Changelog

This documentation set focuses on how to use IconVectors. This page is included as a convenient reference so you can see when major features were introduced.

Where to find the official release notes

Version 1.20

New features

• Text Tool — Insert text and convert it directly into editable paths with one glyph per character.
• Color Palettes Panel — A new dockable panel to manage palettes and swatches:
  • Palette menu commands: Add, Remove, Rename, Sort Swatches, Add Icon Colors, Load, Save.
  • Swatch management: add, delete, rename (double‑click), drag & drop reorder, delete by dragging outside.
  • Apply colors: left‑click for fill, right‑click for stroke.
• Add All Icon Colors to Palette — New command in the Icon menu that collects all colors used in the current icon, removes duplicates, sorts by Hue, and adds them to the selected palette.
• Drag & Drop Export — A new handy feature lets you Drag & drop the icon from the Preview Panel to external apps (it exports a temporary SVG).

Improvements

• Pen Tool — Curves can be created during initial drawing by click‑and‑drag (no tool switch required).
• Path Edition Tool — Corner rounding handles with drag and exact value entry (double‑click).
• Control Bar — New Add Color to Palette command inside the fill/stroke color menu.
• New Languages — 27 new languages added, for a total of 34: English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian. Right‑to‑left UI is now supported for languages that require it.

Fixes

• Color Palette workflow — Improved swatch insertion feedback and palette interaction behavior.
• Path Editing — Better selection and manipulation of anchor and control points.
• Canvas Zoom — Improved zoom in/out behavior for smoother navigation.
• Preview Rendering — Improved icon preview when using currentColor.
• Miscellaneous — Various minor bugs and usability improvements.

Version 1.10

New features

• Preview Window / Preview Panel — A dedicated preview allows you to inspect the final icon:
  • Light or dark background.
  • Smooth vector rendering or pixel (bitmap) preview.
  • Multiple zoom scales.
  • Live updates while you draw.
  The preview can be shown/hidden from View → Preview Panel (Ctrl+F8).
• Svgicons.com Integration — Directly open free icons from Svgicons.com inside IconVectors.
• Upgraded Scale Tool — Scale elements by percentage, or enter exact dimensions.
• Element Alignment — New commands to align elements horizontally or vertically (see the Element menu).
• Element Distribution — New commands to distribute elements evenly with fixed spacing, both horizontally and vertically (see the Element menu).
• Trace Bitmap — Import bitmap images and automatically trace them into black & white SVG paths. In the application, this feature is available as File → Place & Trace Bitmap. Tracing also works when pasting bitmap images into the editor.

Improvements

• Enhanced Editor — The editor is more responsive, offering a smoother rendering frame rate.
• Improved Element Selection — You can now choose how elements are picked when clicking in the canvas:
  • Wireframe (outline proximity) — selection is based on the proximity of the path outline.
  • Visible pixels (fill and/or stroke) — selection is based on the rendered pixels (fill and/or stroke).
  This setting is available in Edit → Preferences on the Icon Editor tab.
• Refined Layer Management — The element/layer list is easier and more intuitive to use.
• Better SVG Compatibility — Support for a wider range of SVG files, with improved stability when opening problematic SVGs.

Fixes

• Bug Fixes — Numerous issues have been resolved.

Version 1.0

Version 1.0 introduced the core workflow and tools for creating pixel‑perfect SVG icons.

Editor and workflow

• SVG Vector Icon Editing — Open and save SVG icons. The editor is optimized for small vector artwork, enabling pixel‑perfect icon design.
• User‑Friendly Editor — Adjustable zoom, grids, snap‑to‑grid, and other editor aids.
• Developer‑Oriented Design — Focused on icon creation for software development, with essential tools and developer‑friendly features.
• Layer Management — Organize artwork using layers and groups. Move, rename, group/ungroup, show/hide elements.
• Multiple Instances Support — Open multiple editor windows and transfer elements between them.

Selection, drawing and editing tools

• Selection Tool — Select, move, resize, rotate, and duplicate elements (with mouse and shortcuts).
• Path Editing Tool — Edit vector paths: add/remove/move points, adjust Bézier curves, and convert points between smooth and angular types.
• Pen Tool — Draw polylines and convert them into curves.
• Geometric Shape Tools — Create rectangles, ellipses and lines. Shapes can be converted to paths for further editing.

Appearance and color

• Advanced Color Editing — Edit fill/stroke colors with a color picker and pre‑defined palettes.
• Control Bar — Modify element properties (colors, stroke width, opacity, coordinates, canvas alignment) using the on‑canvas controls.
• Dark and Light UI Themes — A dark theme is available and the UI can follow the OS theme. You can also force the theme from Edit → Preferences (F2).

Code and integration

• Live Code Viewer — View the icon source code live in multiple formats, such as:
  • SVG
  • Minified SVG
  • XAML
  • SVG Symbol
  • VueTS
  • ReactTS
  • C++
• Compatible with Industry Standards — Integrates with tools like Visual Studio, VS Code and Adobe Illustrator. Copy/paste SVG code between applications.

Vector operations and icon utilities

• Boolean Operations — Union, subtract, intersect and exclude.
• Icon Canvas and Artwork Resizing — Resize the canvas only, or resize the icon with its artwork.
• Icon Color Adjustments — Brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, levels, desaturation and inversion.
• Icon Color Variants Generator — Generate variations for states such as Hot, Disabled and Dark Mode.

Badges and overlays

• Badge Overlay Addition — Add external icons as badge overlays with drag & drop.
• Badge Overlay Cutout — Apply a cutout effect beneath the badge to improve visibility.
• Badge Overlay Shadow — Add a shadow under badge overlays with one click for better depth.