anvil · 0.5.0
Changelog
What changed in each anvil release: new features, improvements and fixes.
0.5.0
- Opening the full workbench from the website now shows the complete editing and export interface, including when resuming a tool document. Continue editing from a tool keeps the same document, selection, view and undo history.
- Importing a complete workspace package creates an independent workspace and preserves its name, scene settings, elements and positions. Encrypted packages support password retries, and the original shared package stays unchanged. Inserting into the canvas still adds content only.
- Duplicating the current document includes changes that have not yet autosaved. Saving from a read-only page creates an independent copy of the complete content currently shown.
- Workspace renaming shares undo history and autosave with canvas edits. Other tabs open the same workspace as read-only to prevent overwriting each other.
- Saving checks both the document and its required assets. Missing assets or failed writes show a specific reason and preserve the last complete saved state.
- New document diagnosis and recovery: download the original, restore missing assets, and save repairable content as a recovery copy. Documents from a newer version prompt you to upgrade.
0.4.0
- Animated images: play imported GIF, APNG and animated WebP files, then use the filmstrip to delete, duplicate or reorder frames, adjust timing and speed, set reverse playback, loops, a cover and a playback range, and export as GIF.
- The timeline now groups tracks by element and property. Drag keyframes, adjust in and out points, or move an entire animation; editing an animated property at a paused frame creates a keyframe at that time.
- Animation presets: add fades, slides, zooms, pulses and movement to selected elements, then adjust start time, duration, easing and direction.
- Camera frames: add a framing rectangle to the canvas and animate its position and size. Preview and export follow the camera.
- Gradient fills and strokes with handles and colour stops you can edit on the canvas; images can tile or fill shapes.
- Minimap: see your content and viewport, drag or click to move around, and zoom or select elements from the map.
- Drag elements directly into containers. The context menu adds paste, copy as PNG, and copy and paste style; the help menu includes a shortcut reference.
- Layout and export: empty documents start at the centre, and the left panel keeps the bottom toolbar visible. The export panel brings formats and ranges together, with a before-and-after comparison view.
- Saving and stability: fixes for autosaving rapid edits, keyframes and guides; opening workspace packages preserves animation and guides. Fixes for exports gaining an extra pixel and duplicate filenames inside ZIP files.
0.3.0
- Timeline animation: right-click → View → Timeline, capture the canvas as keyframes, and previews move between them. Set each keyframe's time, hold and transition curve, then export as MP4, GIF, a PNG sequence or a single frame. Tap Space on the canvas to play.
- Alignment and snapping: dragging, resizing and drawing snap to other elements' edges and centres, with labels for equal spacing. Rulers (Shift+R), guides, a pixel grid from 400% zoom, and align and distribute buttons.
- Masks: shapes, text and images can all be masks, with feather and invert; drag a layer onto an image's lower edge in the layers panel to make it that image's mask. Images can be clipped to a shape, shapes can be filled with an image, and "Clip overflow" trims whatever sticks out.
- Shapes grow to 105, grouped like PowerPoint with recently used ones first. New line and arrow tools; strokes can be dashed, compound or end in arrowheads; rectangle-like shapes get rounded corners.
- Path editing: double-click a path to drag anchors and handles, add points on a segment, delete points, open or close it; preset shapes can be converted to paths. The pen snaps to anchors, Shift locks to 15°, and clicking any anchor closes the path.
- Text: bold and italic, text strokes and shadows; bulleted and numbered lists (Tab to indent); the text section of the properties panel is regrouped into character, paragraph and text box.
- Layers panel: hover highlights stay in sync with the canvas, ⌘ / Shift click selects several, and one click brings the selection back into view or expands / collapses everything; when the selection goes off screen a "Back to selection" button appears.
- Browsers without WebGPU now run on WebGL2, so older Safari and Firefox can open the workbench.
- Shortcuts: importing files is now ⌘⇧K (⌘I is for italics only); move layer up / down is Ctrl+[ / ], bring to front / send to back is Ctrl+Shift+[ / ].
- Fixes and stability: a clear message and a reload button when the canvas fails; open pages offer to reload when a new version is released; library cards and toolbar buttons no longer look stretched in Safari; debugging parameters in the URL no longer take effect.
0.2.0
- Text can have multiple paragraphs and per-selection styling: font, size, colour, letter spacing, underline and strikethrough, and letter case on just the selected characters, plus paragraph spacing and first-line indent. Scaling from a corner scales sizes and spacing together.
- Text tool (T): click to place text, or drag out a fixed-width text box. Undo and redo work while editing text, and the floating toolbar shows only text styles.
- Format painter: click to paint once, double-click to keep it on; ⌥⌘C to pick up a style, ⌥⌘V to apply it.
- Copy and paste keeps formatting: styles survive copying between texts, ⌘⇧V pastes plain text, and pasting from web pages, Google Docs, Word and Pages keeps common formatting.
- Every element can have a fill and a stroke; stroke caps and corners come as three presets (sharp and flat, round, bevelled and square).
- A "click-through" switch: elements with it on can't be clicked, so clicks reach what is underneath. The layers panel marks them, and one click turns it off.
- A tighter properties panel; underline, strikethrough and case on the text toolbar moved into a "Style" menu that stays open while you change several settings.
- The status bar hints at what you can do right now; the pen tool closes the path on Enter and finishes without closing on Esc.
- Interface polish: consistent icon sizes and form controls, clearer input fields in the dark theme, and more responsive long-press menus on tablets.
- Fixes: fit to screen and placement no longer end up under the bottom toolbar; coordinates no longer drift slightly after saving and reopening.
0.1.0
- First release: an infinite-canvas image workbench. Import by drag and drop, paste or file picker; move, scale, rotate, crop, flip and replace images; groups and a layers panel.
- Text, 23 shapes, pen and pencil; Chinese fonts download on demand, and locally installed fonts are available too.
- Export by scene: single images, multiple images laid out together or zipped, PNG / JPEG. Save a whole workspace as an .anvil package to share, optionally password-protected.
- Assets and workspaces save automatically in your browser and are never uploaded.
- Free tool pages: compress, convert and resize images with no sign-in and no watermark, then carry the results into the workbench.
- Works on tablets and on phones in landscape: one-finger drag, two-finger zoom, touch text input.
- Chinese and English, light and dark themes, sign in with an xwink account.
- The "?" in the bottom-right corner: feedback and the changelog.