Release Notes - Lap v0.2.4

Lap v0.2.4 is a major usability and compatibility update. This release brings real Windows scanning optimizations with over 20% performance improvement, expands media support with EXR, PSD, HDR/RGBE, TGA, JPEG 2000, DDS, DPX, and QOI, and significantly improves daily file operations including drag-and-drop, copy/paste, move/copy workflows, album reordering, and external file handling.

This version also includes a broad polish pass across Lap's interface: cleaner dialogs, improved sidebars and panels, better keyboard navigation, more consistent controls, smoother layout behavior, and a more fluid product experience overall.

Special thanks to @Rockbard for reporting a large number of professional, detailed, and highly actionable issues that helped shape this release.

🚀 Highlights

• Windows Scan Performance — Optimized scan and file I/O paths with database connection pooling, merged file operations, scan summary logging, and more robust handling for disconnected external drives. Windows scanning is now more than 20% faster in real-world large-library workflows.
• Broader Format Support — Added EXR thumbnails and previews, plus additional image formats including PSD, HDR/RGBE, TGA, JPEG 2000, DDS, DPX, and QOI. Lap now documents support for 60+ photo, RAW, and video formats. (#147)
• Better File Operations — Improved move/copy workflows, added drag-and-drop to album folders with copy support, preserved original filenames during import, and added multi-platform clipboard copy/paste through native platform shims. (#153, #161, #162)
• Smoother Album Management — Albums can now be reordered directly with drag-and-drop, album roots can be dropped into, favorite folder counts are clearer, and root folders can be favorited or excluded from search. (#158, #168)
• More Consistent Interface — Standardized dialogs, refined sidebars and file info panels, improved status indicators, polished text contrast, and made modal, toolbar, preview, and selection controls feel more cohesive.
• Keyboard and Selection Upgrades — Added a Settings shortcuts tab, search panel shortcut, Ctrl/Cmd-click multi-selection, Ctrl+wheel thumbnail resizing on Windows, and Tab-key focus cycling between sidebar and content. (#117, #150, #154)

🐞 Bug Fixes

• Fixed settings shortcut handling and search loading behavior. (#117)
• Preserved selection state across background folder syncs. (#157)
• Fixed stale folder ID reconciliation and improved macOS trash handling.
• Fixed failed thumbnail retry logic by using stale thumbnail state instead of source existence.
• Fixed infinite recursion in aspect-ratio calculation when dimensions are undefined. (#152)
• Fixed grid layout anchoring and panel animation issues. (#145)
• Fixed corrupted thumbnail cache recovery.
• Preserved relevance sorting after deleting search results. (#166)
• Reduced face clustering memory usage. (#95)
• Improved histogram scaling to exclude clipped edge bins. (#119)
• Filtered hidden files on all platforms during scanning.
• Revealed folder contents in Finder instead of selecting the folder itself. (#170)
• Stabilized variable grid reverse scrolling. (#144)
• Removed duplicate shortcut handlers that caused double dialogs on Windows.
• Fixed videos taking a long time to load. (#156)
• Fixed AVIF save-as export.
• Fixed clipboard image paste on Windows and Linux.
• Fixed album drag reorder triggering the file-import warning.
• Stabilized thumbnail placeholders and polished file info panel behavior.

🔧 Other Improvements

• Added macOS Homebrew install support and automated cask update workflow. (#151)
• Added loop video playback setting, disabled when auto-play is on. (#155)
• Show photo aspect ratio in the file info panel and status bar. (#152)
• Improved duplicate management panel layout and scan handling. (#149)
• Added album editing from file info and smarter folder breadcrumbs. (#163)
• Added toolbar back button and tooltip for temporary views. (#163)
• Localized macOS system dialogs.
• Added scan status icons on album covers with tooltips.
• Improved file info controls, histogram legend, preview tags, video UI, and favorite/rating controls. (#153)
• Open the folder picker directly when adding an album.
• Updated welcome page copy across all locales.

🙌 Thanks

Special thanks to @Rockbard for extensive professional feedback, detailed workflow reports, and many high-quality issues across shortcuts, search, file operations, albums, video, selection, and large-library behavior.

Thanks also to @jczanfona, @yasavvym8, @connoryang331, and @dylanf for issue reports and workflow feedback that helped improve this release.

---

Thank you for using Lap!