Mergen Ink - Changelog

v0.2.9 (September 2026)

This release adds the Story Timeline, fixes local AI support, and cleans up the menus.

Story Timeline
New Story Timeline panel, reachable from the Book menu. See your book scene by scene: which characters appear, where each scene takes place, and when it happens in the story.
Tag each scene with its characters (from your Lorebook), a location, and an in-story time, then view the whole book at a glance as an ordered timeline. Clicking a scene jumps straight to it in the editor.
Built as the foundation for more timeline features to come.

Local AI (Ollama)

Fixed a bug where local AI models set up through Ollama connected successfully but never actually responded while writing. Both the in-editor assistant and the Challenge panel now work correctly with Ollama.
The connection test now performs a real check against your selected model, so a successful test genuinely means generation will work — not just that the server is running.
When something does go wrong, you now get a clear message explaining what happened instead of nothing at all.
All Ollama traffic stays entirely on your own machine, as before.

Menus
Cleaned up the menu bar. "Paste and Match Style" now works properly, pasting text stripped of its original formatting to match where you're writing.
Removed a couple of menu items that weren't backed by real features yet, so nothing in the menus leads to a dead end.

Coming soon
Some professional export options now appear in the export screen marked "Pro" — press-ready PDF, EPUB, and print presets for services like KDP and IngramSpark. These aren't available to purchase just yet; they're arriving in the next release.

v0.2.8 (12 July 2026)

This release focuses on the native menu, accessibility, and polish driven directly by tester feedback from Thejendra Sreenivas and Balkan Sencan.

Menus

Completely redesigned native menu bar. It went from 4 items (Mergen Ink / File / Edit / Help) to a full 8-menu structure: Mergen Ink, File, Edit, Format, Insert, View, Book, and Help. Every action routes through existing handlers, so there is a single source of truth behind each command.
File menu now includes New Book, Open, Open Recent (a live list of recently opened books), Save, Save As, a full Export submenu (KDP, IngramSpark, Apple Books presets plus DOCX, PDF, EPUB, RTF, HTML, and Markdown), and Close.
Format, Insert, View, and Book menus surface actions that were previously buried: headings, drop caps, Table of Contents, front matter pages, typewriter mode, focus mode, sidebar toggle, zoom, Lorebook, and Book Settings.
View toggles (Typewriter Mode, Focus Mode, Sidebar) now show a live checkmark that stays in sync whether you toggle from the menu or with a keyboard shortcut.
Tooltips added across in-app menu items and toolbar buttons, with a short one-line description of what each does.

Accessibility

New High Contrast theme, joining the existing six themes, tuned for WCAG AAA readability. Built for low-vision authors who found the softer themes hard to read.
New Interface Text Size control (Small, Default, Large, Extra Large) in Settings, separate from your manuscript font size, so you can enlarge the menus, toolbar, and sidebar without changing how your book looks.

I18n multi language

The native menu bar is now fully translated and switches language live along with the rest of the interface. Previously it stayed in English regardless of app language.
Broad translation cleanup across menus, context menus, the export dialog, and the front matter panel. English and Turkish are now at full key parity.

Export

Table of Contents depth is now a per-book setting: chapters only, or chapters plus sections. Defaults sensibly by book type and applies to both PDF and DOCX output.
Paperback PDF exports no longer embed a cover image, matching professional print publishing standards, where the cover is a separate wrap-around file. EPUB still embeds a front cover.
Free-tier exports now carry a small "Made with Mergen Ink" line at the bottom of the first and last page. It is removed automatically for Pro users and applies across all export formats.

Fixes

Fixed a paste bug where properly formatted text showed large awkward gaps in the editor that did not appear in the export. Pasted content is now normalized to match the editor's spacing.
Fixed cover upload on Windows, where uploaded front and back covers silently failed to appear. Previews now load reliably and replacing a cover updates immediately.

Hotfix/v0.2.7 (06 July 2026)

EPUB
Table of contents: duplicate TOC finally resolved. EPUB now contains exactly one clean, clickable NAV table of contents. Root cause identified and eliminated in epub-builder integration.
iOS Apple Books compatibility: EPUB files now open correctly on iOS. Fixed mimetype zip entry (uncompressed, no extra field bytes), XHTML strict compliance, and container validation.
Back cover image support: back cover now appears as the last page in EPUB exports, with correct epub:type="backcover" semantic markup.

PDF
Back cover image support: back cover renders as a full-bleed last page with no margins, headers, or footers.

Editor
Find (Cmd+F): search results now scroll into view automatically. Both "Next" (Enter) and "Previous" (Shift+Enter) navigation scroll to the highlighted match.

v0.2.6 (04 July 2026)

EPUB
Table of contents restored: single clean clickable NAV TOC (was completely missing after v0.2.5 duplicate fix)
Heading word split fixed: long chapter titles no longer break mid-word (hyphens: none on h1/h2)
iOS Apple Books compatibility: mimetype entry uncompressed, XHTML self-closing tags, font media-type corrected to font/ttf, vh units replaced with percentage-based centering, OPF metadata whitespace trimmed, NAV toc.xhtml validated
Fleuron scene break consistent across formats

PDF
Bracket escaping fixed: indented paragraphs no longer show visible [ ] in output. Escaping now runs on user text only, before wrapping in typst markup.
Illustration/section ordering fixed: sections export under their correct parent chapter (was appearing under wrong chapter due to flat position sorting)

Editor
Find (Cmd+F) now scrolls to the highlighted match instead of only highlighting
AI context toggle persists after app restart
Drop Caps toggle removed from Typography settings (was non-functional, will return in a future version with proper implementation)

iOS Apple Books Compatibility Checklist Applied
package version="3.0" verified
dc:identifier, dc:title, dc:language, dcterms:modified all present and trimmed
All manifest media-types corrected (font/ttf not application/x-font-ttf)
Cover image has properties="cover-image" in manifest
NAV document has properties="nav" in manifest
All XHTML uses self-closing tags (br /, hr /, img /)
No viewport units in CSS (replaced vh with percentage)
EPUBCheck validation: zero errors

v0.2.5 (03 July 2026)

PDF Export
Cover image: full-bleed first page, zero margin, fit-to-page
Fleuron scene break: ❧ replaced with § (universally supported across all 102 bundled fonts)
Section flow: sections within chapters now flow continuously without page breaks (only chapters and parts trigger page breaks)
Bracket escaping: user text with $, [brackets], #hashtags, @mentions no longer crashes the PDF engine ("unclosed delimiter" fix)

EPUB Export
Duplicate TOC removed: inline_toc() calls removed, single clean NAV table of contents
Title and Part headings centered mid-page using flexbox + 100vh (not margin-top percentage which resolved against width)
Cover image: confirmed working, regression test added

UI
Export error toast repositioned above footer bar, "Open log" button now fully visible and clickable
macOS updater: "Installing..." no longer hangs indefinitely, replaced with explicit "Restart & Update" button after download completes

Docs
App data path corrected to ink.mergen.app (was com.mergen.ink in PROMPTS.md)

v0.2.4 (02 July 2026)

Critical Fix
PDF export crash fixed: CSS units (rem, px, vh) were being passed directly to the typst compiler which only understands pt, em, in, cm, mm. All CSS values are now converted before compilation. This resolves the persistent "expected expression" and "invalid number suffix: rem" errors on Windows 10 and macOS.

Export Enhancements
Scene break formatting: choose between centered asterisks (* * *), thin line, fleuron ornament, blank space, or custom text. Configurable in Book Settings > Typography and per export preset.
Single chapter export: right-click any chapter > "Export Chapter..." to export just that chapter and its sections to PDF, DOCX, EPUB, or Markdown.
EPUB heading font fix: chapter and part headings now correctly use the selected book font instead of falling back to system sans-serif.
PDF last page numbers: footer now renders correctly on the final page of each chapter.

Book Structure
Titleless sections: sections no longer require a title. Untitled sections appear as "(untitled)" in the sidebar and export without a heading, perfect for illustration pages or scene continuations.
Page break sections: new section type that starts on a new page with no heading, ideal for standalone illustrations or epigraphs between chapters.
Inline page break: insert a page break within a section via toolbar button or keyboard shortcut (Cmd+Shift+Enter). Visible as a dashed line in the editor, renders as a real page break in export.
Optional Parts: books can now use Chapter > Section structure directly without the Part level. Choose in Book Settings > Structure. Parts can also be untitled (rendered as a simple page break between chapter groups).

Editor
Ruler: optional horizontal ruler above the editor showing margins and indent markers. Draggable left margin, right margin, and first-line indent markers with live WYSIWYG preview. Inches or centimeters. Two-way sync with Book Settings. Enable in Settings > Editor > Show Ruler.

v0.2.3 (01 Jully 2026)

Front Matter Manager
New sidebar tab system: switch between Manuscript (book tree) and Front Matter with tab icons. Labels appear when sidebar is wide enough.
Front matter page picker: add Half Title, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Epigraph, Table of Contents, Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements, Prologue, Introduction
Each page opens in the editor with type-specific layout (Title Page auto-fills book title/author, Copyright has template, TOC auto-generates from chapters)
Front matter exports to all 6 formats: PDF (roman numerals, no headers, page-specific layouts), EPUB (separate XHTML files with epub:type), DOCX (section breaks, TOC field code), RTF (page breaks, centered layouts), Markdown (--- separators, anchor TOC), HTML (semantic sections with ARIA roles)

Export Fixes
Image export fixed: base64 embedded images now export correctly to both PDF and EPUB (was crashing with "unknown variable: base64")
EPUB table of contents: duplicate TOC removed, single clean clickable TOC
EPUB heading font: chapter/part headings now use the selected book font instead of falling back to system sans-serif
PDF chapter headings: long titles no longer split mid-word
PDF scene breaks (---): now centered as * * * instead of left-aligned
PDF last page numbers: footer now renders on the final page of each chapter
EPUB Part headings: centered and positioned mid-page instead of top-left
Recto chapter start toggle: "Start chapters on right page" can be turned off for digital reading (no blank pages)
PDF export Windows 10: improved error handling with detailed messages at each failure point

Writing Experience
Pomodoro timer: 25min work / 5min break cycle with system notifications, session logging, and daily count (configurable in Settings > Writing)
Per-paragraph line spacing: set custom line spacing per paragraph independent of book default, exports correctly to PDF, EPUB, and DOCX

Editor & UI
Right panel stale state fixed: switching books now properly clears and reloads panel content
Expanded right-click context menu: Cut, Copy, Paste, Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Text Color, Highlight, Font, Link, Select All

Data Safety
Periodic save safety net: content saved every 3 seconds when dirty, protecting against macOS Dock quit, force quit, crashes, and power loss (max 3 seconds of typing lost in worst case)

v0.2.2 (24 Jun 2026)

Editor & Writing Experience

Editor Background Patterns: Added Blank, Lined (college ruled), Grid, Dot Grid, and Yellow Notepad options under Settings > Appearance (synced to typography line-height and hidden during print/export)
Tab key indentation: Tab inserts a text indent or increases list indentation; Shift+Tab decreases list indent. System switching (Cmd+Tab / Ctrl+Tab) is preserved
Typewriter Mode: Centered typing cursor option added to editor, working in both normal and focus modes (toggle in Settings > Editor)
Font Selector: Dropdown displays the active selected font name on selection changes, with dropdown options rendered in their own typefaces
First-line indent settings: Toggle and customize first-line paragraph indentation in Book Settings > Typography
Resizable Lorebook entries: Vertically resizable textareas for Characters, Places, and Items with height persistence

Dashboard & Structure Management

Dashboard book actions: A three-dot menu (⋮) added to book cards for quick actions
Book duplication: Full duplicate feature (V1 -> V2 versioning) copying database row, settings, node structures, and contents
Node duplication: Option to duplicate any part, chapter, or section directly from the sidebar context menu
Trash bin icon: Updated delete action icons from general "X" to a trash can to clearly signify soft-delete (restore within 30 days)

General & Localization

Cover thumbnail: Uploaded cover images now show a preview thumbnail with a "Remove" option in Book Settings
Right panel memory: Remembers the last active right panel tab (Preview, Lorebook, Outline) and restores it upon book open
Template word goals: Templates now support setting a target word goal during creation
i18n cleanup: 100% translation coverage check, fixed mixed English/Turkish or unlocalized strings across all 8 locales
Roadmap page: Mergen Ink roadmap link and page added to track upcoming features

v0.2.1 Hotfix (15 Jun 2026)

*Export Fixes*

EPUB metadata: title and author name now correctly embedded — visible in Kindle Previewer, Apple Books, and Calibre library views
PDF page numbers: body pagination now starts at 1, front matter uses roman numerals correctly
PDF page number position fixed — numbers render in footer, not body text

*Editor*

First-line paragraph indent now visible in editor (WYSIWYG) — configurable in Book Settings > Typography
Bullet list and numbered list toolbar icons redesigned to match familiar Word-style appearance
Save button made more prominent and clickable in toolbar
"Add Chapter" / "Add Section" buttons now always visible in sidebar (not hover-only)

*Bug Fixes*

Export error logging: timestamped logs at {appdatadir}/logs/export_errors.log with "Open log" toast action
Sepia theme contrast improved for better menu text readability

v0.2.0 "The Thejendra Release" — Professional Export Engine (23 May 2026)

* Export Engine*

PDF engine completely rebuilt: genpdf replaced with typst-as-lib (Rust-native typesetting)
Mirror margins: inside/outside margins swap on recto/verso pages for professional book binding
Recto chapter start: every chapter begins on an odd (right) page, blank pages auto-inserted
Running headers: book title on verso, chapter title on recto, suppressed on chapter first page
Page numbering: roman numerals (i, ii, iii) for front matter, arabic (1, 2, 3) for body, restart at Chapter 1
Export presets: one-click export for KDP Paperback (5×8, 5.5×8.5, 6×9), IngramSpark, Apple Books EPUB, Generic EPUB
Fiction vs Non-fiction typography toggle: line height, indent, paragraph spacing adjust per genre
EPUB polish: cover image as first page, clickable TOC (NCX + NAV), correct epub:type semantic attributes, full metadata from Book Settings
DOCX improvements: section breaks between chapters, heading styles mapping, mirror margins, headers/footers with STYLEREF field codes

* Fonts & WYSIWYG*

18 fonts bundled offline via @fontsource: EB Garamond, Libre Baskerville, Libre Caslon Text, Lora, Crimson Pro, Cardo, Montserrat, Roboto, Raleway, Oswald, Playfair Display, Inter, Comic Neue, Fredoka, JetBrains Mono, and more
WYSIWYG font consistency: font selected in editor is now the font in exported PDF, EPUB, and DOCX
Font type-ahead: selecting a font applies to new typing, not just selected text
All 18 fonts available in both editor toolbar and Book Settings dropdown
98 WOFF2 fonts converted to TTF for typst/fontdb compatibility
System font fallbacks: Arial → Liberation Sans, Times New Roman → Liberation Serif in PDF export

* Front Matter*

Front Matter Manager: add/remove/reorder initial pages before Chapter 1
Supported pages: Half Title, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Epigraph, Table of Contents, Preface, Foreword, Acknowledgements, Prologue, Introduction
Copyright page template with auto-filled year, author, ISBN fields
Auto-generated Table of Contents from chapter structure
Front matter integrates with all export formats (PDF roman numerals, EPUB epub:type, DOCX section breaks)

* Code Quality*

TypeScript migration: entire SvelteKit frontend converted from JavaScript to TypeScript
Zod runtime validation: 7 schemas (New Book, Book Settings, AI Settings, Node Creation, Save Content, Export, Password) with inline error display
Typed Tauri command wrappers: all invoke() calls go through src/lib/commands.ts with proper types
Word goal .trim() crash fix: form inputs properly validated (no more "e(Q).trim is not a function")

* Settings & Backup*

Custom backup folder: choose where backups are saved (point to Dropbox/iCloud/OneDrive for cross-device access)
Backup folder picker with validation (existence, write permission)
Reset to default backup location

* UI Improvements*

Export dialog: dropdown replaced with full modal — visible at all panel sizes and zoom levels
Toolbar jitter fix: save indicator uses fixed width, no button jumping on state change
Minimum window size reduced (1000×600 → 800×500) for low-res displays and large text settings
All panels and modals properly scrollable at small window sizes

* Developer Experience*

Export error logging: timestamped log at {appdatadir}/logs/export_errors.log with 5MB rotation
Export error toast shows "Open log" action button (8s duration)
All export commands use thin wrapper + _inner pattern for consistent error capture

v0.1.12 Hotfix (13 May 2026)

Export dialog: dropdown replaced with full modal — no longer hidden behind resized panels
Font type-ahead: selecting a font from toolbar now applies to new typing, not just selected text
Book Settings font dropdown: all 18 bundled fonts now visible (was showing only 4)
Toolbar jitter fix: save indicator uses fixed width, no more button jumping on save state change
Minimum window size reduced (1000×600 → 800×500) — better support for low-res displays
All panels and modals now properly scrollable at small window sizes

v0.1.11 (12 May 2026)

Editor toolbar: font family selector with 18 fonts (EB Garamond, Libre Baskerville, Lora, Crimson Pro, Cardo, and more — all bundled offline via @fontsource)
Editor toolbar: font size selector, text color picker, background highlight color picker
Settings reorganization: App Preferences and Book Settings clearly separated
Resizable panels: drag dividers for left sidebar and right panel
i18n cleanup: hardcoded English strings audit, mixed language fixes across all 8 locales
Monorepo migration: flat isolated project structure for desktop, backend, and website

v0.1.10 (03 May 2026)

Critical data loss fix (final): empty content guard — Rust refuses to overwrite existing content with empty string
Editor destroy check: force-save-before-close skips save if editor is already destroyed
Close handler timeout increased (1200ms → 2000ms) for slow Windows machines
Autosave debounce reduced (1000ms → 500ms) — halves worst-case data loss window for crashes
Toolbar overflow: format buttons wrap to second row instead of scrolling off-screen — Save and Focus always visible at any zoom level

v0.1.9 Hotfix (01 May 2026)

DATA LOSS FIX: close_requested → force-save-before-close event + 1200ms wait + debounce reduced 500ms

PDF export font path — Tauri resource_dir() font find, resources: ["fonts/*"] added

Image toolbar insert — readfileas_base64 command, data:image base64 embedding
Line spacing init — initEditorTypography() calls on mount, CSS vars applied
Floating toolbar U/S — Underline and Strikethrough added to selection popup
Permanent toolbar U/S — Format bar with U and S buttons, tooltip translation into 8 languages
Zoom overlap — header overflow-x: auto, 150%+ zoom scroll
Template i18n (names) — $t('templates.{id}.name') + Turkish translations

v0.1.8 (Search, Templates, Local AI & UX Polish) (01 May 2026)

UI Internationalization (i18n) — EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PL/pt-BR/TR, %98 translations
Ollama local LLM — localhost:11434, auto-detect, model selector
UI Scaling / zoom slider — 4K monitor support
Right click context menu — bold, italic, color, etc.
Document outline panel — Automatic navigation from headings
Book Templates — Three Act, Snowflake, starter structures
Sepia theme refinement — WCAG AA, warm paper tones
DATABASE.md regeneration — v0.1.8 schema
Local password protection — password-protected books + journal mode
Edit menu + keyboard shortcuts fix
Recent files menu — on startup + File menu
Auto-select first section + onboarding nudge
Import file type guard + corrupted section recovery
Export Save As — file dialog + toast + open folder
Find/replace within section — Cmd+F, TipTap search extension
General book-wide search — SQLite FTS5/LIKE
Line spacing settings — WYSIWYG, line height + paragraph spacing
Help menu + keyboard shortcuts cheatsheet
Promote/Demote node — section ↔ chapter ↔ part

v0.1.7 (20 April 2026)

Trash / recycle bin — soft delete, 30 days restore
Undo/Redo toolbar + Windows Ctrl+Y fix
AI provider fixes — Gemini model + OpenAI test endpoint
Undo/Redo granularity fix
Print scope dialog — section vs book selection
Focus mode — Cmd+Shift+F, zen experience
RTF export — native Rust, zero-dependency
Cursor position restore — lastactivenode_id
Direct print — Cmd+P, section & book
Anonymous usage analytics — opt-in, Cloudflare D1
Crash fix for deleting children nodes
Native Rust export architecture — TipTap JSON AST → docx-rs/genpdf/epub-builder/custom RTF

v0.1.5 (04 April 2026) to v0.1.6 (06 April 2026)

Three-mode writing system: Writing / Assist / Challenge
Challenge panel: issue list — Weak Claim, Repetition, Contradiction, Missing Link
Aggression levels: Light / Standard / Brutal
Inline highlights after Analyze — clears on typing
Cloudflare R2 + Worker release pipeline
Custom / local LLM support — Ollama temeli
Book language support — per-book, export metadata, AI context
Additional themes: Light / Dark / Sepia / Gray / Soft Dark / Forest
FEATURES.md generation

v0.1.3 (28 March 2026) to v0.1.4 (03 April 2026)

Export: Markdown, HTML (built-in), DOCX/PDF/EPUB/RTF (native Rust, TipTap JSON AST)
Demo book: "Getting Started with Mergen Ink"
Word goal + daily streak + progress bars, book + daily
GitHub Actions: macOS arm64/x64 + Windows x64 + Linux build pipeline
Auto-update system — Tauri updater + mergen.ink/app/latest.json
Book settings: trim size, margins, typography, cover, eBook, goals
Cover design: front, back, spine
Preview panel: Web + Print — paginated, Acrobat-style
Image & diagram insertion
Lorebook / Research panel
Resizable panels
New book from import: MD, TXT, DOCX — two-step preview + confirm
SortableJS drag & drop — WebKit native DnD bypass
Global page numbering — cross-section continuous
Page break indicators in editor — visual, non-editable
Estimated page count in sidebar + footer

v0.1.0 (25 March 2026) to v0.1.2 (28 March 2026)

Tauri 2 + SvelteKit + Rust backend
SQLite with WAL mode + migrations, sqlx 0.8
Dashboard with book list, empty state
New book modal — title + author + word goals
Hierarchical tree: Part → Chapter → Section
Node actions: add, rename, delete, drag & drop reorder
TipTap rich text editor (bold, italic, headings, lists, blockquote)
Permanent toolbar + floating selection toolbar
Light / Dark mode with theme persistence
All content persists to SQLite immediately
Autosave (debounce 1000ms) + manual save (Cmd+S)
Save status indicator (saved / unsaved / saving)
Markdown import — append to section
AI chat panel: Claude, Gemini, GPT-4, Rust side, secure
Generate / Critique mode switching
Master context injection, ctx toggle
API keys stored in settings table
Automatic backup (every 10 saves + app shutdown)
Backup indicator + manual backup + dropdown
Backup log table + retention (30 auto backups)
Word count display
Mergen Ink branding
Writing Loop UI — selection shortcuts
Logo & app icon — pen nib + circuit branches
Privacy & security messaging — About page + API key notes
Setup screen / first-run onboarding, 3 screens
Delete book safe delete with title confirmation