Change log¶

1.15.0¶

Release date: 2025-08-04

New features and improvements¶

Added a lineshuffle command to randomize the plotting order of lines in the current geometry (thanks to @gatesphere) (#715)
Added a cropcricle command to crop the current geometry to a circle (#808)
Added a --orientation option to the pagerotate command to conditionally rotate the page to a target orientation (thanks to @gatesphere) (#705)
Added support for Python 3.13 and dropped support for Python 3.10 (#784)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed a crash when reading SVG with simplify active (via the read --simplify command or the read APIs with simplify=True) (thanks to @nataquinones) (#732)
Fixed the formatting of many commands’ help text and added a snapshot test to avoid future regressions (#810)
Fixed erroneous mention of --page-size in layout’s inline help

Other changes¶

Use Ruff for code formatting (supersedes Black) (#737)

1.14.0¶

Release date: 2024-01-08

New features and improvements¶

Added support for Python 3.12 and dropped support for Python 3.9 (#681)
Added a --no-bbox option to the layout command to use the pre-existing page size instead of the geometry bounding box as basis for layout (#682)
Added a --flip option to the reverse command to also flip the line direction (#654)
Added a --hyphenate LANG option to the text command (thanks to @pepijndevos) (#668)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed issue with ImageRenderer where the GL context wasn’t released, ultimately causing a crash when running the test suite (which could involve many hundreds of context creation) (#616)
Fixed CLI help for the lreverse command (#683)

Other changes¶

The project now uses Ruff for linting (supersedes isort) (#646)

1.13.0¶

Release date: 2023-03-13

Annotated Release Notes

New features and improvements¶

Added support for Python 3.11 and dropped support for Python 3.8 (#581)
Added the lid built-in expression variable for generator and layer processor commands (#605)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed a design issue with the read command where disjoint groups of digits in layer names could be used to determine layer IDs. Only the first contiguous group of digits is used now, so a layer named “01-layer1” has layer ID of 1 instead of 11 (#606)
Fixed an issue on Wayland-based Linux distributions where using the viewer (e.g. with the show command) would crash (#607)

Known issue¶

As of PySide 6.4.2, a refresh issue arises on macOS when the viewer window is resized by a window manager (#603)

1.12.1¶

Release date: 2022-11-12

Note: This is the last version of vpype to support Python 3.7.

Bug fixes¶

Pinned ModernGL to 5.7.0 or earlier to avoid an issue introduced in 5.7.1 (2ce6aef780e8a280375cb230d732d092a0635ad3)

1.12.0¶

Release date: 2022-10-25

Annotated Release Notes

New features and improvements¶

The layout command now properly handles the tight special case by fitting the page size around the existing geometries, accommodating for a margin if provided (#556)
Added new units (yd, mi, and km) (#541)
Added inch unit as a synonym to in, useful for expressions (in which in is a reserved keyword) (#541)
Migrated to PySide6 (from PySide2), which simplifies installation on Apple silicon Macs (#552, #559, #567)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed a viewer issue where page width/height of 0 would lead to errors and a blank display (#555)
Fixed a viewer issue where fitting the view to the document would not adjust when page size changes (vsketch only) (#564)

API changes¶

Added vpype.format_length() to convert pixel length into human-readable string with units (#541)

Other changes¶

Updated svgelements to 1.8.4, which fixes issue with some SVG constructs used by Matplotlib exports (#549)
Poetry 1.2 or later is not required (developer only) (#541)
A justfile is now provided for most common operations (install, build the documentation, etc.) (#541)
Migrated to Plausible.io (from Google Analytics) for vpype.readthedocs.io (#546)

1.11.0¶

Release date: 2022-07-06

Annotated Release Notes

New features and improvements¶

Added the splitdist command to split layers by drawing distance (thanks to @LoicGoulefert) (#487, #501)
Added --keep-page-size option to grid command (#506)
Added meters (m) and feet (ft) to the supported units (#498, #508)
Improved the linemerge algorithm by making it less dependent on line order (#496)
Added HPGL configurations for the Houston Instrument DMP-161, HP7550, Roland DXY 1xxxseries and sketchmate plotters (thanks to @jimmykl and @ithinkido) (#472, #474)
The forfile command now sorts the files by their name before processing them (#506)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed an issue with blocks where certain nested commands could lead totally unexpected results (#506)
Fixed an issue with the lmove command where order would not be respected in certain cases such as lmove all 2 (the content of layer 2 was placed before that of layer 1) (#506)
Fixed an issue with expressions where some variable names corresponding to units (e.g. m) could not be used (expressions may now reuse these names) (#506)

API changes¶

Removed the faulty temp_document() context manager from vpype_cli.State() (#506)
Added equality operator to vpype.LineCollection and vpype.Document (#506)

Other changes¶

Removed dependence on setuptools (#454, #468)
Pinned Shapely to 1.8.2, which is the first release in a long time to have binaries for most platforms/Python release combination (including Apple-silicon Macs and Python 3.10) (#475)
Removed deprecated API (#507)

1.10.0¶

Release date: 2022-04-07

Annotated Release Notes

New features and improvements¶

Added the alpha command to set layer opacity without changing the base color (#447, #451)
Improved support for layer pen width and opacity in the viewer (#448)
- The “Pen Width” and “Pen Opacity” menus are now named “Default Pen Width” and “Default Pen Opacity”.
- The layer opacity is now used for display by default. It can be overridden by the default pen opacity by checking the “Override” item from the “Default Pen Opacity” menu.
- The layer pen width is now used for display by default as well. Likewise, it can be overridden by checking the “Override” item from the “Default Pen Width” menu.
Added HPGL configuration for the Calcomp Artisan plotter (thanks to Andee Collard and @ithinkido) (#418)
Added the --dont-set-date option to the write command (#442)
The read command now better handles SVGs with missing width or height attributes (#446)

When the width or height attribute is missing or expressed as percent, the read command now attempts to use the viewBox attribute to set the page size, defaulting to 1000x1000px if missing. This behavior can be overridden with the --display-size and the --display-landscape parameters.

Bug fixes¶

Fixed an issue with forlayer where the _n variable was improperly set (#443)
Fixed an issue with write where layer opacity was included in the stroke attribute instead of using stroke-opacity, which, although compliant, was not compatible with Inkscape (#429)
Fixed an issue with vpype --help where commands from plug-ins would not be listed (#444)
Fixed a minor issue where plug-ins would be reloaded each time vpype_cli.execute() is called (#444)
Fixed a rendering inconsistency in the viewer where the ruler width could vary by one pixel depending on the OpenGL driver/GPU/OS combination (#448)

API changes¶

Changed the parameter name of both vpype_viewer.Engine() and vpype_viewer.render_image() from pen_width and pen_opacity to default_pen_width and default_pen_opacity (breaking change) (#448)
Added override_pen_width and override_pen_opacity boolean parameters to both vpype_viewer.Engine() and vpype_viewer.render_image() (#448)
Added vpype_cli.FloatType(), vpype_cli.IntRangeType(), vpype_cli.FloatRangeType(), and vpype_cli.ChoiceType() (#430, #447)
Changed vpype.Document.add_to_sources() to also modify the vp_source property (#431)
Added a set_date:bool = True argument to vpype.write_svg() (#442)
Changed the default value of default_width and default_height arguments of vpype.read_svg() (and friends) to None to allow svgelement better handle missing width/height attributes (#446)

Other changes¶

Added support for Python 3.10 and dropped support for Python 3.7 (#417)
Miscellaneous code cleaning and fixes (#440, 906087b)
Updated installation instructions to use pipx (#428)
Updated the documentation template (#428)
Updated code base with modern typing syntax (using pyupgrade) (#427)

1.9.0¶

Release date: 2022-03-03

Annotated Release Notes

Note: This is the last version of vpype to support Python 3.7.

New features and improvements¶

Added support for global and per-layer properties (#359)

This feature introduces metadata to the pipeline in the form of properties which may either be attached to specific layers (layer property) or all of them (global property). Properties are identified by a name and may be of arbitrary type (e.g. integer, floating point, color, etc.). A number of system properties with a specific name (prefixed with vp_) and type are introduced to support some of the new features.
Layer color, pen width, and name are now customizable (#359, #376, #389)
- The read commands now sets layer color, pen width, and name based on the input SVG if possible.
- The new color, penwdith, and name commands can be used to modify layer color, pen width, and name.
- The new pens command can apply a predefined or custom scheme on multiple layers at once. Two common schemes are built-in: rgb and cmyk. Custom schemes can be defined in the configuration file.
- The show and write commands now take into account these layer properties.
The read command now records the source SVG paths in the vp_source and vp_sources system properties (see the documentation) (#397, #406, #408)
Added property substitution to CLI user input (#395)

The input provided to most commands’ arguments and options may now contain substitution patterns which will be replaced by the corresponding property value. Property substitution patterns are marked with curly braces (e.g. {property_name}) and support the same formatting capabilities as the Python’s format() function.
Added expression substitution to CLI user input (#397)

The input provided to most command’s arguments and options may now contain expression patterns which are evaluated before the command is executed. Expression patterns are marked with the percent symbol % (e.g. %3+4%) and support a large subset of the Python language. A lot of examples were added in the cookbook.
Added the --attr option to the read command to (optionally) sort geometries by attributes (e.g. stroke color, stroke width, etc.) instead of by SVG layer (#378, #389)
The read and write commands now preserve a sub-set of SVG attributes (experimental) (#359, #389)

The read command identifies SVG attributes (e.g. stroke-dasharray) which are common in all geometries within each layer. These attributes are saved as layer properties with their name prefixed with svg_ (e.g. svg_stroke-dasharray). The write command can optionally restore these attributes in the output SVG using the --restore-attribs option.
Introduced new commands for low-level inspection and modification of properties (#359)
- propget: gets the value of a given global or layer property
- proplist: lists all global and/or layer properties and their value
- propset: sets the value of a given global or layer property
- propdel: deletes a given global or layer property
- propclear: removes all global and/or layer properties
Updated layer operation commands to handle properties (#359)
- When a single source layer is specified and --prob is not used, the lcopy and lmove commands now copy the source layer’s properties to the destination layer (possibly overwriting existing properties).
- When --prob is not used, the lswap command now swaps the layer properties as well.
- These behaviors can be disabled with the --no-prop option.
Improved block processors (#395, #397)
- Simplified and improved the infrastructure underlying block processors for better extensibility.
- The begin marker is now optional and implied whenever a block processor command is encountered. Note: the end marker must always be used to mark the end of a block.
- Commands inside the block now have access to the current layer structure and its metadata.
Improved the grid block processor (#397)
- The page size is now updated according to the grid size.
- The command now sets expression variables for use in the nested pipeline.
- Cells are now first iterated along rows instead of columns.
The repeat block processor now sets expression variables for use in the nested pipeline (#397)
Added forfile block processor to iterate over a list of file (#397)
Added forlayer block processor to iterate over the existing layers (#397)
Added the eval command as placeholder for executing expressions (#397)
The read command now will ignore a missing file if --no-fail parameter is used (#397)
Changed the initial default target layer to 1 (#395)

Previously, the first generator command of the pipeline would default to create a new layer if the --layer option was not provided. This could lead to unexpected behaviour in several situation. The target layer is now layer 1. For subsequent generators, the existing behaviour of using the previous generator target layer as default remains.
Added pagerotate command, to rotate the page layout (including geometries) by 90 degrees (#404)
Added --keep option to the ldelete command (to delete all layers but those specified) (#383)
Providing a non-existent layer ID to any --layer parameter now generates a note (visible with --verbose) (#359, #382)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed an issue with the random command when using non-square area (#395)

API changes¶

Moved all CLI-related APIs from vpype to vpype_cli (#388)

A number of CLI-related APIs remained in the vpype package for historical reasons. They are now located in the vpype_cli package for consistency and to allow for future extensions.
- Moved the following decorators, classes, and functions from the vpype package to the vpype_cli package. Importing from vpype will now generate a deprecation warning:
  - @block_processor
  - @generator
  - @global_processor
  - @layer_processor
  - @pass_state
  - AngleType
  - LayerType
  - LengthType
  - PageSizeType
  - multiple_to_layer_ids()
  - single_to_layer_id()
- Moved and renamed vpype.VpypeState to vpype_cli.State. Using the old name will generate a deprecation warning.
- Removed the following long-time deprecated aliases:
  - vpype.Length (alias to vpype_cli.LengthType)
  - vpype.VectorData (alias to vpype.Document)
  - vpype.convert()(alias to vpype.convert_length())
  - vpype.convert_page_format() (alias to vpype.convert_page_size())
  - vpype.PAGE_FORMATS (alias to vpype.PAGE_SIZES)
Added support for property substitution in Click type subclasses (#395)
- Existing type classes (AngleType, LengthType, PageSizeType) now support property substitution.
- Added TextType and IntegerType to be used instead of str, resp. int, when property substitution support is desired.
Updated the block processor API (breaking change) (#395)

Block processor commands (decorated with @block_processor) are no longer sub-classes of BlockProcessor (which has been removed). The are instead regular functions (like commands of other types) which take a State instance and a list of processors as first arguments.
Added methods to vpype_cli.State to support expression and property substitution, deferred arguments/options evaluation and block processor implementations (#395, #397)
vpype.Document and vpype.LineCollection have multiple, non-breaking additions to support metadata (in particular through the vpype._MetadataMixin mix-in class) (#359, #397)
Renamed vpype.Document.empty_copy() to vpype.Document.clone() for coherence with vpype.LineCollection (the old name remains for backward compatibility) (#359, #380)
Added vpype.read_svg_by_attribute() to read SVG while sorting geometries by arbitrary attributes (#378)
Added an argument to vpype_cli.execute() to pass global option such as --verbose (#378)

Other changes¶

Renamed the bundled config file to vpype_config.toml (#359)
Pinned poetry-core to 1.0.8 to enable editable installs (#410)
Changed dependencies to dataclasses (instead of attrs) and tomli (instead of toml) (#362)
Removed dependency to click-plugin (#388)
Improved documentation, in particular the Fundamentals and Cookbook sections (#359, #363, #397)

1.8.1¶

Release date: 2022-01-13

Security fix¶

Updated Pillow to 9.0.0 due to vulnerabilities in previous versions (CVE-2022-22815, CVE-2022-22817, CVE-2022-22816)

1.8.0¶

Release date: 2021-11-25

New features and improvements¶

Added lswap command to swap the content of two layers (#300)
Added lreverse command to reverse the order of paths within a layer (#300)
Improved HPGL export (#253, #310, #316, #335)
- Relative coordinates are now used by default to reduce file size. If absolute coordinates are needed, they a new --absolute option for the write command.
- A homing command (as defined by the final_pu_params configuration parameter) is no longer emitted between layers.
The viewer (show command) now catches interruptions from the terminal (ctrl-C) and closes itself (#321)
The read command now accepts - as file path to read from the standard input (#322)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed issue with HPGL export where page size auto-detection would fail when using the default device from the config file (instead of specifying the device with --device) (#328)
Fixed issue where the viewer would crash with empty layers (#339)

Other changes¶

Updated to Shapely 1.8 (transition release toward 2.0) and fixed deprecation warnings (#325, #342)

1.7.0¶

Release date: 2021-06-10

Important: for a regular installation, vpype must now be installed/updated with the following command (see details below):

pip install -U vpype[all]

New features and improvements¶

Installing the viewer (show command) and its dependencies is now optional (#254)

The all extra must now be provided to pip for a complete install:
```
pip install -U vpype[all]  # the viewer is fully installed
pip install -U vpype       # the viewer and its dependencies are NOT installed
```
Forgoing the viewer considerably reduces the number of required dependencies and may be useful for embedded (e.g. Raspberry Pi) or server installs of vpype, when the show command is not necessary. Note that the Windows installer is not affected by this change.
Added an optional, global optimization feature to linesort (#266, thanks to @tatarize)

This feature is enabled by adding the --two-opt option. Since it considerably increases the processing time, it should primarily be used for special cases such as plotting the same file multiple times.

Bug fixes¶

Fixed broken Windows installer (#285)
Fixed an issue where read would crash with empty <polygon> tags and similar degenerate geometries (#260)
Fixed an issue where linesimplify would skip layers containing a single line (#280)
Fixed an issue where floating point value could be generated for HPGL VS commands (#286)

Other changes¶

Updated to Click 8.0.1 (#282)

1.6.0¶

Release date: 2021-03-10

New features and improvements¶

Added new text command (#226, #227)

This command renders text using Hershey fonts. It can create text blocks with wrapping, custom alignment, and optional justification. A set of Hershey fonts is included.

Notes:
- This feature was previously partially available via the vpype-text plug-in, which is now deprecated. The plug-in should no longer be used, and, if present, uninstalled.
- The implementation of this feature as well as the set of Hershey font is based on the axi project -- thanks @fogleman!
Added squiggles command for a “shaky hand” or “liquid-like” styling (#217)
Added probabilistic mode to lmove, lcopy, and ldelete to enable various random coloring effects (#220)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed missing documentation for the reverse command (#217)

API changes¶

Added vpype.FONT_NAMES, vpype.text_line, and vpype.text_block for Hershey-font-based text rendering (#226, #227)

Other changes¶

Dropped support for Python 3.6 (#207)

1.5.1¶

Release date: 2021-02-19

Bug fixes¶

Fixed a shader compilation issue arising on some Windows configuration (#210)
Fixed UI glitches when using both non-HiDPI and HiDPI (a.k.a Retina) monitors (#211)

1.5.0¶

Release date: 2021-02-16

Note: This is the last version of vpype to support Python 3.6.

New features and improvements¶

Viewer improvements:
- Added rulers with dynamic scale to the display (can be optionally hidden) (#199)
- Added metric and imperial unit system (in addition to pixels), used by the rulers and the mouse coordinates display (#199, #205)
- Adjusted the size of the mouse coordinates text on Windows (#199)
- Added support to adjust the scale of the UI via ~/.vpype.toml (#203)
  
  This is achieved by adding the following lines to your ~/.vpype.toml file:
```
[viewer]
ui_scale_factor = 1.5
```
  A value of 1.5 may be useful on some Windows configurations where the default UI is very small.

Bug fixes¶

Fixed issue on Linux where show would revert to the classic viewer due to a libX11 discovery issue (#206)

API changes¶

Renamed vpype.CONFIG_MANAGER in favour of vpype.config_manager (existing name kept for compatibility) (#202)

1.4.0¶

Release date: 2021-02-08

New features and improvements¶

Python 3.9.1 (or later) is finally supported and now is the recommended version (#115)
Viewer improvements:
- The viewer will now keep the page fitted to the window when resizing, until manually zoomed and/or panned (#193)
- Significantly optimized launch and setting changes times (#184, #195)

Bug fixes¶

Various documentation fixes and improvements:
- improved the layout command’s help text
- improved the cookbook section on using GNU parallel (#108)
- fixed typos related to the layout command in the cookbook (#186, thanks to @f4nu)

API changes¶

Added support for a sidebar in the viewer (#194)

1.3.0¶

Release date: 2021-01-27

New features and improvements¶

Added new layout command (#168)

This command automates the page layout process on a specified the page size by centering the geometries (with customizable horizontal and vertical alignment) and optionally fitting to specified margins. It intends to supersede write’s layout options (i.e. --page-size and --center) in more intuitive way. In particular this command acts on the pipeline rather than on the output file so its effect can be previewed with the show command.
(Beta) Complete rewrite of the viewer underlying the show command (#163)
- fully hardware-accelerated rendering engine
- smooth zooming and panning, with touchpad and mouse support
- preview mode with adjustable pen width and opacity
- outline mode with optional colorful and point display
- optional pen-up trajectories display
- per-layer visibility control
- interactively adjustable display settings
Note: This new viewer is a beta feature and will evolve in future versions. Your feedback is welcome. The current, matplotlib-based viewer is still available using show --classic.
Added support for arbitrary paper size to write’s HPGL output (configuration for the Calcomp Designmate included, check the documentation for details) (#178)
Added large format paper sizes (A2, A1, A0) (#144)
The splitall command will now filter out segments with identical end-points (#146)
Minor loading time improvement (#133)

Bug fixes¶

Various documentation fixes (#170, #172, thanks to @theomega)

API changes¶

Added the new viewer engine and Qt-based GUI (#163)

1.2.1¶

Release date: 2020-12-26

Hot fix¶

Fixed systematic crash with read command due to bad dependency version (#140)

1.2.0¶

Release date: 2020-12-17

New features and improvements¶

A Windows installer is now available (#120)
HPGL output: --page-size is no longer mandatory and write will try to infer which paper to use based on the current page size (#132)
Added reverse command (#129)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed crash for SVG with element (#127)
Fixed an issue where output HPGL file could be empty (#132)

1.1.0¶

Release date: 2020-12-10

New features and improvements¶

Added snap command (#110)
Invisible SVG elements are now discarded (#103)
Add support for angle units (affects rotate, skew, and arc commands, --radian option is removed) (#111)

Bug fixes¶

Fixed installation issue on Windows (“Numpy sanity check RuntimeError”) (#119)
Fixed write to cap SVG width and height to a minimum of 1px (#102)
Fixed grouping of stat command in vpype --help

API changes¶

Added vpype_cli.execute() to execute a vpype pipeline from Python (#104)
Added vpype.convert_angle() and vpype.AngleType (#111)

1.0.0¶

Release date: 2020-11-29

Initial release