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
- In the application
(release notes for your installed version)
- Online
Version 1.30
New features
WPF Geometry / VectorDrawable / SwiftUI code generation — The Source Code window now includes dedicated tabs to generate these output formats from the current SVG document.
Recolor with Palette — New icon-level recoloring command that remaps every icon color to the visually closest swatch from the currently selected palette. The operation is undoable.
Layer Locking — The Layers panel now has a lock column. Locked elements stay visible but cannot be selected or edited with the mouse.
Auto-center Canvas — New toggle in the menu to automatically re-center the canvas when the main window is resized and when Focus Mode is toggled.
Focus Mode — New quick workspace mode that hides non-essential panels/toolbars to maximize drawing area. It is available from the menu and with Tab.
Improvements
Hierarchical lock behavior — Locking a group propagates to all descendants. Parent lock indicators are shown only when all children remain locked.
UI responsiveness — Optional GPU acceleration has been added (Beta) in to improve rendering performance on compatible systems.
Fixes
Lock persistence — Locked state is preserved during regular editing operations.
Grouping safety — Grouping the root SVG element is blocked with a dedicated message.
Layer list UX — Better pointer/tooltip feedback over visibility and lock controls.
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 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
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 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.
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 (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 menu).
Element Distribution — New commands to distribute elements evenly with fixed spacing, both horizontally and vertically (see the menu).
Trace Bitmap — Import bitmap images and automatically trace them into black & white SVG paths.
In the application, this feature is available as . Tracing also works when pasting bitmap images into the editor.
Note
Tracing works best with monochrome images (black & white). Images with multiple colors may produce unpredictable results. Higher-resolution images generally trace better.
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 (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.