee, Unlock from a right-click on locked objects, Blob Brush
Keep Selected and Merge Only with Selection, Simplify's angle threshold and
straight lines, Distribute with a spacing from a key object, and Ctrl/Cmd+
Enter for proportional W and H.
- Type: font size steps of five, reset horizontal scale, reset tracking and
kerning, Align Stroke on live type, and Find and Replace that keeps
paragraph styles.
- Variables: image and graph variables, data set CSV import and export.
- Import: many .ai, EPS and PDF fidelity fixes (images, gradients, meshes,
patterns, layers, File Info), damaged PDFs no longer crash the importer,
and .ai, .ait and .svgz files copied in a file manager paste as art.
- Image Trace keeps tiny parts, thin outlines, shared corners and junctions,
and Noise no longer splits merged regions.
- MCP: draw_path and draw_shape as batch steps with dashes, caps and effects,
and command listings filtered by query and menu.
- Languages: Swedish, Finnish, Greek and Bulgarian, and Brazilian Portuguese
completed.
- Windows: a graphics driver crash leaves that adapter out at the next start,
and a maximized window stays clear of the taskbar.
With View › Hide Edges on, the canvas does not draw the bounding box,
the type widget beside it or the Live Corners widgets, but the
selection tools still answered the pointer on them. A press on a hidden
corner widget rounded the corners, a drag from a hidden handle scaled
the selection, a double-click on the hidden type widget converted the
type, and the cursor changed over each of them.
While edges are hidden, the app now tells the tools that the bounding
box and the corner widgets are off. A press at their places reaches the
art or the canvas under them.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md.
View › Guides › Release Guides only cleared the guide flag on paths
made with Make Guides. Ruler guides could not become paths by any
route, and with only ruler guides selected the command released every
guide path in the document instead.
Release Guides now also releases the selected ruler guides. Each one
becomes an open straight path with no fill or stroke at the top of the
guide's layer: an artboard guide runs across its artboard, and a
canvas guide runs across the bounds of all the artboards. The ruler
guide is deleted, the released paths are selected, and the release is
one undo step. With no guide selected, every guide path is released,
as before.
view.guides.release takes index (a ruler guide) and ids (guide paths,
and the guide paths inside them). Both are refused while guides are
locked, and index takes only a guide on a shown, unlocked layer.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
#1320 (write) and #1318 (read) landed on main; this keeps only the missing
regression: explicitly closed control-point splines export with the closed
bit and re-import closed, while open paths (even with coincident endpoints)
stay open, across every SPLINE-capable DXF version.
Issue #1935 asks for batch exports of many logo variations in many
formats, each format in its own folder. This builds on Export for
Screens, which already writes every chosen artboard in every format row.
Names: a file name pattern (`name`) names every file alike. Tokens:
<filename> (the document), <name> (the artboard, asset, layer or
object), <index>, a run of # (a counter, zero-padded to the run's
length, from counterStart; counterPer item or file), YYYYMMDD,
YYYY-MM-DD, <date>, <time>, <YYYY>, <MM>, <DD>, <format>, <scale> and
<suffix>. A trailing .ext is dropped. Words are not changed: only the
date patterns and the bracketed tokens are. `date` sets the day (the
default is today, UTC). Different files that a pattern names alike get
-2, -3... Without a pattern, two rows with one name still write the
first row only, as before.
Folders: `folders` puts all files in one folder, a folder per row (as
Create Sub-folders did), per extension, per item, or per item and then
extension.
What is exported: besides artboards, assets and the full document,
`layers` (each layer's art alone, sublayers included) and `selection`
(one file of the selection, or a file per object).
Formats: rows can also be EPS, AI and VectorCraft (a document of the
item alone, its one artboard). A PDF row with printer's marks (PDF
Print in the dialog: trim, registration, colour bars, page information,
suffix -print) sits next to a plain PDF row.
Presets: document.exportPresets.list, .save and .delete keep batch
export presets with the preferences, and `exportPreset` uses one under
the call's own params. Built-in: Logo Package (SVG, PNG 1x and 2x, PDF
and print PDF, a folder per format) and Print-Ready PDF.
Dialog: Layers and Selection tabs with thumbnails; an Export Preset
menu with Save and Delete; Folders; File Name with Insert for the
tokens, Start at, Prefix, and an example of the first file's name. The
OK button says Export Layer or Export Selection on those tabs.
Tests: the pattern tokens, the request's example (SVG, PNG, PDF and
print PDF for artboards 1-3, a folder per extension, the print PDF a
bigger page), folders by item and both, the counter by item and by
file, numbered duplicates, layers and the selection, EPS, AI and
VectorCraft per artboard, presets (built-in, saved, used, replaced,
deleted, kept with the preferences), bad params, and the dialog (every
tab, the example name, a pattern export into folders, the Layers and
Selection tabs, presets applied and saved). The three tests that
refused EPS and VectorCraft rows now check those files. New labels
are translated in all 19 catalogs.
The Paragraph panel menu's Hyphenation… was always disabled, and
automatic hyphenation used fixed limits: words of 6 letters or more,
3 letters on each side of the hyphen, any number of hyphenated lines
in a row, and capitalized words hyphenated.
Each paragraph now has hyphenation options: Words Longer Than, After
First, Before Last, Hyphen Limit, Hyphenation Zone and Hyphenate
Capitalized Words. The defaults are the fixed limits, and documents
keep their line breaks. The options are saved only when they differ
from the defaults. text.setFormat takes wordsLongerThan, afterFirst,
beforeLast, hyphenLimit, hyphenationZone and hyphenateCapitalized, and
paragraph styles carry the options. Hyphen Limit applies with both
composers. Hyphenation Zone applies with the Single-line Composer: a
line whose text before the next word already ends within the zone
breaks before that word instead of hyphenating it.
Hyphenation… is enabled with type selected and opens a Hyphenation
dialog (ui.hyphenation) on the values the Paragraph panel shows. OK
runs text.setFormat with the values that changed, as one undo step.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
The install folder is where the user sees the app: next to VectorCraft.app on
macOS (nothing is written inside the signed bundle) and next to the .AppImage
file on Linux ($APPIMAGE; the mounted executable's folder is read-only).
The first time VectorCraftData is created, the settings in the user's profile
are copied into it, so a portable zip that gains portable.txt keeps its users'
settings; the originals stay, a second start copies nothing, a copy that fails
halfway is logged and left as it is.
VECTORCRAFT_NO_PREFS never looks for the marker or creates the folder; a
portable copy skips the one-time read of DrawCraft's old settings; the
unwritable-folder warning goes to the log only (eprintln! panics on a closed
standard error).
A double-click on an object or group fits one artboard to the visible bounds and does not open Artboard Options. The second click does not fit another artboard. Other artboards stay. Double-clicking empty artboard space still opens Artboard Options. Double-clicking the name drawn above an artboard renames it.
The Stroke panel enables Align Stroke while the Type tool edits text, and
styles the selected characters. docs: mcp.md (stroke.set and strokeOptions
align on type), type-parity and target-app-parity rows.
Area type and type on a path whose text doesn't fit print without the
text past the end of the frame. text.create, text.createInPath,
text.setText and text.setStyle report it in their replies, but
file.print and print.preview gave no warning, and the Print dialog's
Summary showed none.
Both commands now add a warning that counts the area type and type on
a path that prints and doesn't fit, and gives their ids (the first 20,
then how many more). It counts the objects that the fallback font
warning counts: visible objects on the layers that Print Layers picks,
on the paper of the artboards or tiles that print. The walk that finds
the fonts of the printed type also collects these ids. Type in the art
of symbols, patterns, brushes, opacity masks and placed documents is
not named.
Docs: docs/mcp.md (Print, Fitting area type), docs/target-app-parity.md
(Type).
Effect › Path had Offset Path and Outline Stroke but not Outline Object.
The new effect (path.outlineObject) has no options: the Effect menu
applies it at once, and effect.apply refuses any parameter. It is a
geometry effect that returns its input. Type already reaches geometry
effects as its glyph outlines, so type that carries it is drawn,
exported (PDF and SVG as paths, with no font) and expanded as those
outlines, stays editable type, and the effects after it reshape the
outlines. Paths, compound paths and images draw as before, and no
bounds change: with Use Preview Bounds on, type is still measured by
its layout box.
Every complete catalog gets a row for the label.
Docs: docs/effects-parity.md, docs/target-app-parity.md (an evidence
line), docs/mcp.md (the effect, and what Expand Appearance does to
type).
The bounds of the visible art (`vectorcraft_render::encode::art_bounds`)
are the crop of Export with Use Artboards off, EPS without artboards,
Export for Screens' Full Document and Save for Web (Legacy) with Clip to
Artboard off, and the size Fit to Artwork Bounds gives an artboard. They
measured a group or layer by its members and left out its own effects,
and measured type and images without their effects. A group's drop
shadow, or the shadow of a line of type, was cut off at the image's edge
and left outside the fitted artboard. They also counted a Shaper group's
transparent source art.
Each visible object is now measured by `vectorcraft_render::effect_bounds`,
the measure of Export Selection's crop. A group or layer without effects
of its own is still measured by its visible members, skipping a Shaper
group's source art. A group or layer with a drop shadow, a glow or another
raster effect is measured without its hidden members, guides and template
layers, unless it is a Shaper group or also has a geometry, Pathfinder,
Crop Marks or 3D effect or a visible effect on its own fill or stroke.
The SVG of a chosen artboard also keeps an object whose effects alone
reach the artboard.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
A geometry effect applied to one of a type object's own fills or
strokes (effect.apply with item) was kept but not drawn or exported
unless the type also had a geometry effect or perspective of its own.
With a geometry effect, the renderer measured the type for culling
without the fill's or stroke's effects, so an outline that reached past
the glyphs was not drawn once the glyphs left the view.
Type whose own fills or strokes have a visible geometry effect is now
drawn, culled and exported through its outlines, the same way as type
with an object-level geometry effect. Each effect reshapes the whole
outline that its fill or stroke paints. SVG, PDF, EPS and the other
vector exports write such type as paths. Type that holds inline
graphics stays type, as before.
The Select menu had no Update Selection: to add objects to a saved
selection or take objects out of it, the selection had to be saved
again under the same name. Select › Update Selection (`select.update`)
now gives the saved selection last recalled the objects that are
selected, in one undo step. It is enabled while objects are selected
and the document still holds that saved selection.
Each open document keeps session ids for its saved selections, so the
recalled one is found under a new name after Edit Selection…, and after
Undo and Redo. Deleting it disables Update Selection until another
saved selection is recalled or the delete is undone.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/target-app-parity.md.
The characters' stroke takes Align Stroke like an object stroke: CharStyle
keeps stroke_align (written only when not centred), stroke.set and
text.setRangeStyle strokeOptions apply align to type, and the Stroke panel
enables the buttons for type. Canvas, PDF and EPS draw it around the glyphs
through stroke_layer(); SVG keeps the text live and writes the aligned
stroke on the glyph outlines, clipped or masked. Type's visual bounds grow
with its character strokes.
The Simplify dialog had Tolerance, Preview and the anchor point counts.
It now also has three of the options of the reference app's advanced
Simplify dialog:
- Corner Point Angle Threshold is a slider from 0° to 180° that opens
at 150°, with its label above it so the dialog stays under the
420-point width that menu_parameter_dialogs_are_compact allows. An
anchor whose corner is sharper than the threshold stays a corner, so
moving the slider right keeps more corners. The dialog sends
object.path.simplify's cornerAngle as 180° less the threshold, so the
opening value gives the same result as before.
- Convert to Straight Lines sends straightLines.
- While Preview is on, Show Original Path draws the paths as they were
before the preview, in a faint band of their layer's color under the
selection outlines.
The three labels have rows in the 19 catalogs that translate every
label.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/ui-parity.md.
In a rotated view, seven parts of the canvas and the Navigator worked as
if the view were not turned. Fit Artboard in Window and Fit All in
Window sized the zoom from the unturned width and height, so at 45° a
612 x 792 pt artboard ran off a 1000 x 800 canvas. The Zoom tool's
marquee (Animated Zoom or GPU Performance off) set the zoom to 3.13% at
90° and 180°. Ruler guides on no artboard were drawn square to the
screen while the tools pick them, snap to them and move them by their
position in the document. The rectangle a tool drags out (the selection
marquee, and the drags of the Type tool, the Artboard tool, the Place
cursor and Rectangle Cut) was drawn as a box square to the screen while
the tools work in the document rectangle. Show Hidden Characters skipped
type whose turned outline reached into the canvas when the box between
two of its corners did not. At 180° the Contextual Task Bar covered the
selection, and the Navigator's red box outlined an area that the window
did not show.
Now fitting uses the size of the artboard or art turned with the view,
and the Zoom tool's marquee zooms by its size on screen and centers on
its middle. A canvas guide is drawn along its document line, cut to the
canvas. Rectangles that tools drag out are drawn through the screen
corners of the document rectangle the tools use. Show Hidden Characters
uses the type's turned outline on screen, and the task bar uses the
selection's. The Navigator draws the canvas's corners mapped into the
document. At 0° each of these does what it did before.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md.
A Blob Brush stroke merged with every touching closed path of its
color that had no stroke, and the blob it drew or merged into was
always left selected. The Blob Brush Tool Options had Size only.
The Blob Brush Tool Options now have Keep selected and Merge only
with selection, both off by default. A blob that a stroke draws or
merges into is no longer left selected unless Keep selected is on,
and the rest of the selection stays as it was. While Merge only with
selection is on, a stroke merges only with selected blobs, and with
nothing selected it draws a new blob. The options persist like the
tool's Size, and path.blob takes keepSelected and mergeOnlySelection,
both false by default. Keep selected stays on by default for the
Pencil and Paintbrush.
Docs: docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/control-protocol.md.
bflatastic