We’re happy to share with all of you Pencil2D’s most recent release. This time our top priority was fixing the most immediate and pressing issues that not only broke the animation experience but also to patch previously implemented features. Over 330+ individual commits has been added since the last release, to stabilize and improve the software for continued use.

Download Pencil2D v0.6.6 Now!

Note: Some of the legacy builds may not be available currently, since we depend on external maintainers to finalize the release cycle. If the latest version is not available for your current OS or system architecture please let us know through our dedicated forum.

Contents
Fixes, Fixes & more Bugfixes
0.6.6 Release Notes & Highlights
Known Issues & Gotchas
How Can I Help?


Many thanks to all the people who helped to make this release possible.

Fixes, Fixes & more Bugfixes

Truth be told, the last release was just too large to handle. Unfortunately many issues crept in and we had to immediately look for solutions as soon as the first user downloaded the software.

After several reports and our own QA efforts we got a general overview of all the painfully obvious issues that had appeared and we began working on this release in earnest.

We’re hopeful that most of the minor problems are gone, but until everyone tests the software, we won’t know for sure. Such is the nature of this work.

0.6.6 Release Notes & Highlights

Features

  • Crash recovery system implementation. Anytime the app crashes next time you open the app you will get a dialog to recover whatever was left from the previous session (p.s. it won’t recover unsaved work)
  • Timecode Display with SMPTE Timecode, absolute frame counter & A hybrid seconds:frames display

Enhancements

  • Pencil2D now opens on start the last project you worked on.
  • Navigation practical behavior: Pan & Zoom are now smoother. Zoom is now aimed towards the mouse cursor
  • Tooltips are now displayed in the selected interface language, if they are translated.
  • Refactored frame cache size management: Now you can adjust the frame cache as image data size up to 16GB of RAM, rather than frame count.
  • Improved Reset & Lock Windows features
  • Improved dark mode support for the timeline. Currently this is based on the platform and whether it supports dark mode natively. Dark theme support for Windows is still under development.
  • Eyedropper Improvements:
    • The eyedropper will now determine the color from within the pixel boundary instead of its center.
    • The color preview thumbnail can now be seen over all background colors.
    • The color preview is now premultiplied, i.e the color represents the sampled pixel on the active layer rather than the base color without opacity changes.
  • Implemented options to reset translation (pan) and rotation (tilt) actions separately. Note: Zoom factor (%) can already be restored to default via the scaling presets in the view menu since v0.6.5
  • Improved cross-hair cursor icon

Fixes

  • Improved Sound Import: Fixed multiple bugs related to importing and exporting audio.
  • Fixed checking for updates on windows systems. Note that this feature only allows to check the availability of new updates; it won’t download the software directly.
  • Improved interface widget flexibility for low resolution screens: This fixes having the timeline pushed out of the screen and having panel contents spill over other panels.
  • Fixed an issue where enabling any composition overlay with an active selection would offset the current image.
  • Fixed various issues related to frame rendering and image caching.
  • Fixed a crash related to the Pencil2D Project (PCLX) file import feature.
  • Miscelanous Undo/Redo Fixes:
    • Improve undo support for smudge tool on bitmap layers.
    • Implement undo events for selection flipping.
    • Fixes an issue where undoing Selection Flip X / Y would delete the drawing instead.
    • Prevent a crash that would happen when undoing after deleting a layer.
    • Prevent adding a frame after undoing any stroke drawn over an empty frame exposure.
  • Switching applications via ALT + TAB key shortcut no longer locks your current tool as the eyedropper.
  • Fixed an issue with layer name suggestions for layers with identical names.
  • Fixed a bug with vector graphics after moving an object.
  • Fix GIF file import with non-lowercase extensions
  • Fixed smudge dragging not working
  • Fixed movie video import filter not working for AVI files
  • Fixed an error that would prevent creating new presets
  • Pencil2D Project temporary file folder is now properly deleted when closing the app.
  • Fixed several memory leaks & general code refactoring

Known issues & Gotchas

Here is a non-exhaustive list of bugs that we are already aware of, but were unable to fix in this release. Rest assured, we will do our best to fix all of them eventually.

  • Vector Engine is a WIP and does not work as intended. Much more work will be required, please avoid using it for production.
  • Zooming out the camera layer to less than 25% will increase the chance of crashing.
  • There’s currently a rare issue where drawing on an empty frame exposure, with the default timeline drawing behavior, and undoing the stroke will corrupt the image rendering and you will not see the next strokes you draw. To workarund this simply pan the canvas or hide/show the layer.
  • #748, #1004, #1098 Misc undo/redo issues. New Undo / Redo system under development will be reviewed for v0.7.0
  • #1117 The CLI (Command-Line Interface) export operation consumes more memory than using the editor
  • #1133 Lag and buggy strokes with Huion tablets. Workaround: disabling the “linear optimizer” in your tablet driver may help if that option is available, see this post
  • #1567,#1179 We’ve found that during playback users will have issues with perceived audio delay depending on the amount of frames and layers used. However sound scrubbing & movie export will properly render the audio.
  • #1189 Zoom shortcut on drawing tools not working properly with the Middle Mouse Button (Win) and mouse input in general (All Operating Systems)
  • #943 Color Palette (Bitmap): Some issues when replacing the first swatch remain. Only thumbnail changes color, but the actual color doesn’t. It is recommended you make a new item rather than changing it.

  • #1055 Color Palette (Bitmap): Swatches will not update using the Replace command. It only works when having a vector layer active. (Note: Create your custom palettes with a vector layer selected or import them from GIMP or Krita using *.gpl files)

  • Smudge Tool (Bitmap): Smudging adds a white background to the stroke dab, this may cause unexpected results so use it with caution.
  • Blur Tool (Bitmap): Pressing ALT on the smudge tool does not blur the image, it keeps smudging the pixels.
  • Fill Tool (Vector): Filling a stroke requires the stroke to be selected.
  • Fill Tool (Vector): “Stroke thickness” option will reset pressure sensitive lines width.

How can I help?

In case you missed our announcement on social media, you can now upload your Pencil2D project here to help Pencil2D development.

With a project library, our dev team will be able to test new features and detect bugs more effectively. We are still looking for more projects from our users so please consider sharing them with us if you have any. The projects are invaluable to us even if you just share them privately.

To those who have already shared your work with us, we are very grateful for your help. Some of the fixes in this very release would not have been possible without you.

Pencil2D is developed by passionate volunteers in their spare time. You can become one too, there are many ways to help other than programming! Please visit Contribute Page for further information.