Round antialiased Brush with hardness controls

New Features & Capabilities

• Added a separate round Brush while keeping Pencil as the hard-edged pixel tool.
• Brush supports sizes from 1px to 32px, adjustable opacity, and Hardness from a wide transparent fade to a crisp center with an antialiased boundary.
• Brush strokes interpolate across fast pointer movement, respect active selections and locked or hidden layers, and remain one undoable action per gesture.
• Brush size and hardness persist with local editor drafts.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Prevented overlapping stamps within one gesture from unintentionally building extra opacity while still allowing later, separate strokes to build color normally.
• Added a live circular footprint preview that reflects Brush size, color, and hardness.
• Fixed shared Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Line, Rectangle, and Circle previews collapsing at canvas edges; previews now retain their full shape and are clipped by the canvas boundary.
• Kept Brush-only Hardness controls out of Fill and other tool layouts, preventing the Fill settings bar from overflowing.
• Clarified that 1px and 2px Brush tips cannot show a distinct round fade on a pixel-aligned grid; 3px or larger is recommended for visible softness.

Website-ready Base64 CSS and a leaner live cursor preview

New Features & Capabilities

• Added Get Base64 CSS Code to Export, generating website-ready cursor CSS only when requested instead of continuously while you edit.
• Static web exports now use compact lossless PNG with an explicit hotspot, avoiding oversized Base64 cursor binaries and browser-dependent embedded hotspot handling.
• Animated web exports default to optimized quality-85 WebP for website use, with optional Lossless PNG to match Live Preview; both modes preserve frame delays and explicit per-frame hotspots.
• Base64 code is presented and copied as an HTML-ready style block, while downloaded CSS files remain valid raw stylesheets without HTML tags.
• Live Preview now applies the real browser cursor over an interactive test surface, including smooth animated playback with the same CSS keyframe and step-end approach used on cursor entry pages.
• Added hold-and-drag hotspot trails to Live Preview, showing in real time where the browser registers the active hotspot while testing against dark, light, or transparency-checkerboard backgrounds.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Made Live Preview lazy and cache-aware: opening the flyout performs no image encoding, first pointer entry generates frames one at a time, unchanged output is reused, and playback stops on pointer exit or close.
• Fixed Firefox animation jitter and cursors disappearing after reopening Live Preview by replacing JavaScript frame swapping with nonce-authorized CSS keyframes and removing delayed CSS hover-state checks.
• Simplified Live Preview into a standard toolbar-anchored flyout, removed the duplicate artwork reference and changing status messages, reduced its size, and cleared test trails whenever it closes.
• Made the default transparency checkerboard follow the editor theme, using a dark grid in dark mode and a light grid in light mode.
• Scaled browser previews larger than 128px down temporarily with proportional hotspots while leaving the original artwork and normal cursor exports unchanged.
• Simplified the Base64 export dialog to CSS-only output, removed raw Base64 and Data URL tabs, and clarified when exact hand-drawn pixels are used instead of resized artwork.

Smooth image import previews and animated resize fixes

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Animated GIF and WebP imports now honor the Smooth resize method when committed, so downscaled animation frames use the same high-quality Lanczos/Pica path as still images.
• The import preview now refreshes when you switch between Smooth and Crisp, then upgrades the visible preview to the Smooth/Lanczos result before you commit whenever the image is being downscaled.
• Panning an import preview stays responsive: moving the image reuses the cached resized pixels, while only size or method changes trigger a fresh resize.
• Commit reuses the finished high-quality preview pixels when they are already ready, keeping the final import aligned with what you saw on the canvas.

Welcome splash, About/FAQ drawer, multi-creator credit, and better editor landing copy

New Features & Capabilities

• Added a first-run welcome splash that introduces the free online cursor editor before you start drawing, importing images, or animating frames.
• Added an About/FAQ drawer from the editor sidebar and welcome splash, with quick answers for making custom cursors, turning images into cursors, building animated pointers, setting hotspots, saving drafts, and creating full cursor sets.
• You can now credit more than one creator when you submit: the Creator Name(s) and Creator URL(s) fields accept several names or links separated by commas — handy for collaborations and CC BY-SA remix chains.
• Added CC BY-SA 4.0 to the licenses you can choose when submitting a cursor.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Improved the editor page title, description, social image, and crawlable intro/FAQ text so the public editor page better explains what the tool does before JavaScript starts.
• Made the welcome splash remember when it has been dismissed on the current device, so returning users go straight to the editor without a flash of onboarding.
• Kept keyboard focus inside the active welcome or FAQ dialog and paused editor shortcuts and file drops while those overlays are open, so canvas actions resume only after the overlay is closed.
• Temporarily inerts the welcome splash when the FAQ opens from inside it, keeping one active dialog at a time for keyboard and assistive-technology users.

Submission updates: Windows roles in the Submit window, separate-cursor batches, and creator credit

New Features & Capabilities

• Added a Windows role selector to the single-cursor Submit window, so you can set or change a cursor's role right as you submit without leaving the dialog.
• Role choices now stay in sync everywhere: changing a role in the Submit window updates your workspace, and changing it on a set row updates the cursor too, so the same cursor never shows two different roles.
• Added a "these are separate cursors, not one matching set" option to the Cursor Set tab, so you can submit several standalone cursors in one batch instead of building a single themed set.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• The Submit window now asks for a creator name (you, or whoever made the cursor), so credit is always attached to what you send in.
• When building a set, the Submit window now flags duplicate Windows roles and lists the standard roles you have not assigned yet, so you can round out a full set before sending.
• Added a friendly nudge when a set has no roles assigned, explaining that roles help Windows users install each cursor in the right job — while keeping roles fully optional, since partial sets are welcome.
• Cursors keep their Windows role when submitted as separate cursors, so role choices are not lost in batch submissions.
• Added a Terms of Service link to the submit confirmation so you can review the terms before sending.

Launch follow-up fixes and set export polish

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Added elegant drop shadows and refined light-theme backgrounds and active button states for all floating workspace panels and docks to ensure clear visual separation from the canvas grid.
• Made local draft saving more dependable, with better protection against lost edits during reloads, browser storage hiccups, and quick workspace changes.
• Improved undo and redo around fills, moves, imports, layer changes, canvas resizing, and actions that end up making no visible change.
• Made image and animated cursor imports more reliable, including better handling for unusual cursor files, safer large-image limits, and smoother import preview movement.
• Fixed several drag-and-release edge cases so drawing, moving selections, moving layers, panning imports, and dragging tool panels clean up properly even when a gesture is interrupted.
• Polished selections so adding, subtracting, moving, clearing, copying, and outlining selected areas behave more predictably near canvas edges.
• Reset color adjustment controls after applying Hue Shift or Tint, so the same color change is not accidentally stacked again.
• Smoothed animation playback and zoom updates so the editor refreshes less of the interface while previewing or zooming, keeping the workspace more responsive.
• Tightened export and set-download behavior, including safer file downloads and cleaner Windows install files for cursor sets.
• Fixed full cursor-set .zip downloads so diagonal, vertical, and horizontal resize cursors are all included instead of being merged into one file.
• Improved workspace and multi-size switching so cursor previews, names, roles, and per-size artwork are less likely to get mixed up during fast edits.

High-DPI canvas stability and low-zoom drawing polish

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Stabilized live canvas redraws on high-DPI and 4K displays by rendering the editor stage through a display-density-aware backing canvas instead of relying on browser CSS upscaling of the tiny logical cursor canvas.
• Reduced low-zoom flicker while using Pencil, Eraser, Line, Rect, and Circle tools, especially on small canvas sizes and fractional display-scaling setups.
• Replaced the visible stage canvas in one copy-composited draw operation so redraws avoid edge flashes while preserving the exact editor pixel data, hit testing, drafts, and exports.

Layer merge, custom sizes, hotspot picker, exact brush previews, clearer layer thumbnails, and calmer editor chrome

New Features & Capabilities

• Added Merge Down to the Layers toolbar, compositing the active layer into the layer beneath it across every frame with normal transparency blending.
• Merge Down is undoable in one step: Undo restores the removed layer, layer order, active layer, per-frame pixels, and frame state during the current editing session.
• Hotspot picking now uses its own crosshair cursor on the canvas, independent of whichever drawing tool is currently selected.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Disabled Merge Down when the active layer has no lower layer, or when either layer is locked, with tooltips explaining the blocked state.
• Fixed Add Multi-Size custom values so choosing Custom reliably creates the requested non-preset canvas size.
• Restored the Add Multi-Size custom-size field hiding behavior in the minified editor CSS so the preset and custom controls stay in sync.
• Pencil and eraser hover outlines now snap to the exact pixel footprint that will be painted or erased, so a 1px brush preview covers one pixel cell even at high zoom.
• Arming or cancelling the hotspot picker now refreshes the stage cursor and hides brush-preview state immediately.
• Layer thumbnails now crop to visible layer pixels and render at your display pixel density — crisp when artwork is scaled up, and shape-accurate (no jagged dropped pixels) when a large layer is scaled down — making small artwork easier to recognize on large canvases.
• Disabled accidental text highlighting across the editor chrome, panels, layer list, timeline, toolbar, and canvas workspace while keeping text selection available in form fields and editable inputs.
• Suppressed the browser right-click menu on the drawing canvas only, so right-click behavior elsewhere in the editor and browser remains available.

Site-matched multisize export and submit-to-site

New Features & Capabilities

• Animated .ani export now includes every size you have drawn, grouped into the standard site size sets (32/48/64, 72/96/128, and 256) and bundled together in a .zip with an install readme — the same multi-size layout the site serves.
• Still .cur export now packs every size from the Multi-Size shelf into one multi-resolution file, using your real hand-drawn pixels at each size instead of downscaling a single drawing.
• Full-set .zip export now emits grouped .ani and multi-size .cur files for each cursor and points the generated install.inf at the correct default file.
• Submitting to Cursors-4U now supports per-cursor categories and creator credit, optional AI keyword assistance, and a license choice at submit time.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Removed the Auto Sizing checkboxes, so export sizes now come straight from the Multi-Size shelf and what you draw is exactly what ships.
• Animated .ani files now embed their frames using the tested PNG-only format the site serves, for reliable installation across Windows versions.
• Exports now stop with a clear message when the current size cannot be saved first, instead of silently exporting an out-of-date drawing.

High-quality image resizing and a simpler import panel

New Features & Capabilities

• Added a Resize method choice when importing an image: Smooth (Lanczos resampling) for photos and detailed artwork, or Crisp (nearest-neighbor) for pixel art and sprites.
• Smooth mode now downscales imported images with high-quality Lanczos resampling at commit time, producing much cleaner results than the browser default when shrinking large images.
• Extended the Smooth/Crisp resize choice to the Add Multi-Size dialog (Resize current) and the layer Scale action, so resampling artwork to a new size or scale can use high-quality smoothing or stay crisp for pixel art.
• Limited Defringe and Outline to color-based selections, since they only act on selected colors.
• Made the sticker Outline use the active color from the color panel and moved its size, opacity, and placement options into a settings popover on the Outline button.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Removed the old import Processing Options (Pre-quantize palette, Alpha threshold, and Edge sharpening) in favor of the single Resize method control.
• Tidied the import bar into a single row with icon-only Fit / Real size / Recenter / Commit / Cancel buttons, and matched the Add Multi-Size Create and Cancel buttons.
• Defaulted Magic Wand "Clean edges on clear" to off for cleaner pixel-art transparency deletions.

Magic Wand workflow, structural undo, and layer linking

New Features & Capabilities

• Made the Magic Wand a single tool for both color and area selection: click selects a color, dragging draws a rectangular marquee, and Shift adds while Alt subtracts — so you can refine a selection without switching tools.
• Added Shift-drag (add) and Alt-drag (subtract) to the Select tool so you can add or remove a rectangular area from any selection, including a Magic Wand selection.
• Added a keyboard shortcut to invert the current selection (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I), and surfaced it on the Invert button.
• Made canvas resize undoable, and stopped structural edits — adding, deleting, or reordering layers and frames, pasting as a new layer, and adding a sticker outline — from wiping the undo history; each can now be undone in a single step.
• Added a Link control to layers so linked layers move together with the Move tool, and kept Lock as a separate edit-protection control. Moved Duplicate Across Frames up to the Layers toolbar.
• Added double-click finishing for Polygon selections so the last point closes back to the first point without needing to click the first point exactly.
• Expanded sticker Outline size up to 10px and made generated outline pixels solid so outlines read less like shadows.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Improved Magic Wand performance on noisy images by drawing complex selection masks on a canvas instead of creating many DOM outline nodes.
• Restored Magic Wand selection visibility at high zoom by rendering mask outlines at screen-pixel resolution.
• Lightly clean Magic Wand masks by filling tiny enclosed holes and removing one-pixel islands in all-matching-pixels mode.
• Simplified the Magic Wand panel to lead with Tolerance and tuck Edge Cleanup, Outline, Placement, and Opacity behind an Advanced section that remembers whether it is open.
• Removed the redundant Mode dropdown and Select All from the Magic Wand panel, and removed Magic Wand from the Select panel mode list, so each selection tool shows only its own options.
• Fixed the sticker Outline so it can be undone, and fixed the active selection disappearing when you undo a structural change; a still-valid selection now stays put.
• Unified selection outlines so box and multi-area selections draw one clean outline like the Magic Wand instead of stacked rectangles, and removed the flicker while holding Shift or Alt during a drag.
• Added a transparency checkerboard behind the canvas so transparent areas are easy to see.

Selection persistence and the Magic Wand

New Features & Capabilities

• Added a Magic Wand selection mode for color-based background selection, with tolerance, connected-pixel selection, and additive or subtractive selection controls.
• Added Clean Edges options for Magic Wand background removal so cleared backgrounds can soften or remove leftover matte fringe pixels.
• Added a Defringe action for active selections to remove remaining edge-colored pixels after background cleanup.
• Added a sticker-style Outline action for selections, with color, opacity, size, and Outside, Center, or Inside placement options.
• Raised the animation timeline limit from 32 frames to 64 frames for longer cursor animations.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Changed the default outline placement to Center so outlines can cover edge fringe instead of only expanding outward from the artwork.
• Allowed 64-frame animated cursors to be submitted, matching the raised timeline limit.
• Fixed Workspace, multi-size, and set thumbnails so autosaved cursors keep their preview images when switching between items.
• Fixed active selections so changing layers, creating layers, deleting layers, or switching frames no longer makes the selection disappear.
• Kept unfinished selection drags and polygon drafts scoped to the active frame and layer while preserving the finished selection geometry.

Workspace polish, recoloring, and draft autosaves

New Features & Capabilities

• Changed Recolor to Current Color so black and white pixels recolor to the active color while preserving alpha, selection, and ignore-color rules.
• Fixed layer rotation previews so repeated quick rotations use the original layer pixels until Apply, preventing artwork degradation.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Redesigned the Workspace panel with Add, Full Set, cursor cards, live previews, active-state checks, and per-cursor delete controls.
• Matched Workspace typography and active colors to the site Inter font and default blue theme tokens.
• Improved editor drag-and-drop imports so file drops over the open menu or backdrop no longer navigate away from the editor.
• Closed the editor menu automatically when an accepted drag-and-drop import starts, so the import preview is immediately visible.
• Changed selection fills so the Fill tool fills the full active selection instead of only the connected clicked region.
• Improved active-selection contrast by giving selection outlines a white stroke with a dark halo for black or dark artwork.
• Restyled the layer Transform panel with compact rotate and flip tiles, labels outside the custom Angle and Mode controls, and fixed the clipped Mode dropdown.
• Removed redundant 45-degree quick rotate buttons now that custom Angle covers that workflow.
• Clarified rotation behavior so quick rotate buttons preview from the original layer, while Angle, Preview, and Apply are used for custom rotations.
• Fixed custom Angle Apply so changing the angle after a preview refreshes from the original layer before committing.
• Added a drag handle icon to movable editor flyout panel headers so draggable panels are easier to discover.
• Added an inline rotation-preview state message in the Layer Transform panel so users know Apply or Cancel is required before drawing.
• Changed Flip and Scale so they commit an active rotation preview before running instead of appearing to do nothing.
• Removed outdated helper copy from the Layers panel after drag reordering replaced arrow controls.
• Matched Layers panel Add Layer and icon-only Delete Layer buttons to the Workspace action button style.
• Split Export and Submit into their own bottom action pill separate from canvas/view controls.
• Removed the manual Save Draft action because drafts already autosave locally.
• Changed Delete Layer to use the editor confirmation popup instead of the browser confirm dialog.
• Removed the toolbar collapse control so the tool rail stays expanded.
• Standardized editor Material Symbol icons to 16px inside the editor UI.

Timeline drag-reordering, multi-size submissions, and layout

New Features & Capabilities

• Added drag-and-drop reordering for both layer rows and timeline frames, with visible drop indicators and moved-frame confirmation.
• Added Shift-constrained straight-line drawing to the Pencil tool.
• Enabled multi-size submissions and cursor set configurations.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Fixed an invisible toolbar hitbox that could block paint, fill, and other canvas tools at higher zoom levels.
• Changed layer visibility to apply per frame, so hiding a layer on one animation frame no longer hides it everywhere.
• Updated draft loading and saving so per-frame layer visibility persists, while old linked-layer draft state is ignored.
• Restored the grid button to a one-time duplicate action that copies the active layer across all frames without linking future edits.
• Extended the dotted editor workspace background behind the global nav, toolbar, and canvas area while preserving the existing page background.
• Moved editor status and canvas metrics into the editor-only top bar, moved Clear Frame into the editor toolbar, and removed search, favorites, compact view, and docs controls from the editor top bar.
• Kept the expanded toolbar, color controls, and multi-size shelf vertically centered on mobile, with solid panel backgrounds matching the multi-size shelf.
• Grouped Clear Frame with the main editor panel buttons instead of giving it a separate toolbar section.
• Fixed dragged flyout panels jumping away from the pointer after the toolbar centering update.
• Removed the layer up and down arrow buttons now that drag reorder is the only layer movement control.
• Changed first page load so no drawing tool is selected until the user picks one.

Anchored confirmations, zoom chips, and UI compact pass

New Features & Capabilities

• Introduced dynamic Zoom Chip shelf with absolute canvas camera position calculations and smooth transition states.
• Added mouse scroll-wheel dynamic canvas zooming (scrolling up zooms in, scrolling down zooms out).

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Replaced native browser confirm() and prompt() dialogs with modern inline anchored popover overlays for all destructive workspace, frame, and layer deletions.
• Refactored the editor toolbar into a thin, double-column space-saving layout rail.
• Added global user handbook help links directly into the editor navigation bar.
• Positioned persistent version info label into the editor sidebar deck.

Image imports, multi-size shelf, and layer transforms

New Features & Capabilities

• Introduced high-capacity multi-size image import controls (supporting dragging raw JPG/PNG/GIF files directly onto the stage canvas).
• Added client-side multi-size ANI cursor extraction and timeline imports.
• Added custom non-destructive rotate, flip, and scale canvas preview handlers.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Added active timeline frame thumbnails, allowing real-time previews of animation reels inside the bottom track.
• Fixed persistent click hotspots so hotspots persist seamlessly across all frames within an active cursor item.
• Consolidated brush sizing (1px to 16px) and opacity sliders into unified settings blocks.
• Added draggable flying panel coordinates, allowing drag repositioning of color flyouts and timeline decks.

Core Export System and Timeline frame engine

New Features & Capabilities

• Engineered the advanced cursor file compiler supporting export of still cursors (.cur), animated timelines (.ani), transparent frame PNG backups, and complete theme ZIP archives.
• Built Windows-installable install.inf script generation compiler inside the ZIP set generator.
• Created core frame timeline engine: delay intervals (milliseconds), onion skin frame layers, loop playback, and timeline playback controls.
• Added Windows system cursor role selector dropdown (15 active roles) in sidebar metadata.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Built hotspot coordinates picker with dynamic click target alignment overlay.

First usable editor build

New Features & Capabilities

• Initial frontend release: Launched the initial canvas-based pixel drawing editor.
• Included standard tools: Pencil, Eraser, Flood Fill, Eyedropper, Line, Rectangle, and Circle.
• Created background IndexedDB draft saving database to automatically cache canvas states.
• Built local active Undo and Redo stacks supporting up to 30 steps.

Interface & Workflow Polish

• Established the initial editor grid layout shell.