We’re happy to announce the release of Pencil2D v0.7.2! This release is all about making your animation experience smoother and more reliable, with a big round of bug fixes and a handful of quality-of-life improvements.
Note: Some builds and packages may not be updated yet, if the latest version is not yet available for your platform, please be patient.
What’s New
While v0.7.0 brought exciting new features like the redesigned camera system, timeline improvements, and adjustable layer opacity, v0.7.2 is focused on making that foundation rock solid. With 18 bug fixes and several quality-of-life improvements, you can spend less time fighting the software and more time animating.
If you’ve run into any rough edges since the v0.7.0 release, now is a great time to update!
macOS: Now Available as a DMG (#1927)
Great news for Mac users! Pencil2D for macOS now comes as a DMG, the standard Mac installer format you know and love.
Simply open it, drag Pencil2D into your Applications folder, and you’re ready to animate. No more unzipping archives or running the app straight from your Downloads folder.
The app is also now verified by Apple, so you’ll no longer see the “Unidentified Developer” warning when you launch it for the first time. Pencil2D will open cleanly, just like any other app from a trusted source.
Improvements
- Safer project saving and backups — fixed several issues that could cause your project to silently fail to save correctly, including a case where a save error could go unnoticed and leave your backup file in an inconsistent state. Your work is now better protected - #1895
- Toolbox adapts to available space — the tools panel now adjusts automatically to fit the space you give it, arranging tools in rows and shrinking down to a single column when needed - #1916
- Clearer messages when something goes wrong with your project — if Pencil2D runs into a problem while saving or loading your project, you’ll now see a much more helpful message explaining what happened. A “Copy to clipboard” button has also been added to make it easy to share the details when asking for help - #1895
- Improved project recovery — if Pencil2D crashed or closed unexpectedly, the recovery dialog is now better at helping you get your unsaved work back - #1944
- Clearer messages when image export fails — if something goes wrong while exporting a frame or image sequence, you’ll now get a clear message telling you what happened instead of a silent failure - #1966
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where importing an image using the camera transform option would place it in the wrong position - #1878
- Fixed frames not appearing correctly in the timeline - #1873
- Fixed keyframes being draggable into the layer name area of the timeline - #1881
- Fixed a memory leak when copying and pasting frames - #1896
- Fixed an issue where copying and pasting frames on bitmap layers could result in lost drawing data - #1896
- Fixed a rare issue where saving frames could fail silently due to file name length limits - #1896
- Fixed transform handles (move, rotate, scale) not working correctly when the canvas view was rotated - #1897
- Fixed sounds being timed incorrectly during playback - #1918
- Fixed undo not working correctly after finishing a polyline stroke using the keyboard - #1920
- Fixed the Cancel button in the Reposition Frame dialog not working - #1928
- Fixed move, scale, and rotate transformations sometimes not being applied when switching to a different frame or layer - #1936
- Fixed changing the opacity of one keyframe incorrectly affecting other frames on the canvas - #1939
- Fixed the crop tool sometimes producing incorrect results - #1941
- Fixed exported images and image sequences sometimes being saved with the wrong file extension - #1943
- Fixed the timeline not refreshing after pasting frames - #1955
- Fixed the selection area unexpectedly growing larger when clicking to re-select - #1972
- Fixed a visual glitch where a selection outline would appear while adjusting a selection that had nothing selected - #1973
- Fixed an issue where drawing with a tablet pen could require an extra click on the canvas before it would respond - #1981
Changes
- Disabled keyframe creation by double-clicking on the timeline to prevent accidental keyframes - #1907
This was listed as a known issue in the v0.7.0 release notes. Double-clicking on the timeline to select or drag a keyframe could accidentally create a new empty keyframe. This has now been disabled to prevent losing your work.
Known Issues & Gotchas
- The vector engine is still a work in progress and does not behave as expected. Please avoid using it for serious projects for now.
- Panning the canvas by middle- or right-click-dragging with a tablet pen can cause unexpected behavior on Windows - #1813
To work around this, hold the Space key and drag with the pen to pan instead. If the issue has already been triggered, click once on the canvas with a mouse to restore normal behavior.
- Users of Huion tablets may experience lag and inconsistent strokes - #1133
Try disabling the “linear optimizer” option in your Huion tablet’s device settings. For more details, see this forum post.
How Can I Help?
Pencil2D is made by passionate volunteers in their spare time. There are many ways to contribute beyond programming — whether it’s testing, translating, creating tutorials, or spreading the word. Visit the Contribute page to find out how you can get involved!