VectorCraft Advances with v0.15.0 to v0.17.0: Enhancements in Brushes, Effects, and Performance

About VectorCraft

VectorCraft is an open-source vector graphics editor developed entirely in Rust. It aims to provide a native, cross-platform vector art tool compatible with macOS, Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD. The project emphasizes performance, extensibility, and modern features for vector art creation and editing. Users include developers and designers interested in a free and open-source alternative to commercial vector graphics software. The tool supports a wide range of features such as brush engines, effects, type handling, and import/export capabilities for formats like PDF, SVG, and AI.

Release Overview

Between versions 0.15.0 and 0.17.0, VectorCraft has undergone several significant updates, focusing on user interface improvements, brush and effect enhancements, performance optimizations, and expanded file format support. Notably, FreeBSD aarch64 support was dropped in versions 0.15.0 and 0.16.0 due to continuous integration (CI) build time constraints, although other platforms remain supported.

Version 0.15.0 Highlights

FreeBSD aarch64 Support Dropped: Due to build time exceeding the 5-hour CI limit, FreeBSD aarch64 was removed temporarily from supported targets.
Brushes and Effects: Added features such as brush selection improvements, new brush options sliders, and a new Sketch › Water Paper raster filter.
Gradient Meshes: Addressed malformed gradient meshes when point counts overflow and issues with deleting mesh lines.
Snapping and Guides: Introduced tangent and perpendicular snapping and enhanced smart guide readouts.
Type and Text: Improvements in ruby (furigana) support for live text, optical margin alignment for punctuation, and better handling of vertical and mixed-direction text.
UI and Panels: Added dock panel features, persistent library panels, and enhancements to the Artboards panel including locking and renaming multiple artboards.
File Import/Export: Improvements in AI and PDF import, including better handling of placed pages and document previews.
Performance: Optimized canvas redraws and introduced background thread operations for packaging and file reading.

Version 0.16.0 Highlights

Continued FreeBSD aarch64 Drop: The limitation on FreeBSD aarch64 builds persisted.
Performance Preferences: Real-time drawing and editing now honor user preferences during tool drags.
Effects: Stacked geometry effects now respect anchor and line budgets.
Snapping: Added tangent and perpendicular snapping options under View > Snapping.
Brush Engine: Improved brush painting on compound paths and dashed strokes with object opacity.
Shape Builder Tool: Enhanced splitting strokes while maintaining path direction and gradients.
Type: Support for COLR color fonts to draw and export as vector art.
Plug-ins: Filters now maintain their settings within the document's foreign data.
Artboards: Resizing honors Scale Artwork option, and active artboard tracking improved.

Version 0.17.0 Highlights

Brush Output Budget: Introduced a unified output budget across tracks, tiles, and copies for brushes to optimize rendering.
OpenType SVG Color Fonts: Support added for drawing and exporting OpenType SVG color fonts as vector art.
Background Processing: File reading and decoding, as well as export encoding and writing, now occur on background threads to improve responsiveness.
Windows and Linux Tablet Support: Improved pen barrel button mapping on Windows and pressure sensitivity on Linux tablets.
Shape Builder Enhancements: Improved region picking and shape merging, including better handling of edge-source indexing.
Type and Text Improvements: Added bullet list support in the Paragraph panel, better handling of color glyphs, emoji support, and fixes for text editing interactions.
Security and Stability: Multiple security bounds added for SVG import/export, DXF export, PDF import/export, and plug-in budgets.
UI and Panels: Added options for showing items as icons or lists in the Libraries panel, improved panel tab interactions, and enhanced artboard options with video safe areas and pixel aspect ratios.
Import/Export: DXF import improvements include capping face counts and handling nested inserts; PDF import fixes for tracking and glyph alignment.

Summary

These releases show VectorCraft's steady progress in enhancing vector art creation capabilities, improving performance and responsiveness, and expanding support for modern font technologies and file formats. While the temporary removal of FreeBSD aarch64 support reflects ongoing CI challenges, the project continues to deliver features that appeal to vector graphics users seeking an open-source, Rust-based tool.