BirdFont Changelog

What's new in BirdFont 6.3.0

Apr 12, 2024
  • Better merge tools

New in BirdFont 6.2.0 (Feb 26, 2024)

  • A ruler

New in BirdFont 6.1.0 (Feb 19, 2024)

  • Better tools for navigation.
  • Quick Glyph Switching: Swiftly switch to a specific glyph directly from the kerning tab, making glyph editing more intuitive and faster.
  • Word Display in Editing View: The editing view can now display the last entire word from the kerning tab.
  • Direct Glyph Jump: Jumping to a particular glyph in the editing view is now possible without navigating through the overview tab.

New in BirdFont 6.0.0 Beta (Feb 6, 2024)

  • Birdfont 6 is on the horizon, bringing with it a host of enhancements. Among the notable upgrades are significant speed improvements and a substantial overhaul of the user interface.

New in BirdFont 5.9.2 (Jan 24, 2024)

  • New tab for managing new additional guides (overshoot etc.)
  • Give mark classes names
  • Capture mouse up outiside of the window in zoom bar
  • Fix import of SVG fonts from glyphrstudio

New in BirdFont 5.9.0 (Jan 22, 2024)

  • New tab for managing new additional guides (overshoot etc.)
  • Give mark classes names
  • Capture mouse up outiside of the window in zoom bar
  • Fix import of SVG fonts from glyphrstudio

New in BirdFont 5.8.0 (Jan 2, 2024)

  • Mark to base positioning of custom diacritical marks in the GPOS table.

New in BirdFont 5.6.1 (Dec 7, 2023)

  • Multu master export for OTF font (cubic bezier curves)
  • Many small improvements for variable fonts

New in BirdFont 5.5.0 (Nov 19, 2023)

  • Export multiple static fonts from one variable master font (for example many weights)
  • Clear recent files. Menu -> Clear Recent Files
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 5.4.0 (Oct 2, 2023)

  • Allow all Unicode characters in font names, not just ASCII
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 5.3.0 (Aug 18, 2023)

  • Better variable font support
  • SVG import fix

New in BirdFont 5.2.4 (Jul 17, 2023)

  • Bug fixed: lsb - rsb updates, SVG imports, color alternates

New in BirdFont 5.2.1 (May 24, 2023)

  • Make sure fonts work better in PDF files.
  • New autobold settings that allows the designer to keep the sidebearings.

New in BirdFont 5.0.2 (Dec 18, 2022)

  • Variable TTF fonts.
  • A new tool for adjusting creating extremas (put handles on axis). Select a point and press e.
  • Fix loading of OpenType SVG files.
  • Fix outline stroke issues.

New in BirdFont 4.30.10 (Sep 8, 2022)

  • Anchor points for diacritical marks
  • Bug fixed in ligature creation

New in BirdFont 4.30.7 (Aug 15, 2022)

  • Anchor points for diacritical marks
  • Bug fixed in ligature creation

New in BirdFont 4.29.6 (Jun 2, 2022)

  • Insert letters with diacritical marks by pressing and holding down the key you want to show diacritics for.
  • Updated SVG parser.
  • Support for italic angle in metadata.
  • Add support for setting width from SVG files in folder import.
  • Fix bugs related to kerning.

New in BirdFont 4.28.0 (Apr 21, 2022)

  • Bug fixes, better ligature creation and other small things.

New in BirdFont 4.27.2 (Mar 30, 2022)

  • Improvements in SVG parser and color ligature creation.
  • Add a keybinding for toggling background image on and off (k)
  • Many bug fixes.

New in BirdFont 4.26.2 (Mar 15, 2022)

  • A way to export all glyphs in a font as separate SVG file.
  • Many bug fixes.

New in BirdFont 4.25.0 (Feb 10, 2022)

  • Make it possible to store background images out side of the font file, this makes loading birdfont files much faster.
  • Fix high resolution icons in the tab bar.
  • Fix a bug that made fonts with background files very big.

New in BirdFont 4.24.0 (Jan 23, 2022)

  • New grid dialog.
  • Fix copy and paste in the overview tab.

New in BirdFont 4.23.0 (Jan 1, 2022)

  • A better way to browse the Unicode database.
  • Many bug fixes.
  • I wrote the first line of code in Birdfont on Jan 1 2012. Birdfont turns ten today. I celebrate the day by releasing version 4.23. Many thanks to all of you that bought and used the product!

New in BirdFont 4.22.3 (Dec 14, 2021)

  • Bug fixes for the default glyphs in the overview tab.

New in BirdFont 4.22.0 (Dec 8, 2021)

  • Many changes to ligature creation.

New in BirdFont 4.21.0 (Nov 22, 2021)

  • Better kenring tab
  • Improvement to ligature generation
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 4.20.1 (Oct 17, 2021)

  • Support for randomized glyphs (OTF tag rand)
  • Spacing class in menu
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 4.19.1 (Aug 1, 2021)

  • Fix SVG import (Vectornator)
  • Support gor oldstyle figures (OTF tag onum)

New in BirdFont 4.17.1 (May 23, 2021)

  • Better handling of positioning very small details.
  • Apply grid in circle tool.
  • Flip COLR paths.
  • Better size and position buttons.
  • Use the bottom of a path to position it with the "Y" button (instead of the top), zero means that the shape is on the baseline.

New in BirdFont 4.16.1 (May 8, 2021)

  • Update spacing when layer visibility changes.

New in BirdFont 4.15.1 (Apr 13, 2021)

  • Speed optimizations
  • Fix undo issues
  • Other bug fixes

New in BirdFont 4.14.3 (Mar 23, 2021)

  • Better SVG parser (mainly for the Github Octicons)
  • Other bug fixes
  • Add a menu item for updating layer names (Menu → Layers → Rename Layer)
  • Make it possible to set zoom from text input

New in BirdFont 4.12.3 (Mar 2, 2021)

  • Show outlines instead of filled glyphs when you create circles and rectangles.
  • Add a setting for changing the default width for new glyphs.
  • An important bug fix in the TTF and OTF generator.

New in BirdFont 4.10.3 (Feb 16, 2021)

  • Bug fixes, especially useful things if you are working with Adobe Illustrator but also many other small fixes.

New in BirdFont 4.9.7 (Feb 8, 2021)

  • Moves selected objects in larger steps (Ctrl + arrow).
  • Better SVG parser.
  • A setting for the number of decimals in SVG fonts.

New in BirdFont 4.8.11 (Dec 16, 2020)

  • A new tab for folder import of SVG images (batch import).
  • Support for rectangles with rounded corners.
  • Bug fixes related to ligature substitution in the kerning tab.

New in BirdFont 4.8.1 (Oct 17, 2020)

  • A new tab for folder import of SVG images (batch import).
  • Support for rectangles with rounded corners.
  • Bug fixes related to ligature substitution in the kerning tab.

New in BirdFont 4.7.17 (Sep 28, 2020)

  • Add the option to delete all kerning pairs in a font.
  • Important bug fixes in the SVG parser.

New in BirdFont 4.7.11 (Sep 13, 2020)

  • Add support for renaming glyphs (in the POST table).
  • Add support for filtering glyps. You can keep a small subset and delete all other characters.
  • Bug fixes.

New in BirdFont 4.6.2 (Aug 6, 2020)

  • An additional format for single stroke CNC (engraving) fonts (same way back).
  • Bug fixes and updates for older operating systems.

New in BirdFont 4.5.1 (Jul 24, 2020)

  • Single stroke paths for CNC machines.
  • Unicode 13
  • Four letter vendor ID

New in BirdFont 4.3.0 (Jun 2, 2020)

  • Bug fixes and speed optimizations

New in BirdFont 4.1.0 (May 31, 2020)

  • Many improvements to the overview tab

New in BirdFont 4.0.0 (May 4, 2020)

  • Better spacing classes. It makes to kerning and spacing of your fonts easier.
  • Smaller file size for OTF fonts.
  • Many improvements to the underlying engine and plenty of bugfixes in all parts of the program.

New in BirdFont 3.33.3 (Apr 11, 2020)

  • Solve problems in OpenType-SVG fonts.

New in BirdFont 3.32.0 (Nov 19, 2019)

  • Better tools for editing COLR paths.

New in BirdFont 3.31.0 (Oct 3, 2019)

  • Better SVG parsing. Support for the “use” tag in the SVG parser.

New in BirdFont 3.30.2 (Sep 17, 2019)

  • Speed optimizations.
  • Bug fixes.

New in BirdFont 3.30.0 (Sep 9, 2019)

  • Support for aalt, a new OTF tag for alternates. Illustrator uses this feature.
  • Additional vertical guides.

New in BirdFont 3.29.3 (Aug 15, 2019)

  • Retain view and selected glyph when switching character set in the overview tab.
  • Compare both monochrome and color glyph in the editing view.
  • Make it possible to import a TTF or OTF glyph even if a Unicode value can't be found for it.
  • Menu reorganization (view menu).

New in BirdFont 3.28.1 (Jul 22, 2019)

  • Automatic backups.
  • A new tab for creating ligatures.

New in BirdFont 3.27.1 (Jul 14, 2019)

  • Edit COLR glyphs in Birdfont.
  • Generate COLR fallback from SVG and vice versa.

New in BirdFont 3.26.0 (Jul 4, 2019)

  • Support for a new color font format: COLR/CPAL.
  • Visual feedback when fonts have been exported.
  • Set a color as the forground color in COLR glyphs (the color will be selected by the user).

New in BirdFont 3.25.0 (Jun 27, 2019)

  • Better strokes, use less points. Fix bevel and round line joins.
  • Center glyphs vertically.
  • Visual feedback when fonts have been exported.

New in BirdFont 3.24.1 (Jun 6, 2019)

  • Add stylistic set substitution, OTF tags ss01 – ss20.

New in BirdFont 3.24 (Jun 6, 2019)

  • Enable comments in SVG file names for designers that imports all files in a folder.

New in BirdFont 3.22.1 (Feb 10, 2019)

  • Add a customized character set to the overview tab.
  • Center glyphs.

New in BirdFont 3.21.2 (Jan 31, 2019)

  • .Import and export large character sets in OTF fonts.

New in BirdFont 3.20.4 (Jan 31, 2019)

  • Set width for all glyphs at the same time.
  • Add support for adjusting line gap.
  • Cut paths (Ctrl+X or Cmd+X).

New in BirdFont 3.19.0 (Jan 8, 2019)

  • • Fix OTF support (compatibility with After Effects).
  • • Support for adding new Unicode points.
  • • Show ligatures in search results.

New in BirdFont 3.18.0 (Dec 17, 2018)

  • Bug fixes: grid, file dialog and special search terms in the Unicode Charater Database (UCD).

New in BirdFont 3.17.0 (Dec 2, 2018)

  • Fixes regarding SVG files made with Illustrator.

New in BirdFont 3.15.0 (Nov 20, 2018)

  • Customizable preview template (HTML).

New in BirdFont 3.14.4 (Nov 20, 2018)

  • Speed optimizations of spacing classes.
  • Bug fixes in OTF files on Mac.

New in BirdFont 3.14.2 (Oct 26, 2018)

  • Better conversion from SVG to font.

New in BirdFont 3.14.0 (Oct 24, 2018)

  • Round, bevel or miter line joins.

New in BirdFont 3.12.12 (Oct 11, 2018)

  • Fix SVG import.

New in BirdFont 3.12.2 (Sep 7, 2018)

  • OTF support, OpenType Fonts with PostScript outlines.

New in BirdFont 3.11.0 (Aug 30, 2018)

  • A good number of bug fixes.
  • New file extension: .birdfont replaces .bf. You can still open your font in older versions of the editor if you change the extention to .bf.

New in BirdFont 3.9.0 (Aug 7, 2018)

  • Adjust underline thickness and position in a font.
  • Run faster on Windows.
  • Export large (CJK) fonts.
  • Fix parsing of TTF fonts.

New in BirdFont 3.8.3 (Jul 29, 2018)

  • Add support for input with Cyrillic keyboards and other character sets.
  • Fix ligature encoding.
  • Use native file dialog on Windows 10.

New in BirdFont 3.7.1 (Jul 17, 2018)

  • Make sure fonts pass validation in Font Book

New in BirdFont 3.6.6 (Jun 12, 2018)

  • Fix stroke export

New in BirdFont 3.6.2 (Mar 16, 2018)

  • Fix parsing of CSS data in SVG files
  • Updated Unicode Character Database (ucd)

New in BirdFont 3.5.0 (Jan 15, 2018)

  • Fix Illustrator import

New in BirdFont 3.4.6 (Jan 2, 2018)

  • (plus) Color font support for Edge

New in BirdFont 3.4.1 (Dec 17, 2017)

  • Support for Arabic

New in BirdFont 3.2.2 (Dec 4, 2017)

  • Color fonts

New in BirdFont 3.1.0 (Nov 14, 2017)

  • Better SVG import

New in BirdFont 2.19.0 (Jun 29, 2017)

  • Larger number of kerning pairs is supported in the GPOS table (LookupType 9: Extension Positioning).

New in BirdFont 2.18.3 (Dec 23, 2016)

  • HiDPI support on Windows and bugfixes.

New in BirdFont 2.16.9 (Sep 30, 2016)

  • Change writing direction to RTL (right to left) in kerning tab
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 2.16.2 (Jun 17, 2016)

  • New freehand tool
  • Rotate objects and point handles with 45 degree steps

New in BirdFont 2.15.0 (Dec 22, 2015)

  • Speed opimizations

New in BirdFont 2.14.0 (Nov 30, 2015)

  • Improved vertical metrics in TTF fonts
  • Sandbox support on Mac OS
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 2.13.0 (Nov 2, 2015)

  • More descriptive fields in TTF fonts (license, designer, URL etc.)
  • Stylistic alternates (OpenType feature tag: salt)
  • Small Caps (OpenType feature tag: scmp)
  • Capitals to Small Caps (OpenType feature tag: c2sc)
  • Swashes (OpenType feature tag: swsh)
  • Parse circles, ellipses and lines in SVG files

New in BirdFont 2.12.0 (Sep 25, 2015)

  • Support for high resolution screens

New in BirdFont 2.11.2 (Aug 24, 2015)

  • Lock grid and guides
  • Merge overlapping regions
  • Bug fixes in the TTF generator

New in BirdFont 2.10.6 (Aug 11, 2015)

  • Layers

New in BirdFont 2.9.2 (Jun 9, 2015)

  • Fallback font with support for many languages
  • Faster GUI

New in BirdFont 2.8.0 (May 20, 2015)

  • Speed optimization in font export
  • Faster search queries in the Unicode Data Base
  • Better parsing of SVG files generated with Illustrator
  • Dialog for importing a folder with SVG files

New in BirdFont 2.7.0 (May 18, 2015)

  • Stroke
  • Round line caps
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 2.6.0 (Apr 25, 2015)

  • Bright and dark color themes
  • A tool box for the recent files tab

New in BirdFont 2.5.0 (Apr 16, 2015)

  • Export settings
  • Curve orientation

New in BirdFont 2.4.0 (Mar 26, 2015)

  • Contextual ligature substitution
  • Kerning strings

New in BirdFont 2.3.0 (Mar 24, 2015)

  • Customizable color themes and better icons
  • High contrast settings for better readability
  • Fixes for problems in TTF creation and other bugs

New in BirdFont 2.1.0 (Mar 9, 2015)

  • A new spacing tab
  • Improved Beziér editing
  • Side bearing metrics in edit view
  • Key bindings for zoom in and zoom out in kerning tab
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 2.0 (Mar 9, 2015)

  • New UI layout
  • New zoom tool
  • Improved background import
  • Customizable short cuts
  • New tab for changing font name
  • Illustrator SVG import and other bug fixes
  • Load bf fonts faster

New in BirdFont 1.9 (Nov 10, 2014)

  • Fix compatibility with Inkscape
  • Bug fixes.

New in BirdFont 1.8 (Oct 29, 2014)

  • A new Beziér drawing tool
  • Move paths independent from handles or along handles.
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 1.7 (Oct 11, 2014)

  • Fixes a critical spacing bug and bugs in the drawing canvas.

New in BirdFont 1.6 (Oct 8, 2014)

  • Ligature substitution, (Open Type Feature, GSUB table)
  • Input characters by unicode value in kerning tab

New in BirdFont 1.5 (Sep 29, 2014)

  • A new XML parser

New in BirdFont 1.4 (Sep 22, 2014)

  • Bug fixes
  • A complete Czech translation

New in BirdFont 1.2 (Sep 15, 2014)

  • Bug fixes
  • Command line utility for autotracing images (birdfont-autotrace)

New in BirdFont 1.1 (Sep 8, 2014)

  • Bug fixes and minor GUI improvements.

New in BirdFont 1.0 (Sep 8, 2014)

  • Autotrace – convert raster images to vector fonts.
  • Simplify paths. Deleteing points reduces the number of control points while still keeping the same approximate path. Use Ctrl+Del to break the paths.
  • Spacing classes that copies side bearings and kerning pairs from one glyph to another. This feature makes it easier to create fonts with only upper case characters as well as mono spaced fonts.
  • Copy and paste multiple glyphs in the overview tab.
  • Redo command

New in BirdFont 0.47 (Aug 19, 2014)

  • Oblique and italic transformation
  • Improved overview tab
  • Compability with CS6

New in BirdFont 0.46 (Aug 16, 2014)

  • Copy and paste side bearings
  • Support for many more languages including Japanese with CMAP format 12.
  • Tools for adjusting side bearings in the kerning tab
  • A tool for moving objects to the baseline
  • A spin buttons for moving objects to a specific coordinate, rotating objects and resizing paths.
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.45 (Aug 16, 2014)

  • A bug fix for quadratic control points in TTF files.

New in BirdFont 0.44 (Aug 16, 2014)

  • Better conversion from SVG to TTF

New in BirdFont 0.43 (Aug 1, 2014)

  • Fixes a TTF export bug

New in BirdFont 0.42 (Jul 31, 2014)

  • Parse transform directive in SVG import.
  • A new command line utility that makes it possible to import a set of SVG files to a bf font file (birdfont-import).
  • Crop rotaded and resized images.
  • Better conversion from SVG files to TTF fonts.
  • Important bug fixes.
  • Load, save and export fonts in background threads.
  • Faster TTF export
  • Improved preview tab

New in BirdFont 0.41 (Jul 7, 2014)

  • Retain the angle of a control point handle while adjusting the length
  • Parse round corners and stroke endings in SVG files
  • Fixes bugs in the SVG import code and elsewhere in order to improve
  • compability with potrace and Illustrator
  • Delete and undo for kerning pairs
  • Complete Ukrainian and Spanish translations

New in BirdFont 0.39 (Jun 27, 2014)

  • Bug fixes in the kerning code

New in BirdFont 0.38 (Jun 27, 2014)

  • Many bugs and memory leaks have been fixed in this version

New in BirdFont 0.37 (Apr 14, 2014)

  • Font size settings in the kerning tab
  • A new SVG parser
  • Compatibility with many Microsoft Windows applications
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.36 (Mar 25, 2014)

  • Paste letters in the kerning tab
  • Settings for the freehand tool
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.35 (Mar 20, 2014)

  • A new tool for drawing shapes with the mouse on free hand
  • Bug fixes related to conversion from SVG to TTF
  • Fixes crash bug in SVG import code

New in BirdFont 0.34 (Feb 15, 2014)

  • This release solves kerning issues and other problems.

New in BirdFont 0.32 (Feb 11, 2014)

  • Touch screen friendly interface
  • New tools for adding and moving control points
  • Icons in 320 DPI
  • French translation
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.30 (Sep 12, 2013)

  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.29 (Sep 10, 2013)

  • Groups of paths and control points
  • Speed optimizations
  • Bold and italic styles
  • Bug fixes
  • TTF units
  • Paste in place and paste at cursor

New in BirdFont 0.28 (Aug 26, 2013)

  • Kerning classes
  • Copy and paste paths between windows

New in BirdFont 0.27 (Aug 15, 2013)

  • Rotate paths
  • Flip path
  • Convert segments to lines
  • Symmetrical control points
  • Use glyphs as backgrounds

New in BirdFont 0.24 (Aug 15, 2013)

  • New overview tab
  • Two control point handles for quadratic paths
  • Better conversion from SVG to TTF
  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.22 (Aug 15, 2013)

  • Bugfixes and many changes to make BirdFont run on Mac OS X with a native window.

New in BirdFont 0.21 (Jul 6, 2013)

  • Bug fixes

New in BirdFont 0.20 (Jul 5, 2013)

  • Descriptive fields in TTF fonts (version number and name)
  • Kerning for both Chrome and Firefox
  • Read TTF font instead of SVG font in HTML template
  • Bug fixes
  • Improved translations

New in BirdFont 0.19 (Jun 20, 2013)

  • Descriptions from the Unicode Character Database
  • A new file format (.bf replaces .ffi)
  • Bugfixes
  • Two quadratic points with a hidden point in between creates a quadratic path with two line handles.
  • Quadratic points is now the default
  • Scrollbar
  • TTF export on MacOS
  • French translation

New in BirdFont 0.18 (Feb 27, 2013)

  • Bugfixes

New in BirdFont 0.17 (Feb 27, 2013)

  • Macports validation

New in BirdFont 0.16 (Feb 27, 2013)

  • Correct location in ID loadcommand for Macports

New in BirdFont 0.15 (Feb 27, 2013)

  • Macports file

New in BirdFont 0.14 (Feb 26, 2013)

  • Bugfixes

New in BirdFont 0.13 (Feb 26, 2013)

  • Quadratic Bézier paths
  • Edit SVG fonts
  • Open OTF and TTF fonts with freetype2
  • Open Type kerning (GPOS pair adjustment positioning subtable)
  • Bugfixes
  • Spanish translation
  • Russian translation
  • Italian translation
  • Brazilian Portuguese translation

New in BirdFont 0.12 (Feb 1, 2013)

  • Bug fixes and updated test suit

New in BirdFont 0.11 (Jan 30, 2013)

  • Bugfixes

New in BirdFont 0.10 (Jan 28, 2013)

  • Bugfixes
  • Backup and crash recovery
  • Move paths with keyboard

New in BirdFont 0.9 (Jan 28, 2013)

  • Color
  • Adjustable control point size
  • Select all path
  • Resize all selected paths
  • Import SVG files from Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator
  • Move control points with keyboard
  • Join paths
  • Bugfixes
  • German translation
  • Chinese translation

New in BirdFont 0.8 (Dec 27, 2012)

  • Copy and paste paths from inkscape
  • Export SVG files
  • New build system
  • Dutch translation

New in BirdFont 0.7 (Dec 10, 2012)

  • New icons
  • Bugfixes
  • Menu
  • Internationalization

New in BirdFont 0.6 (Dec 10, 2012)

  • Improved TrueType outlines
  • Resize paths

New in BirdFont 0.5 (Oct 23, 2012)

  • Move multiple control points
  • Draw path from both ends
  • New edit commands
  • Man pages

New in BirdFont 0.4.1 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • Bugfixes

New in BirdFont 0.4.0 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • Larger control points
  • Crop background updates position of the image
  • Undo command for background images
  • Faster multithreaded export
  • Juxtapose glyphs and draw every glyph in it's context
  • New notdef. character
  • New tab bar

New in BirdFont 0.3.0 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • Embedded OpenType (EOT) support
  • Utility for exporting fonts a terminal (birdfont-export)
  • Rotate, scale and crop background images
  • New key bindings

New in BirdFont 0.2.0 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • TTF support
  • Desktop file and icon
  • Merge paths
  • Wine support

New in BirdFont 0.1.1 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • Several important bug fixes