Changelog

Simpler app — platform export only; compare is Advanced.

• BetterNo more Platform/Compare toggle fighting for attention. Pick a slot, drop a clip, download — compare formats is Advanced.
• BetterTrim, loop, and Combine live under Adjust. Multi-drop loads a clip library instead of surprising you with batch compare.
• BetterClearer names: Save Pack for multi-slot zips; Zip ★ + alts in advanced compare.

Platform deliver mode — one file per slot, multi-slot Pack.

• NewSelect multiple platform slots and export them in one run — grid of every deliverable plus Save Pack zip.
• BetterPlatform mode exports one catalog-backed file per slot (resize/fit to spec) instead of comparing MP4 vs WebM vs WebP.
• FixedVideo slots with fixed dimensions (e.g. YouTube Shorts) letterbox to the catalog canvas.

Platform-first workspace; faster encodes; a11y hardening.

• NewPlatform export is the primary workspace mode — Compare formats is one click away, with your choice restored across sessions.
• BetterSidebar and results panel split — settings rail no longer re-renders on every encode progress tick.
• BetterPlatforms modal focus trap, convert-mode confirm dialog, and disclosure ARIA across trim and loop controls.
• FixedTheming and accessibility polish — token hovers, scrim borders, labelled search, trim slider names.

Image platform slots export from video; marketing refresh.

• NewPick an image catalog slot on a video clip — FoldCut exports PNG/JPEG/WebP at the slot's exact size (frame from trim midpoint).
• Newfoldcut.com: hero slot showcase, light theme toggle, 25-service grid with respectful logos.
• BetterPlatform picker and settings: locked catalog dimensions, Export image button, clearer slot cart flow.
• FixedImage slots no longer silently encode as MP4/WebM when the source is a video clip.

FoldCut — rebrand, foldcut.com, foldcut:// deep links.

• BetterRebrand from LoopSmith to FoldCut. Web + catalog CDN at foldcut.com. Desktop installer is FoldCut-Setup — fresh install required (new app id).
• BetterAE panel and deep links use foldcut://import. Extension id com.foldcut.panel.
• FixedAVIF stills probe correctly; multi-slot platform cart shows slot progress while encoding.

Multi-slot platform exports show progress; lint clean.

• BetterSequential platform-cart Generate shows slot 2/5 and the active slot name while encoding.
• FixedAVIF stills (including names like bg2.avif.png) probe correctly — ffprobe can't read the ISOBMFF container, so ffmpeg decodes dimensions as fallback.
• FixedReact lint fixes for catalog hydrate, platform filter sync, and loop-finder auto-scan UI.

Platform Specs Catalog — always-fresh slots into measured decide.

• New25 platform services with image/video slots. Pick slots → ★ / A/B / Pack. Local only.
• NewWeekly checksummed catalog sync from foldcut.com; bundled fallback offline.
• NewFavorites + recent slots; AE panel can hand off catalog ids (YouTube Shorts, IG Reel, Steam).
• BetterDiscord / Notion / Website presets alias catalog slots; Pack names carry service.slot prefixes.

Seam + fringe honesty, platform packs, deeper AE handoff.

• NewLoop seam score and alpha fringe rate land on ★ — visible seams and matte dirt are called out, not silent.
• NewDiscord Sticker / Notion GIF / Website ≤1.5 MB packs with hard size budgets and honest miss copy.
• BetterAE panel remembers your preset, maps failures clearly, and invites re-compare after a re-render.

Tighter decision chrome — batch ★ rows, A/B time, quieter rail.

• BetterBatch ★ reasons align cleanly; preview letterboxing trimmed; Challenger badge tokens + pressed state; A/B scrub shows current time.
• BetterTrim no longer double-labels; Combine clips clearer; Auto-gen joins Alpha/Loop; Pack/empty copy matches the zip.

Quieter workspace — Combine clips, zip Pack, Copy path.

• BetterTimeline waits for Combine clips…; formats only on Custom; loop finder only under Trim. Most sessions stay one-file compare.
• NewPack saves a delivery zip; Copy path for the ★ file; Auto-generate toggle under More; AE panel shows render %; batch rows show ★ reasons.
• BetterPreview frames size to the clip’s aspect ratio — portrait and square no longer sit in always-wide boxes.

Quieter results — one primary Download, verdict does the talking.

• Better★ card demotes to secondary Download; Pack is compact; source name moves onto the verdict strip. Less duplicate copy, clearer decision chrome.
• BetterAccent tokens on badges, 200ms progress motion, A/B paused under reduced-motion.

Handoff trust — Goal on the rail, safer auto-generate, ★ in delivery packs.

• FixedAE import clears the workspace before compare; Generate won’t double-fire with auto-gen. Goal sits next to Preset so ★ isn’t a mystery.
• BetterDelivery pack and batch saves prefix ★ in filenames; toasts name the folder, not a full path.

Drop → compare → delivery pack — fewer clicks, cleaner AE handoff.

• NewDelivery pack saves ★ + challenger + next alt into one folder. First drop and After Effects Render & compare start Generate automatically.
• BetterAE panel matches SIGNAL, adds Social preset, and opens FoldCut with generate=1 so the compare is already running.

Decision Tool 2.0 — see why ★ won, and A/B it against a challenger.

• NewScrub-synced A/B stage: ★ Recommended vs a challenger (click any card to swap). Goal-aware verdict strip under the results toolbar.
• BetterLosers show relative why-not lines vs ★ (size / SSIM / goal). Winning card Download is Download Recommended.

Honest recommendations — and timeline encodes that match the sequence.

• FixedWebsite Hero only prefers WebP within ~1.5× of the smallest. Best-quality won’t ★ an unscored format when peers were measured; under-target keeps the best SSIM that fits (or says none did); badges follow measured SSIM; alpha caveats only on variants that kept alpha.
• FixedTimeline Generate uses the full sequence (duration/fps/alpha/size), not the selected clip — ABR targets and SizeScope finally agree. Target-size fit no longer wastes quality knobs on PNG/APNG; fitted SSIM is labeled as such. AV1 saves as *-av1.webm.

Denser workspace — more room for the comparison grid.

• BetterThinner settings rail, shorter timeline aligned to it, sticky Download Recommended, tighter variant cards, and a 2-column grid that kicks in sooner. Find best loop starts scanning when you open it.

Download Recommended first — plus a real app icon and AE panel zip.

• BetterAfter Generate, Download Recommended sits in the results bar and on the winning card. Recommendation lines are shorter. The installer uses the FoldCut ∞ icon.
• NewAfter Effects panel ships as FoldCut-AE-Panel.zip on Releases — unzip into CEP extensions and open Window → Extensions → FoldCut.

One workspace — drop, generate, download. No Convert/Edit switch.

• BetterRemoved the mode toggle. One file compares; several on empty batch; adding a second clip sequences on a timeline. Settings show preset + output first; formats and knobs live under More options. Trim and loop finder stay out of the way until you open them.

Hardened updates and imports — no more probing the app as a video.

• FixedImport and probe now refuse the app binary and helper .exe files before ffprobe runs. Auto-update install waits for the background server to die, shows Installing…, and surfaces failures on the version badge so Restart can apply updates without a manual reinstall.

Fix: app no longer tries to open FoldCut.exe as a video on launch.

• FixedOpening the app could show an ffprobe error on FoldCut.exe — cold-start import mistook the executable path for a dropped file. Only real media paths and foldcut:// imports are accepted now.

Fix: auto-update install was blocked by a leftover FoldCut process.

• FixedRestart to install could quit the app without applying the update. The background Next server is another FoldCut.exe; it is now force-stopped before the installer runs. If an update already downloaded and won't install, grab 0.3.5 once from the releases page.

Modern GIF (zengif) and an After Effects panel that hands work areas to FoldCut.

• NewGIF now encodes through a license-clean Rust helper — zengif + quantette — after FFmpeg extracts frames. Same compare grid, same SSIM, no gifski or gifsicle.
• NewAfter Effects CEP panel: render the composition work area to a PNG sequence and open it in desktop FoldCut (foldcut://) with a preset hint. Measured encode still happens in the app.

APNG — lossless animated PNG with real alpha, measured like everything else.

• NewAPNG export. Drop a transparent UI loop and compare Animated PNG alongside WebP, WebM, and GIF. It keeps real alpha, scores with SSIM (unlike animated WebP), and saves as a .png. On the Transparent UI Loop preset by default.
• BetterTarget-size fit for APNG works like GIF/WebP: when there's no bitrate knob, it drops frames and pixels until the file lands under budget.

Two clear modes — Convert to just export, Edit to build a sequence.

• NewConvert and Edit are now a switch at the top of the app. Convert is the plain path with no timeline: drop one file for compared variants, or several for a batch — a measured decision per file, chosen by how many files you brought. Edit brings up the timeline for stitching clips into one sequence.
• BetterThe timeline shows only in Edit — and it shows the moment you switch, even empty, so there's a track ready to drop onto. Switching carries your files across: a batch flipped to Edit is already laid out on the timeline; a sequence flipped back to Convert flattens to one item per file.
• NewOn the timeline, press Delete to remove the selected clip, and each clip shows a small filmstrip or image glyph so a mixed sequence reads at a glance.

A timeline: sequence a few clips, render them as one.

• NewA timeline across the top of the app — your imported assets on the left, the sequence on the right. Drop in a few clips or images, drag them into order, and they render end to end as a single export: still measured, still compared, still one decision at the end. Select any clip to preview and trim it; the settings rail is unchanged. It is not a video editor — no tracks, no transitions, no effects.
• NewClips can be any shape, so one has to win: the first clip sets the canvas and the rest are letterboxed into it, never stretched. The canvas is shown on the timeline before you render, and reordering changes it.

Light mode, Windows-native chrome, and the accent tells you what you're working on.

• FixedImage previews didn't show. A still was being rendered inside a <video> tag, which draws nothing. Stills and sequence frames now render as images — and the app labels the file type so AVIF previews reliably.
• NewA light theme, with a toggle in the top-right. Every colour was re-derived rather than inverted: the bright cyan that reads well on near-black scores 2.2:1 as text on white, so light mode takes darker accents and white ink. All six theme/accent combinations clear WCAG AA.
• NewThe accent tells you what you're working on: blue for images, purple for motion.
• NewWindows-native window controls — minimise, maximise and close, top-right where they belong, instead of macOS traffic lights on the left. The logo now sits centred, with a New button on the left.
• BetterYour job survives navigation. Popping over to Presets and back used to throw away the clip and every variant you were reading. Only New clears it now.

Loops it can find, images it can compare, and batches it can decide.

• NewFind best loop — one click scans the clip and trims it to the longest seamless loop. It matches the frame AND the motion at the seam, because a frame can match perfectly while the subject moves the opposite way, which still jerks.
• NewImages. Drop a PNG or JPEG and compare AVIF / WebP / JPEG / PNG the same way — measured. On a test shot AVIF matched PNG's measured quality at 88% smaller.
• NewBatch. Drop a folder and every file gets the same settings and its own measured decision — then save the whole set to one folder.
• NewImage sequences. Point at any frame of an After Effects render and FoldCut works out the rest — the AE handoff, without an AE plugin. The frame rate is a control, not a guess.
• BetterRecommendations now rank on measured quality when everything was measurable. A lossless PNG that's 8× bigger for +0.0002 SSIM isn't 'best quality' — it's waste, and the app no longer recommends it.

FoldCut finds your loop.

• NewFind best loop: one click scans the clip and trims it to the longest seamless loop it can find. It matches both the frame and the motion at the seam — a still frame can match perfectly while the subject is moving the opposite way, which still reads as a jerk.
• NewIt's honest about what it found: 'seamless', 'good seam', 'visible seam' or 'rough seam'. A clip with nothing to loop is told so rather than handed a flattering number.
• NewDon't like the first answer? Cycle through the next-best loops — the tightest seam isn't always the segment you wanted.

The app updates itself now.

• NewThe build version sits in the bottom-left corner. Click it to check for updates, click again to download, and once more to restart into the new build.
• NewA changelog page on the site, and the latest notes right under the download button — so you can see what changed before you install.
• BetterNothing downloads in the background. Updates only happen when you ask for them.

A tighter workspace, and the app opens where you actually work.

• FixedThe app opened on the marketing landing page — inside the app you'd already installed. It now boots straight into the workspace, which also cuts a full page load from every launch.
• FixedPresets had no way back. There's now a real Back button, and Esc returns you to the workspace.
• BetterDensity pass: the comparison grid — the whole point of the app — grew 58%. The settings rail no longer scrolls, and the size panel became a single inline strip instead of a 255px box.
• NewThe build version sits bottom-left. Click it to check for updates and install them in one go.

First release — measured export decisions, not guesses.

• NewAV1 export: typically ~45–60% smaller than VP9 at the same measured quality.
• NewMeasured quality (SSIM) on every variant, scored against the exact frames the encoder saw — so size vs. quality is a real comparison.
• NewTarget file size that's actually honoured. GIF and WebP have no bitrate to turn down, so they shrink by dropping frames and pixels — and the app tells you exactly what it changed.
• NewTrim to a loop with a live in/out preview — the single biggest lever for a small GIF.
• NewTransparency detected in the source and preserved across WebM, WebP and GIF.