Releases

What changed, and when. Every version since the first.

The Android app is open source. The full commit history is on GitHub.

Looking for what is coming next? See the roadmap.

1. 1.0.13 9 October 2026

   Added

   • Select and copy text. Long-press in a paragraph, list, quote or heading to select text inside that block, with the usual handles and Copy. Code blocks and tables stay scrollable sideways and are not selectable. A second finger ends the selection, so pinch zoom still works.
   • Formatting bar above the keyboard in the editor: bold, lists, links and more. It can be turned off in Settings.
   • Lists and quotes continue when you press Enter in the editor.
   • The editor works with TalkBack: it reads the text and its file name, speaks typing and deleting, and moves by character, word and line.
   • Diff code blocks tint added lines green and removed lines red across the whole line, on screen and in PDFs.

   Changed

   • Table cells show bold, italics, links and maths.
   • Numbered lists keep their own style: 1) stays 1), as well as 1..
   • The reader leaves a fifth of a screen after the last block, not a whole empty screen.
   • HTML <code> and <kbd> look like inline code.
   • Plain .txt files open in the editor without Markdown colours.
   • A very long code block (over 10,000 characters) is shown without colours, so it opens without a freeze.
   • TalkBack: the Welcome and Settings controls read correctly, and the jump buttons can be reached.
   • A note opened from a file manager or another app whose folder Android does not name now offers Pick folder to show its pictures.
   • PilcrowMD is listed when a file manager shares a .md file with a generic file type.

   Fixed

   • Pinch zoom keeps the text under your fingers, also while they move, and a paragraph pushed off the screen during a pinch comes back at its normal size.
   • Saving keeps a lone carriage return before a Windows line ending exactly as it was.
   • Save As keeps the editor open with its undo history.
   • Search: counts and highlights match what is shown, words in very deeply nested notes are found, a match in the summary line of a closed details section opens it, the search field takes focus when search opens, and an unfinished search no longer shows results after you close it or open another file.
   • Maths: spaced \ce coefficients, \tag equation numbers, and Greek or Cyrillic inside \text{} render.
   • Code blocks: common language-name aliases such as python3, kt and yml get their colours, and in a ```markdown block a quote line indented after the > is no longer coloured as code.
   • PDF export: links and task boxes use the light teal on every device, and heading rules run to the edge of the text.
   • The contents list keeps inline code and line breaks in heading names.
   • A table-of-contents jump runs once, not again the next time the note opens.
   • An open details section at the end of a note no longer leaves a tall blank.
   • A long run of plain text with no blank line no longer freezes the reader.
   • Opening a document while the app restores the last one no longer brings the old one back.

2. 1.0.12 5 October 2026

   Added

   • Pictures inside notes. Pictures stored next to your note show inside it. The first time, the app asks once for access to the note’s folder (Tap to show). Pictures embedded in the file show too. Pictures from the web are never downloaded: they get a placeholder box. The app keeps no copies of your pictures.
   • Links inside a document jump to their heading, including Chinese and other non-Latin headings. A link to a heading that does not exist does nothing, and web links still open the browser. Tapping a link can no longer crash the app.
   • Code colours for 19 more languages: bash, TypeScript, Rust, Ruby, PHP, PowerShell, batch, Julia, Dockerfile, GraphQL, HTTP, CSV, regex, TOML, INI, JSONC, Lua, Perl and R.
   • PDF export prints code on a light panel, in colour, with readable inline code. Exported PDFs no longer have dark code panels.

   Changed

   • The jump-to-top and jump-to-bottom buttons hide while you read and appear while you scroll, so they no longer cover text. With TalkBack on they stay visible.
   • Light theme: clearer colours for links, task boxes, editor links and footnote markers.
   • Long file names in Recent and in the Recover unsaved files dialog show their start, ”…” and their last 8 characters on one line, so draft-v2 and draft-v3 look different.
   • TalkBack reads each Settings switch as one item, with its on or off state.
   • Welcome screen: the logo and the Open button stay in place.

   Fixed

   • Code blocks no longer show another block’s text after fast scrolling.
   • The search bar no longer keeps an old result after you open another file.
   • Maths: cases blocks get proper column spacing, and a formula that cannot be drawn is shown as its source, wrapped over as many lines as it needs, instead of running off the screen.
   • A ```yaml code block is no longer shown as the document-info card.
   • The contents list, search and footnote links land on the right block. They could land one block off.

3. 1.0.11 1 October 2026

   Added

   • GitHub-style callouts. A quote that starts with [!NOTE], [!TIP], [!IMPORTANT], [!WARNING] or [!CAUTION] is shown as a coloured callout with its icon and title, as on GitHub. Any other quote stays a plain quote.
   • Collapsible sections. <details> with a <summary> is shown as a row you tap to open and close. It starts closed unless the tag says open. Search, the headings drawer and footnote links open a closed section when they jump into it. Exported PDFs print every section open.

   Fixed

   • Files in older text formats are never overwritten. Opening a file saved as Windows-1252, Latin-1 or UTF-16 and pressing Save used to write it back as UTF-8, with a replacement character (�) in place of every byte the reader could not decode. Now the file opens with a notice, Save offers a new file (Save a copy), and the original is never touched, including when you pick the original again from Recent. The copy still shows � where the original had characters PilcrowMD could not read.
   • Opening a file can no longer replace a document you are editing without asking. If a file arrived from another app, or an older open finished late, while you had unsaved changes, it could replace your document. You are now asked to save or discard first, and when two opens overlap, the one you started last wins.
   • Text typed during a save is no longer lost or marked as saved. Words typed while a save was still writing could be dropped by Save and close, or the document could be marked saved without them. The document now stays open with your new text, and asks you to save or discard it before closing.
   • A keystroke can no longer land in the wrong file. A change typed in the instant another file opened could be written into the newly opened file, and a later Save would have saved it there. Such a change is now dropped.
   • A document cannot be closed while it is being saved. The save still reports “Saved” when it finishes.
   • A file that fails to open leaves the open document exactly as it was. Before, a failure part way through could leave the new file’s settings, headings or scroll position applied to the old document.
   • Maths follows the reading size. Equations stayed at 100 % when you changed the text size in Settings, while everything around them grew or shrank. They now scale with the rest of the text, on screen and in exported PDFs.
   • Tall formulas are no longer cut off in exported PDFs. An integral with limits, a matrix or a sum with limits could be clipped and drawn over the lines around it. The reader on screen was not affected.
   • A formula that calls itself no longer hangs the app. A \newcommand whose body uses itself kept a background thread busy and used up memory on screen, and made Export PDF wait for ever. It now shows its source, like any formula that cannot be drawn.
   • A document nested very deeply no longer crashes the app. Quotes or lists nested more than 100 levels deep are shown as plain text, in the reader and in exported PDFs. Your file is not changed.

4. 1.0.10 25 September 2026

   Added

   • A setting to wrap long lines in code blocks. Settings → Wrap long lines in code blocks. With it on, a long line in a code block wraps inside the block in the reader, instead of scrolling sideways. Off by default – side-scrolling stays exactly as it was unless you turn this on. The editor already wraps, and exported PDFs already wrap code, so neither changes. Requested by HuevosKicker. It is off by default because unoukujou asked for side-scrolling to stay.

   Changed

   • Headings are sized as a clear, even scale. The top headings are a little smaller and the lower ones larger, so no heading is ever smaller than the body text: H1 to H6 now run 29, 23, 21, 19, 18 and 17 sp, where H5 and H6 used to be smaller than a paragraph. Headings also get more room above them and a little below. Pinch-to-zoom scales headings and text together, as before. Exported PDFs use the same sizes.
   • The light theme is light all the way through. In the light theme, code blocks, inline code and a diagram shown as source used to keep the dark theme’s dark background inside the cream page. They now use light backgrounds with readable colours. The headings drawer and the shade behind it are light too, where before they stayed dark, and footnote markers have their own colour. The dark theme and exported PDFs are unchanged.

   Fixed

   • Markdown code blocks are highlighted. A ```markdown block used to render in one flat colour. Headings, emphasis, links, list markers and inline code are now coloured. Other languages gain colour for tokens that were left plain, such as CSS selectors, regular expressions and built-ins. Reported by HuevosKicker.
   • Diff blocks are highlighted. ```diff and ```patch blocks now show added lines in green, removed lines in red, and @@ hunk headers in their own colour. Exported PDFs are unchanged by this and the entry above. Reported by HuevosKicker.
   • Turning the phone no longer re-opens the file you launched the app with. If Pilcrow was opened from another app with Open with, that file was opened again every time the screen rotated or the system switched between light and dark mode. On a document you had not edited, it replaced whatever you had opened since, with no warning. On an edited document, you were asked whether to discard your changes for a file you had not asked to open. The launch file is now opened once.
   • Opening a file from another app now opens that file, not the last one you had open. If Pilcrow was not already running, Open with on a file often showed the file you had open last time instead, because the app’s reopening of that last file finished after the new one and replaced it. The file you open now takes priority over reopening the last one.
   • With Open in edit mode on, opening a document no longer shows the reader first. It used to appear in the reader for a moment before switching to the editor, and on a large file the app could pause briefly while it prepared a view it was about to throw away. Right after the app starts, the reader can still show for a moment before the editor.
   • While Pilcrow reopens your last document, the buttons you cannot use yet now look disabled. Open MD File, Create MD File, Browse all files and your recent files are dimmed until it has finished. Before, they looked normal but did nothing when tapped.
   • A metadata card that falls back to plain text keeps its own look. If the reading font fails to load, the card at the top of a document with front matter shows its text plainly, as designed. It could also pick up a code block’s monospace font and background and lose its line spacing. It now keeps the card’s own background and spacing and uses the standard font.

5. 1.0.9 21 September 2026

   Fixed

   • Saving a copy can no longer attach the new file to the wrong document. If another document opened while Save a copy was still writing – a file arriving from another app, or discarding changes to open a pending one – the new file’s name and location were attached to whichever document had just appeared, rather than the one whose text had been written. The next save then wrote that document over the copy you had just made, destroying it. The copy itself was always written correctly; it was the next save that did the damage. Saving a copy now attaches the new location only to the document whose text actually went to disk.
   • Starting to open a file no longer unlocks the controls during a save. The check that stops a second save, a close or an export from starting mid-write shared its state with file loading, so beginning to open a document switched every one of those guards back on while the write was still running. Each guard now reads a dedicated flag that only a write can hold.
   • The system Back button no longer closes a file while it is being saved. The toolbar’s close button was already disabled during a save; Back was not, so it could close the document mid-write – after which the file you had just closed was added back to your recent files and reopened on the next launch. Back now does nothing during a save, exactly as the close button does. Dismissing search or the drawer with Back is unaffected.

6. 1.0.8 18 September 2026

   Added

   • You can start a new document without finding a file first. The welcome screen has a second button, Create MD File, which opens a blank document straight in the editor. Write first, then save it wherever you like – the file is created when you save, not before.
   • A setting to open documents ready to write. Settings → Open in edit mode. With it on, a document opens in the editor instead of the reader, so writing no longer costs a tap on every file. Off by default, and the reader is still one tap away.

   Fixed

   • Pinch-to-zoom in the reader no longer leaves blocks at different sizes. While your fingers were still on the screen, headings and paragraphs could drift apart – a title could even end up smaller than before you started – and everything then snapped to one size the moment you let go. Text now grows and shrinks together throughout the gesture, so what you see while pinching is what you get when you release. Reading size only; your file is never touched.
   • Right-to-left text in the editor now starts at the right edge. Arabic and other right-to-left lines were laid out from the left, which is the wrong side of the screen to begin reading on. The characters themselves were always in the correct order – only the alignment of the row was wrong. Left-to-right lines are unchanged, and so are your file’s contents. Reported and fixed by yshalsager (Youssif Shaaban Alsager).
   • A document you start while your last file is still opening is no longer overwritten. When Pilcrow reopened your most recent file at startup, the welcome screen stayed fully usable while that file was still being read. You could tap Create MD File and begin writing – and the moment the old file finished loading it took the screen, silently discarding what you had just typed. The screen now tells you a document is opening and waits: Open, Create MD File, Browse all files and the recent files become available again as soon as it has finished. Only those few seconds are affected, and nothing already saved to disk is touched.

7. 1.0.7 8 September 2026

   Fixed

   • Tapping a footnote now lands on the footnote. It used to stop about a screen short of the definition, which looked like the jump half-working – and because a footnote definition is always the last thing in a document, this happened to every footnote in every document. The definition you asked for is now at the top of the screen, and is briefly highlighted so your eye finds it.
   • Footnote markers are easier to tap. The raised number is small, and a tap that just missed it did nothing. A near miss now counts. The number itself is unchanged in size – only the area that responds to your thumb grew.
   • Your recent files are visible when you open the app. With a few files in the list, the RECENT heading and the list itself sat below the bottom of the screen in portrait, so every launch began with a scroll. They are now in view, and the “Open MD File” button stays fully on screen.

8. 1.0.6 2 September 2026

   Changed

   • The app is now called PilcrowMD. The name under the icon and the wordmark on the welcome screen both change. The icon itself, the app’s identity on your device and your files are unaffected – this is a name change and nothing else.
   • The paragraph mark behind the welcome wordmark sits higher, and is back to its original size. It had been enlarged and moved down, which left it crossing the wordmark in portrait and running below the bottom of the screen in landscape.

   Fixed

   • The “Open MD File” button could sit completely off screen with the phone held sideways, with nothing to indicate it was there. The space above the button now gives way when the screen is short, so the button stays reachable in landscape.

9. 1.0.5 25 August 2026

   No user-facing changes – the app behaves exactly as 1.0.4.

   Changed

   • The complete corresponding source for this release is published.
   • The Gradle distribution is pinned by SHA-256 checksum, so the build verifies the contents of the toolchain it downloads and not only its URL – a prerequisite for reproducible builds.
   • Store listing metadata is now tracked in the repository alongside the source.

10. 1.0.4 24 August 2026

    Added

    • Footnotes – [^1] references and [^1]: … definitions now render, with tap-to-jump and a link back to the reference. Definitions render in place; references renumber 1..n by first use.
    • Plain text files – .txt files open in the reader, with a per-file long-line overflow toggle.
    • Chemistry formulas – \ce{…} (mhchem) notation renders inside math.

    Fixed

    • A long-standing freeze when opening large files. Line-ending detection scanned the document twice with a regex on the main thread, which degraded quadratically – a 1.3 MB file could block the app for tens of seconds and a 3 MB file for minutes. Detection is now a single linear pass off the main thread. Present since 1.0.0.
    • A crash when entering the editor on some devices, caused by the shared editor view being re-attached while still parented.
    • Inline code and raw HTML were silently dropped inside table cells in every previous release. Table cell rendering now recurses into unrecognised nodes by default rather than discarding them.
    • Search match counts in documents containing math no longer over-count.

11. 1.0.3 19 August 2026

    Build metadata removed from the APK so F-Droid can reproduce the build byte-for-byte. No functional changes.

12. 1.0.2 19 August 2026

    Fixed

    • An unrenderable paragraph no longer takes the whole document down. One rendering path was missing the guard the others had, so a single paragraph that failed to render could bring down the reader instead of just itself. It now shows a short placeholder in place of that paragraph and the rest of the document renders normally.

    Changed

    • Crash reports from the store now arrive with readable stack traces. Build-only change: the app’s behaviour, size and performance are unchanged.

13. 1.0.1 24 July 2026

    Added

    • Inline math with single dollars – $…$ now renders inline LaTeX alongside the existing $$…$$ form (currency-aware, so $5 and $10 stays plain text).
    • Save As – save the open document to a new location, including brand-new documents that don’t have a file on disk yet.
    • Branded launch splash – a brand-dark splash screen in both light and dark appearances.
    • Pinch-to-zoom in the reader – live text reflow anchored at the gesture focal point, kept in sync with the Settings text size.
    • Clear-Recents confirmation – clearing the Recents list now asks first.
    • GitHub-integration teaser in Settings – a roadmap note with an email interest link. It only opens your email app; nothing is sent unless you tap send.
    • Crash-recovery escape hatch – if recovered unsaved changes can never be committed back to the original file, the app now offers a way out instead of blocking the document forever.

    Fixed

    • In-document search counts matches in the rendered text, and the reader makes room for the keyboard while searching.
    • The close-without-saving confirmation dialog now survives device rotation.
    • Back navigates within the app instead of exiting it.
    • The file picker soft-filters to Markdown files, and its Browse-all fallback makes every file selectable.
    • Status and navigation bars follow the app theme, so their icons stay legible in the light theme.
    • The active Reader/Editor mode is unmistakable in the toolbar (accent chip on the active side).

14. 1.0.0 16 June 2026

    The first release: the initial v1 feature set.

    Added

    • Native Markdown reader – GitHub-Flavored Markdown rendered to native Android views (no WebView): headings, lists, task lists, tables, blockquotes, code blocks with syntax highlighting, links, and images-as-alt-text on the offline path.
    • LaTeX math rendering (inline and block) and opt-in cloud Mermaid diagrams (off by default; degrades to a code block when disabled or unavailable).
    • YAML frontmatter shown as a metadata card rather than a raw code block.
    • Editor built on the Sora editor with Markdown syntax awareness.
    • PDF export of the rendered document, including long-line wrapping for code.
    • Table of contents drawer that jumps to headings.
    • Settings: font sets (Source Serif 4 / JetBrains Mono), separate reader/editor zoom, theme, and the optional Mermaid toggle.
    • Storage Access Framework integration for scoped, user-granted file access.
    • Dark and light themes driven entirely by a design-token layer.

    Safeguards

    • Atomic saves – a failed save aborts cleanly and never leaves a truncated or corrupted file.
    • Round-trip fidelity – saving writes back exactly what you wrote; line endings (LF/CRLF) and frontmatter are preserved, with one documented bound: a file with mixed line endings is written back uniformly in its dominant style.
    • Crash-resistant rendering – unsupported or malformed syntax degrades gracefully instead of throwing or mangling surrounding content.

    Privacy

    • No accounts, analytics, ads, or telemetry. The reading path makes no network requests by default; cloud Mermaid rendering is the only optional networked feature and is off by default.