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NEWS

VERSION 11.1 - Minor Release

Got some fixes and new features. These are included in the main repo and are being released on GitHub as 11.1. However, they won't be available on GNOME (E.G.O.) until we release version 12 (when GNOME 51 comes out).

Polish Translation Added

Summary

Added Polish (pl_PL) translation contributed by Albert Bartoszko (gicural7). The translation covers menus, OSD notifications, keyboard shortcut descriptions, preferences, and schema strings.

Notes

  • Color palette display names (e.g. "White", "HotPink") remain in English — these are user-defined labels stored in GSettings, not translatable strings
  • A small number of strings related to the arrow type feature are included in the translation file but will be dormant until that feature is implemented in a future version
  • Tested on GNOME 50 (Manjaro) with system locale set to Polski (pl_PL)

Files Added

  • po/pl_PL/LC_MESSAGES/draw-on-gnome.po — translation source
  • locale/pl_PL/LC_MESSAGES/draw-on-gnome.mo — compiled binary

Credit

Translation by Albert Bartoszko (gicural7) — contributed via PR #49.

Bug Fix: Text Tool Color Bleed

Summary

Fixed a bug where changing the drawing color after using the text tool would retroactively change the color of the last typed text.

Steps to Reproduce (before fix)

  1. Select the text tool (Ctrl+T), draw a text box, type some text (e.g. in blue)
  2. Press Ctrl+P to switch to the drawing tool
  3. Change color (e.g. to orange)
  4. The previously typed text changes to orange

Root Cause

When switching tools via keyboard shortcut, selectTool() in area.js was called directly without first checking whether the text tool was still active and writing. This left this.currentElement pointing at the finished text element rather than setting it to null.

When selectColor() subsequently ran, it found a non-null currentElement and updated its color — hitting the already-committed text element directly.

Button-click tool changes were unaffected because _onButtonPressed() already had a guard:

if (this.currentElement && this.currentElement.shape == Shape.TEXT && this.isWriting)
    this._stopWriting();

But selectTool() had no equivalent check.

Fix

One guard added to selectTool() in area.js:

Before:

selectTool(tool) {
    this.currentTool = tool;
    this.emit('show-osd', this._extension.FILES.ICONS[`TOOL_${Tool.getNameOf(tool)}`] || null, DisplayStrings.Tool[tool], "", -1, false);
    this.updatePointerCursor();
}

After:

selectTool(tool) {
    if (this.isWriting)
        this._stopWriting();
    this.currentTool = tool;
    this.emit('show-osd', this._extension.FILES.ICONS[`TOOL_${Tool.getNameOf(tool)}`] || null, DisplayStrings.Tool[tool], "", -1, false);
    this.updatePointerCursor();
}

When _stopWriting() is called, it pushes the completed text element into this.elements and sets this.currentElement = null. Subsequent color changes then find no active element to modify.

Files Changed

  • area.jsselectTool() method

That's it! ENJOY! 😀

VERSION 11.0!!!

Hello! 🎊 🎺 🎉 🥳 Version 11 is here!

Version 11 only supports GNOME version 50. I rushed to get a release out because Ubuntu 26.04 and Fedora 44 are coming at us quick! I'll be working on new features for GNOMEv50+ as we progress through 2026.

NOW APPROVED by E.G.O.!

For those of you on GNOME versions 46-49, please use version 9. I will be maintaining that for a long time but there will not be any new features for it. All new features will be incorporated into version 11 and beyond. This decision is based on the the fact that there are major changes in GNOMEv50. Also, because testing on 4 different versions of GNOME was difficult enough. Adding GNOMEv50 to the mix was too much for one version of the software (and one lonely maintainer!) So now we have the two major versions of Draw On Gnome as shown in the table below.

ENJOY!!! 🖳→→😀

If you are interested in contributing, please read the contributing document, and note that I have effectively split D.O.G. into two versions:

Version GNOME Support Status
v9.0 GNOME 46–49 Frozen — maintenance only
v11.0+ GNOME 50+ Active development

All new development targets GNOME 50+. If you are contributing a new feature, it belongs in the v11.0+ codebase only.

PRs for v9.0 will not be accepted unless they address a critical bug or security issue. To do this, please work in the version-9 branch!


Here's where we stand:

  • v9.0 on E.G.O. — live, frozen, GNOME 46–49
  • v11.0 on E.G.O. — submitted, awaiting review (JustPerfection situation means patience required)
  • v11.0 on GitHub — released, available now for GNOME 50 users on Fedora 44 and Ubuntu 26.04
  • Install script — updated and working for GNOME 50
  • CONTRIBUTING.md — updated to reflect the v9/v11 split
  • Schema files — split into three, Shexli EGO-P-004 error - resolved Image null guard — fixed
  • Slider deprecation — fixed

That's it. Party on dude! 🥳🥳

VERSION 9.0!!!

Happy New Year! 🎊 🎺 🎉 🥳 Version 9 is here!

Version 9.0 Updates

My main goal was to get all of the killer updates for version 7 to work in GNOME versions 46 and 47. Previously it was just 48 and 49, but now it's GNOME 46 through 49. YES!! 👍👍

Give Me Some Ubuntu Love!

This is my gift to all you Ubuntu 24.04 people who won't see a GNOME update beyond version 46 for some time (unless you manually do it). This includes me because Ubuntu 24.04 is my main system at work and at home! (That is until 26.04.01 comes out... which will purportedly use GNOME 50 - more work!)

But that's not all! I've also incorporated rulers to the grid. It's super-duper fantastico.

When you press Ctrl + G to activate the grid you will now see a horizontal ruler (bottom) and a vertical rule (left) with tick marks, numbers, and a blue measuring line that follows your stylus/mouse. This makes is a lot easier to create extremely accurate rectangles and other polygons.

This work was mostly done in area.js.


Plenty of other fixes as well including text tool cleanup (blinking issue and breakage), SVG export fix, Highlighter transparency failure on save/open fix, palette cycling fix (with auto color selection), Persistent Restart fix, and more... "We few, we happy few, we band of debuggers!" ⚔️

I've tested this on:

  • Manjaro - GNOME 49.1
  • Fedora 43 - GNOME 49
  • Debian Sid - GNOME 49
  • Debian Sid - GNOME 48.5
  • Fedora 41 - GNOME 47
  • Ubuntu Desktop - GNOME 46

Read on for all the details!

December 2025 Updates

HUGE UPDATE! Version 7.0

Version 7 is live. Available at:

  • GNOME Extensions: link
  • Releases on GitHub: link

Here are the updates! And there's a bunch! Including the new Laser Pointer feature, highlighter tool, image pasting fix, dashed line fix, line thickness fix, polygon fix, file open fix, and hovering tool tips addition!

This is my holiday gift to all you open sourcerers! Oh YEAH!! 👍👍

November 2025 Updates

Hello everyone! 🖖 It's ALIVE!!

This is the first GNOME extension that I have had approved. It's been about a year of work (on and off) and the job is done. I seriously can't believe it. I downloaded and tested it on my laptop (Debian Sid GNOMEv48.5) as well as GNOME 49 VMs and it works.

  • Many thanks to JustPerfection on E.G.O. for all of the tips and code suggestions.
  • And many, MANY thanks to everyone here who helped to make this extension accessible worldwide on GNOME Extensions: @esauvisky , @aabrame, @jmaibaum , @litemotiv , @carvalhods , and anyone else that I am forgetting!

Here's the link: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/7921/draw-on-gnome/ Available for GNOME v48 and v49.

Again, thanks to everyone involved, I could not have done this without you! ♥️♥️ 🏆🏆 👍👍

Note: I also uploaded this as a new release. In keeping with E.G.O. version numbering, this is now known as version 4.0.


October 2025 Updates

Hello everyone! 🖖

  • This month I released D.O.G. twice. The latest is version 1.6 and it has support for GNOMEv49 and GNOME v48.
  • I've also released this to E.G.O. for review. Keep your fingers crossed that they approve it and list it!

March 2025 Updates

Hello everyone! 🖖 Here are some updates:

  • I re-branded the tool. By popular demand, the new name is Draw On Gnome. The old github link (DrawOnYourScreen3) should redirect to the new one: https://github.com/daveprowse/Draw-On-Gnome.
  • Restarted version numbering at 1.0 and dropped a new release.
  • Rebuilt, tested and pushed the installer bash script.
  • Fixed and rebuilt translations.
  • I tested with GitHub Organizations. I tried two different imports and it failed both times. As such, I am not getting a pleasant feeling about organizations so far, so I am going to step away from that idea for now.
  • Currently working on fixing code so E.G.O. can approve the extension. It's been a tough go. Fix one thing and it breaks another. Unfortunately, the code requires a lot of changes to meet GNOME GJS standards. Working on it and testing as I go to make sure everything is functional with each change. I may be posting issues and requesting help with some of the JavaScript work!

February 2025 Updates

Greetings my friends. Here's the updates for DOYS:

  • Completed the transfer of the original DOYS extension on extensions.gnome.org. LINK
  • Ran through a linting process and code review of the latest version of DOYS.
  • Began the process of getting the latest version of DOYS approved with E.G.O.
  • Forked and copied the original GNOME v3.38 to our main repository page on GitHub.
    • Fixed that branch so it works with GNOME v3.24 through V41.
    • Added it to the main script and documented manual installs as well.

Issue It appears that I have to change the name of the extension. Reasoning here. I set up a poll for you to vote on what name you would like here.

MAIN branch is frozen

I froze the main branch until we either: get approval from E.G.O, or a major update is required for GNOMEv48, whichever comes first. The current working branch is E.G.O.-v15.1-alpha which will be merged into main once approval is complete.


DOYS3 is LIVE!

Hello fellow screen artists! Welcome to this first blog post.

I've been hard at work with DOYS3. It's been a fun adventure so far! 😎

Here's what I've been up to:

  • Configured three versions of DOYS for the various versions of GNOME.
  • Wrote a bash script to automatically install the correct version based on the identified GNOME version. See the Installation Page for more information.
  • Created this documentation site. Thanks to squidfunk and the amazing Material for Mkdocs. I've been using this software for years and it keeps getting better. Check it out!

    Built with Material for MkDocs

  • Began the process of getting GNOME to officially accept the extension on extensions.gnome.org.

MAIN branch is frozen

I froze the main branch until we either: get approval from E.G.O, or a major update is required for GNOMEv48, whichever comes first. The current working branch is E.G.O.-v15.1-alpha which will be merged into main once approval is complete.

Looking forward to the alpha version of GNOMEv48 in January. Hoping that we don't have to make too many modifications to the code this time! 🙏

That's it. I'll be posting here with anything new that we are working on. Happy Holidays to you! 🎉