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

  • Help ‣ What’s New… (release notes for your installed version)

  • Help ‣ Check For Updates

Online

Version 1.40

New features

  • Public MCP Integration - IconVectors now exposes a local MCP server so AI assistants can create, draw, edit, inspect, render, and export SVG vector icons through the running desktop application instead of working on detached source text alone.

Improvements

  • AI client setup documentation - The help now documents supported local integration patterns for Codex/OpenAI tooling on the same machine, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and other MCP-compatible hosts.

Fixes

  • Bug Fixes - Numerous issues have been fixed.

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 View 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 View 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 Edit ‣ Preferences ‣ Icon Editor 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 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

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.

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.

    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 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.