Previous release notes

SimpleDiagrams 5.1.1 (build 43)

New

• SimpleDiagrams now speaks Japanese. On a Mac set to Japanese, its menus, panels, Settings, alerts, help tags and VoiceOver are in Japanese, and so are the built-in libraries' names, shapes, groups, descriptions, search words and BPMN shape-data fields. The Library finds built-in shapes by their English or Japanese names. Built-in shape data reads the same on every Mac: it is saved in English and shown in your language, CSV exports use your language, and JSON exports stay in English.
• A correction to the 5.1.0 notes, which left out ten shapes added to the Basic library in that version: Rounded Rectangle, Pill, Subprocess, Off-Page Reference, Parallelogram, Pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon, Six-Point Star and Seven-Point Star.

Improved

• Labels on newly placed Word Bubbles and 3D Basic (Hatch) shapes now use the text areas chosen for their drawings. Existing diagrams keep their label positions until you apply the library's connection points and text position.
• The BPMN and UML libraries now sort their shapes under small headings, such as Events, Gateways and Relationships, so they're quicker to scan. To see every library as one block of shapes again, turn off Show shape groups in Settings › Library and Panels.
• A new Scroll to pan setting, under Canvas in Settings, is on as before; turn it off if a Magic Mouse or trackpad moves your diagram when you don't mean it to. Space-drag always pans, and Command-scroll always zooms.

Fixed

• The Basic library's Heptagon, added in 5.1.0, is now evenly shaped; diagrams that already use it show the corrected drawing, at the same size.
• In Dark Mode, the connector types in the Tool Palette’s connector pop-out are now as bright and easy to read as the other pop-outs.
• Importing or converting an SVG file, importing a SimpleDiagrams 4 library or opening a SimpleDiagrams 4 diagram no longer takes hours when the file holds an unusually long run of spaces or other repeated characters.
• Several kinds of damaged or deliberately malformed file are handled safely: a Visio drawing or stencil, SimpleDiagrams 4 library or zipped diagram whose archive is laid out to mislead no longer makes SimpleDiagrams quit; an SVG built to grow without limit while it converts is refused instead of using up memory; and a diagram with extreme marker strokes no longer slows every repaint.
• An SVG with a filled area whose outline crosses over itself thousands of times now imports without that fill, keeping its lines, instead of slowing down every repaint. The import sheet explains why Keep as SVG Artwork isn't offered for such a file.
• Presenting, printing or exporting a saved diagram now uses its name instead of “Untitled”: in the presentation window's title, as the name the Print dialog's Save as PDF suggests, and as the name Export suggests for a PDF or a folder of several pages. A single PNG or SVG page is still named after its page. A renamed diagram uses its new name, and a diagram opened from a SimpleDiagrams 4 or Visio file uses that file's name, in its window too, until you save it.

SimpleDiagrams 5.1.0 (build 42)

5.1 takes SimpleDiagrams beyond simple sketches and workflows, into more advanced technical diagrams and communication. A new Complex Shapes section draws containers, swimlanes, tables and callouts at any size. New UML and BPMN libraries cover the standard symbols, sequence diagrams included. And you can open Visio drawings and turn Visio stencils into libraries. Big diagrams are faster to work with, too.

Before you update

• Diagrams saved by this version use a newer file format, so they need this version or later to open; SimpleDiagrams 5.0 can't open them. If you share diagrams, ask the people you share with to update too. Diagrams from earlier versions open as before. Libraries this version saves or exports need this version or later too, because they record each shape's slug.

New

• Complex Shapes, a new section in the Library panel just after Basic, has four shapes that SimpleDiagrams draws for you: a Container, Swimlanes, a Table and a Callout. Add one as you would any library shape; their commands are in Format > Complex Shape and the right-click menu.
• Containers and swimlanes hold their shapes. Drop a shape wholly inside and it joins; drag it wholly out and it leaves, or use Add to Container and Remove from Container. Moving, rotating, bringing forward or sending back a container or swimlanes takes everything inside along, and locking one locks everything inside. Resizing a container leaves its shapes in place and stops at them, and Title in Corner Tag puts its title in a small tag in the top-left corner, as UML frames do.
• Edit swimlanes in place. Double-click a lane's title strip to rename it, or click it to choose the lane, then add a lane before or after it or press Delete to remove it with its shapes; the + at the end adds one too. Drag the handles to resize every lane, or the line under a lane to resize just that one. Vertical Lanes and Horizontal Lanes turn the lanes, shapes and all.
• Type straight into tables. Double-click a cell, or select the table and press Return; Tab moves on, adding a row at the end. Choose a cell to insert or delete rows and columns or turn the Header Row on and off, or use the + below or beside a selected table. Drag the line under a row or after a column to resize it, and format one cell or the whole table.
• Point a callout at anything. Select a Callout and drag the handle at the tip of its tail to aim it. Drop the tip on another shape's connection point and the tail stays attached as that shape moves; drag it off to let go, or into the bubble to remove the tail. Detach Callout Tail and Remove Callout Tail, in Format > Complex Shape and the right-click menu, do the same without dragging, and VoiceOver offers them too.
• A new BPMN library of 89 shapes in a hand-drawn style for business process diagrams: events, gateways, tasks, sub-processes, task marks, data, messages and conversations, each carrying its BPMN details as shape data. Tasks, sub-processes and groups keep their small rounded corners at any size. Under Pools and Sub-Processes, a Pool places swimlanes and an Expanded Sub-Process places a container. A plain Task and Gateway lead their groups, and Flows draws Sequence, Default, Conditional and Message Flows, Associations and Data Associations; Format > BPMN Flow and the right-click menu turn lines you've drawn into any of them.
• A new UML library for the diagrams people draw most: Actor, Initial node, Final node, Flow final, Terminate, Fork / join bar, Note and Package, plus Class, Interface, Enumeration and Database Entity tables and a System Boundary for use cases. The tables and the boundary are ordinary tables and containers, so you can add rows, retype or restyle them.
• Ten UML relationships: Association, Inheritance, Implements, Dependency, Aggregation, Composition, Message, Reply, Async Message and One to Many. Click one and draw a connector with its line and arrowheads, or drag it onto the canvas and drag its ends onto shapes. The Connector tile drags out the same way. To change lines you've drawn, choose Format > UML Relationship or right-click, where each item says which way to draw it.
• A Sequence group in the UML library adds a Lifeline and an Actor Lifeline, whose dashed lines stay dashed at any length. Messages attach anywhere along them and snap level, and Ends in Destroy Mark, in the right-click menu, the Format menu and Shape Properties, ends a lifeline with an X. A Frame, named in its corner tag, and Alt, Loop and Opt fragments always go behind the messages you drag them over.
• Open Microsoft Visio diagrams (.vsdx, .vsdm, .vstx and .vstm) with File > Open…, as new diagrams you can edit and save. The Visio file is never changed, and macros are never opened or run. Shapes keep their outlines, colours, text and shape data, and an icon arrives as one shape with its name as its label, right where Visio put it; flowchart and BPMN shapes become the matching Basic and BPMN shapes, swimlanes and containers become Swimlanes and Containers, connectors stay attached, and comments become sticky notes. A short message, and File > Show Import Summary, list anything that didn't come across exactly.
• Bring your Visio stencils with you. Choose Import Library… from the Library panel's menu, or open or drop a .vssx or .vssm file, and its shapes become a custom library with their colours, connection points, shape data and tips, which become their descriptions. Importing it again updates that library. Lines and connectors are left out, and a message lists anything else that didn't come across.
• Drop a library, Visio stencil or Visio drawing anywhere on a SimpleDiagrams window; while you drag, a message says what the drop will do, and a drawing opens as a new diagram. Visio files in the pre-2013 format, such as .vsd and .vss, are no longer greyed out: choosing or dropping one tells you how to get a file SimpleDiagrams can read.
• Every library shape now has a slug, a short, permanent name such as user-task, which your diagrams keep even on a Mac without its library. In custom libraries it comes from the shape's name, and you can change it on the Details tab, where you can now also give a shape a short description of up to 300 characters. Libraries installed from the website get slugs without downloading them again.
• Give shapes in custom libraries a Default Label in the library window, and each copy you place starts with that label, or that title for a container shape. Shapes from a Visio stencil keep the labels their maker gave them, bold and sizes included.
• Choose a Default Text Position for a shape in a custom library, such as Above Shape, and each copy you place starts with its label there. You can still move each copy's label afterwards.
• A diagram that names shapes from a library you've downloaded now opens with those shapes in place. When it finds them, opening updates the diagram to the current format, so earlier versions can't open it. If the shapes aren't available on this Mac, they show as boxes with a question mark, and a bar above the diagram names the library and links to its page on simplediagrams.com.
• Drag a shape's name anywhere around it, including above and to the left, as long as it still touches the shape. Names under small UML shapes, such as the Actor, now have room for one line.

Improved

• Libraries you make, including those made from a Visio stencil, are called custom libraries throughout the app, beside the built-in libraries that come with SimpleDiagrams and the downloaded ones you install from simplediagrams.com or from a file someone sends you. The library window and Manage Libraries… say which kind each one is, and Duplicate Library… names its copy “(custom copy)”.
• Library tiles that place a complex shape now show a tiny ✱ in their corner and the tooltip "Complex shape", even with shape tooltips turned off, and Quick Library Search says so on their row. The Swimlanes tile now shows its lane titles, so it no longer looks like a table.
• The Shape Data panel now shows which library a shape came from, and Info in its header gives its full name and IDs, such as its slug and UUID, ready to copy, along with the shape's name and description in its library. A shape with no words of its own goes by that name, such as Golden Pothos, instead of a code. When the panel has no single shape to show, it says what's selected and what to do: a group asks you to double-click the shape you want inside it, and a connector explains it has no shape data. A shape with no data fields says how you can give it some, and shapes with no library, such as imported Visio artwork, no longer suggest a library they don't have. Shape Data exports now include each library shape's library and slug, in new library and shape_slug columns, so you can match shapes across exports even after they're renamed. In CSV they come right after shape_type, so your shape data columns now start two columns later; read them by their headings. The JSON format is now version 5.
• In the Library panel, deleting your search shows all your libraries again and leaves the cursor in the search field. Shapes with a very thin outline, such as a dotted Visio boundary, no longer look blank in custom libraries' tiles.
• Command-drag a message between two UML lifelines, selected or not, to slide it up or down along them, level and attached; the arrow keys do the same. Command-drag still moves a line with neither end attached, as before.
• Move several shapes together and a connector between two of them comes along whole, bends and all; rotate a shape and a connector with both ends on it turns too. A locked connector now keeps the shape it's joined to from turning, as it already did from moving.
• A right-angle connector you've reshaped from a shape's corner keeps your route instead of switching back to an automatic one. Visio connectors that start at the centre of an icon keep Visio's route too.
• The Transform panel now shows a group's position, size and angle, and you can type new values to move, resize or turn the whole group, which always keeps its proportions. Shapes meant to keep their proportions, such as pictures in some downloaded libraries, now keep them when you type a size too. The floating panel is now just wide enough for its fields.
• Anything locked now looks locked: select it and it has an orange dashed outline and no handles, whether it's locked itself or in a locked group, container or swimlanes. When a lock stops a move, what's locking it is outlined in orange too. Red is now kept for removing things and for serious warnings, so notes under fields, such as a slug that's already taken, are quiet grey text instead. Right-click a connector to lock or unlock it, or everything selected with it, such as UML lifelines and their messages; a locked connector's other right-click commands are greyed out.
• Buttons on the diagram, such as the + that adds a lane or table row and those for a connector's ends, now share one look: solid in your accent colour with a thin darker edge, so they stand out from your drawing even on a white page. The symbol is white, or near-black on a light accent colour such as yellow, orange or green, so it's always easy to read, and every button darkens when the pointer is over it.
• Bold, Italic and Underline on several selected shapes now make all of them bold, italic or underlined, as on any Mac, instead of flipping each one.
• The right-click Arrange submenu now offers Flip and Rotate 90°, Align for two or more shapes and Distribute for three or more.
• Big diagrams scroll and redraw much faster when you're zoomed in, because shapes and table cells off screen aren't drawn: a page of 5,000 labelled shapes now redraws in under a hundredth of a second instead of about a third of a second, and pages with tens of thousands of labels, or large tables out of view, stay just as quick. Starting a drag and opening the right-click menu are quicker on large diagrams too. On a very large diagram, clicking an empty spot or finishing a selection rectangle now responds at once instead of pausing for several seconds, and selecting a shape is much quicker with the Shape Properties panel open.
• Opening a diagram saved by a newer version of SimpleDiagrams, or pasting shapes copied from one, now asks you to update, instead of reporting an unsupported file or doing nothing.

Fixed

• The Slash line ending, which marks a BPMN default flow, now leans the way BPMN draws it, from top left to bottom right, in new and existing diagrams.
• Names, keywords and descriptions in custom libraries can now hold emoji such as 👩‍💻, flags, Persian half-spaces and right-to-left direction marks. Invisible characters pasted from elsewhere are left out, instead of stopping the library from saving.
• Dragging a library shape into another diagram's window that overlaps the first adds it only where you drop it, not also to the diagram you dragged from. Escape now always cancels the drag.
• Connectors on a flipped shape now attach where its artwork shows them, because connection points flip with the shape, and VoiceOver reads them where they're drawn. Diagrams made before this update open with those connectors on the flipped points.
• In a diagram you can only view, the right-click menus for shapes and connectors no longer offer changes they can't make, such as Delete, Lock or a line weight. Those show greyed out; Copy and Copy Style still work.
• Bring Forward and Send Backward no longer refuse, without saying why, to restack shapes behind a locked shape that stays where it is.
• Clicking a shape's name now selects the shape, and double-clicking the name edits it, as clicking the shape itself does.
• Right-clicking one of several selected connectors keeps them all selected, and a line weight, pattern or ending chosen from that menu changes them all, as one Undo step.
• Dragging the end of a thin shape, such as a bar, now only makes it longer, not thicker. A shape too thin for corner handles shows only its four side handles.
• In the Transform panel, a new width or height for a turned shape or group keeps its top-left corner in place, and a turned container no longer refuses a larger size. A shape under 12 points tall now accepts a new width.
• A right-angle connector from the edge of a large shape to a shape inside it now goes straight in, instead of looping out and back.
• Fit Artwork and exports no longer cut off a moved text box whose lines were broken the way Windows and some other apps break them.
• SimpleDiagrams now opens a new diagram when it starts with none to bring back, such as after a crash, a Force Quit or a restart with no diagram open, instead of sometimes showing no window at all.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.16 (build 40)

Before you update

• Diagrams saved by this version use a newer file format, so they need this version or later to open. If you share diagrams, ask the people you share with to update too. Diagrams from earlier versions open as before.

New

• 58 new shapes in the Biz library, taking it from 25 to 83: roles such as founder, engineer and designer; stand-ups, org charts and other team meetings; funding and finance; product delivery; growth metrics; and yen, yuan and Swiss franc coins beside the euro, dollar and pound. Search finds them by what they mean, not only by name.
• Right-Angle Connector, a new choice in the Connector tool, draws lines with square corners that find their own route between two shapes. A dashed line shows the route as you drag, and the connector re-routes when you move, resize or rotate a shape.
• Move part of a right-angle connector's route: select it, then drag any segment marked with a small bar. A dashed line shows where it will go. Reset Route in the right-click menu hands the route back to the app.
• Right-angle connectors go around shapes in their way. Turn Route Around Shapes off, in the right-click menu or the Stroke popover, for a direct route.

Improved

• All Biz shapes now have search terms, including the original 25. Searching for currency finds the euro, dollar and pound alongside the new coins.
• Connection points now appear as small dots while you draw a connector, and the one your connector will attach to fills in and gains a ring.
• Right-angle connectors turn with their group and keep their routing direction when you ungroup it. Reset Route recalculates the bends in that direction.
• Heavy dashed pages reuse their picture when nothing changes, and shapes and connectors outside the visible canvas no longer spend time drawing.

Fixed

• Very fine dash patterns can no longer overflow the drawing counter. Extremely detailed strokes appear solid while editing; their original patterns stay saved. PNG and PDF export report when a pattern is too detailed to render.
• Routing controls work for connectors inside selected groups and consistently respect locked selections. Rotated group controls include their connector bends.
• Sliding a rotated right-angle segment stays perpendicular to the segment when Snap to Grid is on.
• Extremely detailed grids show reduced detail with a notice; their saved spacing and snapping stay unchanged. PNG and PDF report excessive grid detail.
• Presentation and page previews guard against excessive dashed drawing too.
• Dotted and dashed page grids, such as the Engineering look, no longer slow the canvas down while you edit, and a dense grid on a large window draws reliably.
• In Dark Mode, black-and-white shapes in downloaded libraries and your own libraries now show in the Library panel as light lines on the dark cell, the way the built-in libraries do. Before, their black lines were hard to see. Shapes with colour, and photos, look the same as before.
• The X shape in the Biz library now shows its cross in a box, to match Check. It had been drawing as a solid block. Diagrams that already use it show the cross when you open them in this version.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.14 (build 38)

New

• Data Actions → Copy Table copies the Page Data table as you see it, with your find text, filter and sort order, so you can paste it into a spreadsheet without exporting a file. Choose all rows or only the selected shapes. The same commands are in the menu bar under Edit → Copy Page Data Table: press Control-Command-C for all rows, or Control-Shift-Command-C for the selected rows, while Page Data is showing.

Improved

• Page Data keeps your find text, filter and sort order when you move it between the dock and its own window.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.13 (build 37)

New

• Organisations can now license SimpleDiagrams with one key for all their people. Help → Your License Information… shows the organisation the licence belongs to and how many people it covers. Direct download only.
• IT teams can deploy SimpleDiagrams with a device-management tool such as Jamf, Intune or Munki. A configuration profile can supply the organisation’s licence key, so nobody has to type one, and people whose organisation has licensed SimpleDiagrams go straight to their diagrams without the licence agreement, trial or purchase windows. If the organisation’s key has expired or isn’t accepted, SimpleDiagrams offers no trial or purchase: unless that Mac already has a licence key or a running trial of its own, it opens view-only and asks you to contact your IT team. Direct download only.
• IT teams that deliver updates themselves can remove the Check for Updates… command with a configuration profile. Direct download only.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.12 (build 36)

New

• The built-in UI Flow library has 89 new shapes for sketching interfaces quickly, in the same hand-drawn style: individual controls such as buttons, fields, checkboxes, toggles, sliders, menus and tabs; phone and tablet screens, a keyboard and touch gestures; content blocks such as cards, tables and images; and shapes for AI features, including a prompt field, chat, sparkles and an assistant. Your existing diagrams are unchanged. Diagrams that use the new shapes need this version: an earlier version shows each one as a dashed box until you update.
• The Marker now draws like an art marker. Its ink is a little see-through and slightly uneven, darker along its edges and where the tip rests, and it deepens where strokes overlap. Choose a Bullet, Chisel or Brush tip from Marker Options. Marker ink looks the same in PNG, PDF and SVG exports. Earlier versions open these diagrams and show the strokes as plain lines; saving a diagram in an earlier version removes the ink.
• Settings › Marker lets you turn the ink’s grain, darker edges and pooling off. Turning grain off speeds up diagrams with many large marker strokes.

Improved

• Search in the Library panel now finds UI Flow shapes by what they are for as well as by name. Try “switch”, “login” or “checkout”.
• A pencil or marker stroke is no longer selected when you finish drawing it, so you can keep sketching without a selection box in the way.
• The Tool Palette’s pop-outs now share one look, with a small label at the top. The connector pop-out matches the others and shows an icon beside each connector type.
• Marker strokes no longer pick up the stroke texture chosen for pencil lines. To get a broad textured line, select a finished marker stroke and give it a texture.
• The pointer now shows the active tool: pencil, marker, eyedropper, magnifier, I-beam for text, or crosshair for shapes.
• The colour popover has a Color row with the current colour and its hex value, then Weight, Opacity and Texture. Double-click the colour chip to open the macOS colour picker.
• Opacity is always in view, with a slider and a percentage field. Picking another colour keeps it, and it fades shapes of different colours without changing their colours.
• Hue, Saturation and Brightness each have a field for an exact value.
• The fill, line and text popovers each remember their own tab.
• The selected texture has a clearer outline, especially in Dark Mode.
• With Pencil or Marker active, Weight in the stroke popover is that tool's weight.
• Clicking into a number field selects the whole value. The Transform fields are narrower.
• Manage Palettes has a clearer layout, with add and remove buttons under each list and Duplicate, Import and Export in an action menu.

Fixed

• The pale backdrop that appears while you edit a shape’s text now fits the text area exactly, instead of spilling above and below its border.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.11 (build 34)

New

• Three more line endings for connectors and lines: Circle Plus, Cross and Half Arrow. A diagram that uses one of them needs this version or later to open.

Improved

• Text on a connector is easier to read. The line now leaves a small opening around its label instead of running through the words, on the canvas and in PNG, PDF and SVG exports.
• Hollow line endings are now truly hollow. The line stops at a hollow arrow, diamond or circle instead of running through it, on the canvas and in PNG, PDF and SVG exports.
• Line ending names are clearer: “Solid Arrow” is now Hollow Arrow, and “Solid Circle” and “Solid Diamond” are now Filled Circle and Filled Diamond. Your diagrams are unchanged.
• Help ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts now opens in its own window, so you can keep it beside your diagram. Shortcuts are grouped by menu in easy-to-scan columns, with each key shown as a keycap.

Fixed

• A Curved point on a connector that also has corners now bends evenly on both sides, instead of bulging on one side and running straight on the other.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.10 (build 33)

Improved

• Deleting, cutting, copying or duplicating a shape now leaves its connectors alone. A connector attached to a deleted shape stays where it was drawn, and a connector is copied or deleted only when you select it too. If you prefer connectors to go with their shape, turn on Delete connectors when deleting shapes under Connectors in Settings.
• Complex SVG artwork no longer freezes the canvas while it is being drawn for the first time; it appears when it is ready.
• SimpleDiagrams now declines to import an SVG that would be very slow to draw, such as one with hundreds of blurred or masked shapes, and tells you how to simplify it. Artwork already in your documents and libraries is not affected.
• SVG artwork can now include small embedded PNG textures, such as a stone or paper grain. SimpleDiagrams removes any hidden image information when you import the file, and shrinks a very large embedded image.
• Library shapes now have separate Details and Appearance tabs. Details shows whether the artwork is SimpleDiagrams Native, SVG, PNG or JPEG; Appearance holds its default paint.
• New libraries open on Library Settings with the name ready to replace.
• Empty libraries show clearer artwork instructions in the editor and a small drop hint in the Shapes sidebar while Library Settings is open.
• Library Settings now makes clear that its initial colours choice applies to shapes placed from that library.
• Importing an image now accepts PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, HEIC, WebP and BMP, and tells you so when a file is something else. Formats such as Photoshop and camera RAW are no longer read; export those as PNG or JPEG first.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.9 (build 32)

Improved

• Press Control-B with a text box or labelled shape selected to toggle its bold text.
• Drag a text box from anywhere inside it to move it. Double-click to edit its text, or select it and press Return.

Fixed

• Connector ending previews now face left or right to match the selected line at each end.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.8 (build 31)

Before you update

• Diagrams saved with this version can't be opened by SimpleDiagrams 5.0.7 or earlier, because they can carry a grid style those versions don't know about. Update every Mac you use before sharing a diagram between them.

New

• Give each page its own style of grid. View ▸ Grid Settings… now offers Lines, Graph Paper, Drafting, Dots, Crosses and Engineering, and you can adjust the minor and major lines, the marks where lines cross, the colour and the strength. A preview shows the grid over your page background, and Use as Default makes it the grid new documents start with.
• Three new white paper backgrounds: Handmade Paper, Fiber Paper and Watercolor Paper. They're plain white so you can tint them any colour.
• Export a diagram with its grid. Tick Include Grid in the Export panel for PNG, PDF and SVG.

Improved

• The grid and the page background now live in one place. Page Background has a Grid tab and an Image & Color tab, both with a preview of the page as it will look, and Done applies both as a single step you can undo. The sheet remembers the size you resize it to. The None background is now a box with a slash, so it's easier to tell from Blank White.
• The grid-style backgrounds (Basic Grid, Graph Paper 1 to 3, Dots and Blueprint) are gone, because the grid now does that job with spacing and a style you choose. A diagram that already uses one keeps it.
• To apply a background, select it and click Done, or double-click it. Dragging a background onto the diagram is no longer available.
• A page remembers whether its grid is shown, so a grid you hide stays hidden when you reopen the document. Show Grid can now be undone.
• Choosing a background no longer changes whether the grid is shown. The preview shows the two together, and No Grid on the Grid tab hides it.
• When you zoom far out, the finest grid lines drop away instead of greying the canvas.
• Click standalone text once to edit it, and use its outer border and handles to move, resize, or rotate it. Text Position offers Top, Middle, and Bottom for standalone text, with Above and Below also available for shape labels.

Fixed

• An SVG you turn into a shape with Convert to Editable Shape now starts with a 1-point line, like the built-in library shapes, instead of a heavier 2-point one. SVGs you add to your own libraries do the same. A line weight you've picked in the toolbar still applies, and shapes already in your diagrams don't change.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.7 (build 30)

New

• Connectors have seven more endings, including the database cardinality set: One, One and Only One, Zero or One, One or Many and Zero or Many, plus Filled Arrow and Slash. Diagrams that use them need SimpleDiagrams 5.0.7 or later to open.
• Change a connector's endings right on the canvas. Select a connector and click the small button beside either end, or right-click an end, to pick from every ending. Both can be turned off under Connectors in Settings.
• Choose the colours each library's shapes start with. Open Edit Library…, choose Library Settings, and under When a shape is placed set Initial colors to Let SimpleDiagrams decide, Keep the shape’s default fill and stroke colors or Use currently selected fill and stroke colors. The choice is yours for any library and is kept on your Mac.
• Edit ▸ Apply Current Colors (⌥⌘A, also in the right-click menu) gives the selected shapes your current fill, stroke and line width. Edit ▸ Reset to Library Colors (⌥⌘R) puts a library shape back to its library's colours.

Improved

• The connector start and end style menus now open as a compact grid, so every ending is visible at once. The right-click Start Ending and End Ending menus use the same grid.
• Library shapes that come with colours of their own, such as the Azure and AWS icons, now keep them when you place them, even after you've chosen your own fill or stroke colour. Plain black-and-white shapes still take your current colours. Hold Option while dragging a shape out of a library for the other result.

Fixed

• The Edit Library window can no longer be dragged so small that its contents are cut off at the edges, and a shape's settings are no longer cramped against the edges when the window first opens.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.6 (build 29)

Before you update

• Direct download only: licence keys sent before 1 October 2026 no longer unlock SimpleDiagrams. Your current key is in your account at simplediagrams.com/desktop/licences/, or write to support@simplediagrams.com and we will send it. Trials are not affected.

Improved

• Shape data exports are now more compact and optimized, reducing file size with no visible change to functionality.
• Shape data exports now include each shape's type, such as "Bromeliad" or "Rectangle", matching the Type column in the Page Data table, so every row says what the shape is. The JSON file is laid out consistently and is now format_version 4.

Fixed

• The Page Data table stays quick on pages with hundreds of shapes. Sorting by a column and scrolling to the end now take a fraction of a second, where they could take several seconds on a page of 500 shapes. The table is now a standard Mac table, so you can drag a column's edge to resize it.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.5 (build 26)

New

• Downloaded libraries can now come with shape data already set up. Place a shape and its fields appear in the Shape Data panel, ready for a page table or a CSV export. Facts the library supplies, such as a plant's botanical name, stay read-only; the other fields are yours to fill in. Libraries like this need SimpleDiagrams 5.0.5 or later; earlier versions ask you to update when you import one.
• When a downloaded library allows it, choose your own starting fill, line colour and line width for its shapes under Default Appearance in the library editor. New placements use your choice, shapes already in your diagrams keep theirs, and library updates never overwrite it. Library Setting puts back the library's own colours and line width.

Improved

• Edit > Inspect Selected Artwork is now Repair Selected Artwork, and it only lights up when a selected shape's artwork is missing or didn't come across from an older document, so there's something to fix. The Inspect Artwork item is gone from the Library's right-click menu; the library editor shows everything it did.
• Adding an SVG to your own library now asks, as dropping one on the canvas does, whether to Keep as SVG Artwork or Convert to Editable Shape. Adding several at once? Tick Use this choice for the other SVG files to answer once. SVGs that can't be converted can now be kept as artwork instead of being refused.
• One-colour SVG icons now follow the fill colour when converted, starting out black, so fills and textures work on them. Previously the whole icon took the line colour.
• In the library editor, right-click a shape in the Shapes list for Copy Shape, Paste Shape, Replace Artwork… and Delete Shape. Press Delete to remove the selected shape, and ⌘C and ⌘V to copy and paste shapes.
• Default Appearance in the library editor now shows a live preview of the shape as you change its colours, with the colour, line width and texture controls neatly lined up.
• Saving large diagrams no longer pauses your work: saving happens in the background, and artwork that hasn't changed is carried over instantly instead of being written again. Saved diagram files are also noticeably smaller.
• SimpleDiagrams warns you when a diagram is getting close to the most it can save, and explains what to do if a save is refused.
• Pencil and marker drawings are stored far more compactly with no visible difference, so sketch-heavy diagrams stay small and quick to open and save.
• Moving, nudging, resizing and rotating large selections is much faster.
• The Overview panel and page thumbnails stay smooth while you scroll and zoom, even on pages with large photos, and use less memory.
• When an image can't be added because the diagram has reached its artwork limit, the message now says so, instead of reporting that the image couldn't be read.
• Undo keeps working with large images: if replaced or deleted images would hold too much memory, Undo and Redo history is cleared to free it, and VoiceOver announces it. The change you just made can still be undone.
• Duplicate Library… is now the one way to make your own copy of a library, in the library menus and in the library editor. The copy is named “(user copy)” and works exactly like a library you made yourself: add SVG or image artwork, change sizes and colours, and edit its shape data. Shapes whose shape data the original library locked keep that lock in the copy. Copy Library and Paste Library have been removed. A duplicate starts from the library as you see it: your own colours, connection points, text areas and shape data come with it.
• Mac App Store: SimpleDiagrams is now a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, with no trial or in-app purchase. Everything works as soon as it is installed. The version from simplediagrams.com still starts with a free 7-day trial.
• The Page Background chooser can be resized, frames its list of backgrounds with a scroll bar that stays visible, and has a Hide default grid checkbox (ticked by default) that turns off the canvas grid when you apply a background, so the grid no longer draws over paper and image backgrounds.

Fixed

• Libraries you made yourself are editable again. After updating to 5.0.4, libraries created in earlier versions, and copies of libraries, could open as read-only installed libraries.
• Libraries you imported from SimpleDiagrams 4 are now yours to edit.
• Saving or updating a library now simply replaces it. Earlier versions kept a hidden copy of the whole library on every save, update and removal, which used growing amounts of disk space and could eventually stop libraries from saving, updating or being removed at all. Those hidden copies are cleared when you open this version. A library you removed in 5.0.0–5.0.4 is not lost: it comes back hidden, and you can show it again or remove it for good in Manage Libraries.
• Remove Library… now deletes the library from this Mac, along with your personal edits to its shapes, after asking you to confirm. Diagrams keep their artwork. The separate Delete Permanently command has been removed; use Export Library first if you want to keep a copy.
• Personal edits and records left behind by libraries deleted in earlier versions, and temporary files left by an interrupted save or import, are cleaned up automatically.
• Add to Library… now lists only your own libraries, so it can no longer change a library you downloaded and block that library's updates.
• Cancel and Escape in the library editor now ask before discarding unsaved changes.
• In the library editor, deleting or pasting a shape can be undone with Edit ▸ Undo, deleting a shape selects its neighbour instead of jumping to the first shape, and shapes can no longer be deleted, pasted or reordered while artwork is importing or the library is saving, which could lose the change.
• Exporting all pages or a page range as PNG or SVG, and Export Library…, now save correctly to the folder you choose.
• Scrolling with a traditional mouse wheel now moves the canvas at a normal speed instead of a few points per notch.
• Tabbing through the Transform, Font Size or Line Weight fields no longer nudges shapes, adds Undo steps or marks the document as edited when you haven't typed anything.
• Dragging in the macOS Colors panel now makes one Undo step instead of dozens, so it no longer pushes your earlier changes out of Undo history.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.4 (build 25)

Direct download only. App Store availability is pending.

Before you update

• The updated licence agreement appears the first time you open this version. If you haven't started a trial, accepting it starts your free seven-day trial, with no payment and no automatic charge. Existing trials and licences are kept.

New

• Shape Data: add fields such as owner, cost or status to shapes. Edit the selected shape in the Shape Data panel (Option-Command-7), compare a whole page in the Page Data table (Option-Command-8), and export as CSV or JSON.
• Shared Fields: set up fields once for a whole library on the Shared Fields tab of Library Settings, with each shape's own starting values.
• Right-click any library shape and choose Edit Shape Data…. Changes to packaged and installed libraries are kept on this Mac, so library updates still install.
• Keep placed shapes up to date: a notice tells you when a library has changed. Syncing brings in new fields, defaults, connection points and text position, keeps the values you entered, and can be undone.
• Adjust any library shape: move its connection points, and set where text sits on installed shapes by dragging the text area's corners. Double-click to add a point and Shift-click to remove one.
• Search Online Libraries in the Library menu finds more shape libraries on simplediagrams.com.

Improved

• One library window: Library Settings, a shape list with thumbnails, and Settings, Connection Points, Text Region and Shape Data tabs, with one Save. The window shows whether a library is packaged, installed or your own.
• Installed libraries stay as published. Use Copy Library to make your own version.
• Hold Command and scroll to zoom in and out around the pointer, as in other drawing apps. Scrolling on its own still moves around the canvas.
• Place a library shape by dragging it onto the canvas, or double-click it to place it in the middle of the view. A single click now just selects a shape; press Return or Space to place it in the middle of the view.
• Quick Styles remember dashed and dotted line patterns.
• Tidier Properties and Shape Properties panels.
• Tooltips are easier to read and appear sooner.
• Unavailable controls look unavailable, and panels have a faint gray background in Light Mode.
• Large downloaded libraries open and import faster.

Fixed

• The color popup in Shape Properties no longer shifts when you pick a color, double-clicking a color applies it, and Done and Manage Palettes respond again.
• Clicking the locked Library panel opens the trial and purchase options, even when the panel is floating.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.3 (build 24)

Direct download only. App Store availability is pending.

This update fixes the connector line-ending menus and changes how the free trial starts and ends.

Improved

• When your trial ends, the Trial ended · View only button at the bottom of the window now glows gently so it's easy to find. It stays still if Reduce Motion is on.
• Updated the trial ended state.
• Updated the start of the trial. The direct download offers your free trial when SimpleDiagrams opens, and the tools stay unavailable until it starts.
• A library made for a newer version of SimpleDiagrams now says “This library is for a newer version of SimpleDiagrams” and, when the library names it, which version to download, instead of reporting the library as invalid.
• Convert to Editable Shape now follows the color markings in SimpleDiagrams shape SVGs, so parts meant to keep their own colors, like the panels of a signal flag, stay as drawn. This also applies when you add such an SVG to your own library. Other SVGs convert as before.
• A misspelt or misplaced color marking no longer switches the whole SVG back to guessed colors. That one marking is left out, the part it was on keeps its drawn color, and the import sheet says so. The library packager still refuses such a file so the typo can be fixed at the source.

Fixed

• The connector start and end style menus show each line ending again instead of blank rows.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.2 (build 23)

Direct download only. App Store availability is pending.

New

• Customize where connectors attach to an individual shape. Choose Edit Connection Points from the Edit menu or the shape's context menu, or press Command-Option-E. Move, add, or delete points within the shape's bounds; attached connectors follow moved points. Undo reverses each change, and Done, Escape, or a double-click outside finishes editing. Adding on an existing point selects it instead of creating a duplicate.
• Shape libraries can now carry short descriptions of each shape. Descriptions stay with the library when you import, edit, copy or export it. Displaying them in a Shape Info window is planned for a later update.
• Libraries downloaded from simplediagrams.com are checked offline before import. A matching signature and complete package inventory identify the download as official. Other libraries ask “This is not an official SimpleDiagrams library. Do you want to import it anyway?” with Cancel and Import Anyway. An imported library becomes an editable custom copy and does not retain an official badge.

Improved

• Export now previews your diagram with its background, crop and margins, and shows output dimensions and file counts. Review each page before exporting, with a thin preview border aligned with its caption and page navigation spaced apart from Cancel and Export. Your format, scale and background choices are remembered after export.
• The Tool Palette now follows the panel appearance choice, with white tools on its dark background. Panels follow your Mac by default; you can still choose Light or Dark under View > Panel Appearance.
• Collapsed panels now have a single divider between their headers.
• Drag a library package anywhere in a document window to import it. The whole window dims and shows the import prompt until you drop or move the file away.
• Find each panel’s docking, floating, and Show/Hide commands together under Window > Panels. Existing keyboard shortcuts still work, and Show restores the panel’s previous position.
• Dark-mode Library cells are a little lighter against a darker background. Choose separate light- and dark-mode background colors in Settings, or restore the defaults at any time.
• Help now has a View Online Documentation button that opens the guide in your browser. The Help menu opens Release Notes in your browser and distinguishes Your License Information from SimpleDiagrams Licenses.
• Importing a library made for a newer version now explains that you need to update SimpleDiagrams before trying again.
• Improved SVG parser: more artwork now imports successfully. Unsupported visual effects are left out while the underlying drawing is preserved. SVGs with unsupported styling can also be converted when usable editable paths remain. Converted drawings with a light background keep their outlines visible.

Fixed

• Changing export options preserves the filename you entered.
• PNG and PDF exports keep cropped artwork out of physical page margins.
• Export menus keep unavailable selection and page choices disabled, and invalid previews no longer announce outdated dimensions to accessibility tools.
• Shapes in the six built-in libraries now start with a one-point line weight. Library previews keep that weight consistent for wide and tall shapes.
• Hex color edits now apply when you press Return or leave the field, without a separate Set button. Invalid values show guidance and preserve the current color; Escape discards an unfinished edit.
• Escape now clears selected items on the canvas when no edit or operation is active.

SimpleDiagrams 5.0.0 (build 14)

New

• Initial SimpleDiagrams 5 release for Mac, with a native macOS editor, reusable shape libraries, multipage documents, legacy import, and PNG, SVG, and PDF export.