✨ New & Improved

• Polish translation added (thanks @MikolajQ, #512). Japanese (thanks @coolvitto, #514) and German translations/layout were also updated.
• Theme selection now replaces icon selection in Preferences.
• Rulers are now off by default.
• G'MIC updated to v4.0.5.
• ARM support added for Linux .deb packages.
• Deb build helper updated to handle Ubuntu 26.04 dependencies.

🐛 Fixes

• Fixed a startup setting issue and added a handler for a missing XDG_DATA_DIRS (#511).
• macOS: fixed crashes when using certain filters, including with a transparent colour on modern macOS. An error popup now appears when a filter fails.
• macOS: dependencies are now bundled correctly in the installer, which also fixes a recursive bundling problem.

📦 Build & Packaging

• New CI workflows for Ubuntu, macOS, Snap and Flatpak builds.
• macOS runner moved to macos-15. The Intel runner was removed.
• Added a timeout for the G'MIC step on Linux and macOS.

🙏 Contributors

Thanks to @MikolajQ and @coolvitto for their contributions.

🚀 Enjoyed this release? Check out what else I'm building:

• PhotoFlare Studio - A professional image editor featuring layers, non-destructive editing, and a full brush engine.
• PhotoFlare Lens - A professional RAW editor and perfect companion app. It features a complete non-destructive develop pipeline and saves edits directly to XMP sidecars without modifying your original files.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed regression after updating the org domain for config path.

Note

I have changed the app's organisation name from photoflare.io to PhotoFlare so the whole product suite is grouped together in your registry/settings. This is intentional - if your preferences seem to have disappeared after updating, they haven't been lost, they're just no longer being read from the old location.

🚀 Enjoyed this release? Check out what else I'm building:

• PhotoFlare Studio - A professional image editor featuring layers, non-destructive editing, and a full brush engine.
• PhotoFlare Lens - A professional RAW editor and perfect companion app. It features a complete non-destructive develop pipeline and saves edits directly to XMP sidecars without modifying your original files.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed ruler setting not maintained.
• Implemented full CI workflows for building and signing Windows builds via signpath.io.
• Code cleanup and improvements.

Other Changes

I have changed the app's organisation name from photoflare.io to PhotoFlare so the whole product suite is grouped together in your registry/settings. This is intentional - if your preferences seem to have disappeared after updating, they haven't been lost, they're just no longer being read from the old location.

New Contributors

• Gerd M. Hofmann contributed a full German translation to cover missing or incorrect translations.

🚀 Enjoyed this release? Check out what else I'm building:

• PhotoFlare Studio - A professional image editor featuring layers, non-destructive editing, and a full brush engine.
• PhotoFlare Lens - A professional RAW editor and perfect companion app. It features a complete non-destructive develop pipeline and saves edits directly to XMP sidecars without modifying your original files.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed pasted (saved) image not set to current tab
• Fixed paste from clipboard issue
• Fixed #507 missing crop resize via selection bounds
• Fixed #509 AppImage script missing language files
• Fixed Qt 6.4 version check and missing QApplication include by @yanjankaf in #506
• Fixed compiler warnings
• Full Russian translation by @AKotov-dev in #503
• Updated languages based on latest UI code
• Packaging and build script improvements

New Contributors

• @yanjankaf made their first contribution in #506
• @AKotov-dev made their first contribution in #503

Enjoyed this release? Also in development: PhotoFlare Studio - a professional image editor with layers, non-destructive editing, and a full
brush engine.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed dot directories showing in open dialog
• Fixed incorrect selection icons shown at launch
• Fixed selection icons not updating per icon theme
• Fixed tool palette default location not saved (#502)
• Fixed language generation not enabled and stroke set by default (#501)
• Dynamic language switching when confirming Preferences
• Packaging and build script improvements

Enjoyed this release? Also in development: PhotoFlare Studio - a professional image editor with layers, non-destructive editing, and a full brush engine.

v1.7.0 is the biggest PhotoFlare release to date, migrating to Qt 6 and bringing new selection tools, dark mode, rulers, a reworked paste workflow, and dozens of stability and quality-of-life fixes plus G'MIC integration and a plugin system for power users.

✨ What's New

G'MIC Integration

• Full G'MIC filter suite now available via the Filters menu, adding hundreds of professional-grade filters and effects

Tools & Selection

• Lasso freehand selection shape (#492)
• Ellipse selection shape added to the Pointer tool (#76)
• Move selection with mouse and arrow keys (#32)
• Pan the canvas when zoomed in (#391)
• Draw straight lines by holding Shift (#65)
• Scale and rotate pasted images before committing (#283)

UI & Workspace

• Dark icon theme with automatic dark mode detection (#494)
• Rulers on the canvas (#497)
• Zoom controls added to the toolbar
• Grid settings button in the toolbar (#288)
• Copy, paste, and paste as new image added to the toolbar (#489)
• Resize by percentage in the resize dialog (#260)
• Save and restore panel/widget layout between sessions (#398)
• Restore selected tool, primary/secondary colours on launch
• Drag and drop files to open them
• HiDPI display scaling (#168)

Batch Processing

• Multiple source folder/path selection (#112)
• New filters available in the Batch dialog
• File format validation before processing (#327)

🐛 Notable Fixes

• EXIF metadata now preserved and displayed on save (#496)
• Tools no longer operate outside the active selection area (#417)
• Smudge tool effect working correctly again (#416)
• Text alignment corrected (#284)
• Paintbrush strokes are smoother (#302)
• Transparent erasing works correctly with the Eraser tool (#58)
• Print to PDF no longer clips part of the image (#375)
• Titlebar icons display correctly on Wayland (#134)
• Panel flickering on Windows resolved (#228)
• High memory usage with large thumbnail sets fixed (#350)
• Dust reduction with frame no longer creates artifacts (#390)

🔧 Under the Hood

• Canvas performance improvements (#330)
• Bucket fill now runs on a background thread (#410)
• Undo history pruning fixed (#405)
• Numerous smaller stability and crash fixes

For Developers

• Plugin system - initial support for custom filters and file formats via external plugins

This release also includes 30+ additional bug fixes. See the full commit history for details.

Enjoyed this release? Also in development: PhotoFlare Studio - a professional image editor with layers, non-destructive editing, and a full brush engine.

What's Changed

• More Japanese translations by @hmatrjp in #479
• Update Japanese translation by @hmatrjp in #481
• Added "Fill Rectangle" by @hmatrjp in #482
• Pointertool Fill Rectangle by @DylanC in #483
• Pointertool Stroke Rectangle.

What's Changed

• Revert toolsettings spacing change.
• Minor spacing update for toolsettings.

What's Changed

• Fixed settings overwrite by application restart.
• Fixed tool settings layout for top spacing.
• Add Japanese Translation by @hmatrjp in #472
• Add Turkish translation by @libreajans in #473
• Update readme and about dialog by @libreajans in #474
• Update spanish translation by @darkshram in #475

New Contributors

• @hmatrjp made their first contribution in #472
• @libreajans made their first contribution in #473

Changes

• Added fine grained image rotation.
• Added unlock ratio feature to resize canvas.
• Fixed drawing performance regression caused by canvas shadow effect.
• Fixed missing taskbar icon on KDE plasma by @saikat0511.
• Updated Dutch translation by @Vistaus.

New Contributors

• @saikat0511 made their first contribution in #465
• @Vistaus made their first contribution in #467