LinwoodButterfly Dreamy Duskywing (2.6.2-rc.0) released
🎨 Powerful, minimalistic, cross-platform, opensource note-taking app
Butterfly 2.6.2-rc.0 is here!
This release comes a little earlier than expected, mainly because of an important security issue affecting Flutter applications.
But besides the security update, there are also several new features and improvements, including an experimental floating editor layout, more collaboration options, better backups and improvements to PDF handling.
Highlights:
- 🔒 Important TLS security update
- 🪟 Experimental floating editor layout
- 🤝 More collaboration synchronization options
- 💾 Better backups and automatic thumbnails
- 📄 PDF and document search improvements
- 🛠️ Bug fixes and build improvements
Important TLS security update
A critical TLS security issue has recently been discovered that potentially affects Butterfly on Android, Windows and Linux.
The issue originates from compromised eMudhra certificate authority keys. Under certain conditions, an attacker who can intercept network traffic could use a forged HTTPS certificate to impersonate a trusted server.
For Butterfly, this is particularly important when using WebDAV or Nextcloud synchronization, where sensitive documents and authentication credentials may be transmitted over HTTPS.
Even though operating systems and browsers have already received protections, Flutter’s networking implementation did not correctly reject all affected certificates.
Butterfly 2.6.2-rc.0 has therefore been rebuilt using Flutter 3.47.8, which includes the security fix.
Web, iOS and macOS versions of Butterfly are unaffected by this particular Flutter vulnerability.
I currently plan to release the stable 2.6.2 update on Wednesday, October 28.
Until you have installed a patched version, I recommend avoiding synchronization of sensitive documents over untrusted networks, especially public Wi-Fi.
There is also another security-related fix in this release: requests for connection icons no longer leak WebDAV credentials to other origins.
Security is especially important for a note-taking app, so these fixes take priority over the usual release schedule.
Experimental floating editor layout
A new floating editor layout is now available for wider screens.
Instead of keeping the editor controls in their usual positions, this layout presents them as floating interface elements, making better use of the available screen space.
The feature is currently hidden behind a new Experiments setting.
It is still experimental, so there might be some rough edges. If you try it out, feedback is very welcome!
More collaboration synchronization options
Collaboration has received several improvements to make working together more flexible.
You can now configure synchronization options for the toolbar, current page, areas, cursor and live previews.
These options can be configured as defaults and adjusted for individual collaboration sessions.
This gives you more control over which parts of your editing experience are shared with other participants.
Another important fix ensures that collaborative edits remain on their original page and layer, even when participants navigate independently.
Previously, navigating to another page during collaboration could cause edits to be associated with the wrong location.
Now everyone can navigate independently without accidentally moving someone else’s work.
Better backups and automatic thumbnails
Backups are getting a little more flexible.
Previously, manual and automatic backups were primarily intended for remote connections.
With this update, local connections can also be used as backup destinations.
This means you can store your backups in another local directory or drive instead of requiring a remote server.
An issue where backups could fail when the destination folder did not exist has also been fixed.
Automatic document thumbnails received two new framing options as well.
You can now choose between capturing the whole page or using the last viewport.
This is particularly useful for documents with large canvases, where the entire page might not be the most useful thumbnail.
PDF and document search improvements
PDF handling has received an important change to make document dimensions more consistent.
When exporting a PDF, Butterfly now treats one canvas unit as one millimeter.
PDF imports also preserve the original page sizes, making it easier to work with documents where dimensions matter.
Document search has been improved too.
Search results are now clearer, queries are treated literally, Markdown content is included in matches and navigating to a result brings you to the correct page.
These changes should make it easier to find specific content, especially in larger documents.
Bug fixes and build improvements
Several smaller issues have been addressed in this release.
The pen-only toggle has received a performance improvement, making switching this input mode more responsive.
There are also fixes for hand navigation being blocked when input gestures are disabled and for rapid pointer events accidentally starting gestures with the previously active tool.
Stamps now preserve their stroke positions correctly when working on rotated canvases, preventing them from becoming distorted.
On Windows, a crash during application shutdown has been fixed, while Android received a fix for a crash when copying content to the clipboard.
Finally, the build system has received some attention.
An offline build script has been added and reproducible builds are now supported, making it easier to build and verify Butterfly without depending entirely on the usual online build environment.
What’s next?
The main priority for 2.6.2 is getting the security update into the stable release as soon as possible.
If testing goes well, the stable release is planned for October 28.
In the meantime, please test this release candidate and report any issues you encounter on GitHub.
Thanks to everyone reporting bugs, testing new releases and helping improve Butterfly! 💚
Full changelog
- Add a floating editor layout for wide screens behind an Experiments setting
- Add default and session collaboration options for toolbar, page, area, cursor, and live preview synchronization (#1295)
- Add offline builds script
- Add reproducable builds
- Add whole page and last viewport framing for automatic thumbnails
- Allow local connections as destinations for manual and automatic backups (#1073)
- Export each canvas unit as one millimeter in PDFs and preserve PDF page sizes on import
- Improve document search with clearer results, literal queries, Markdown matches, and accurate page navigation
- Improve pen only toggle performance (#1305)
- Fix a Windows crash during app shutdown
- Fix an Android crash when copying content to the clipboard
- Fix connection icon requests leaking WebDAV credentials to other origins
- Fix backups failing when the destination folder is missing
- Fix hand navigation being blocked when input gestures are disabled and rapid pointer events starting gestures with the previously active tool
- Fix stamps losing stroke positions and becoming distorted on rotated canvases
- Keep collaboration edits on their original page and layer when participants navigate independently
- Upgrade to flutter 3.47.8