Changelog

Readiness for macOS 27, and steadier keyboard input across the app.

• macOSReady for macOS 27: clicking the menu bar icon opens Paperman's controls again, with right-click still going to the menu.
• macOSSteadier Keyboard Input: text fields take keyboard input more reliably, including the shortcut recorder.
• Polish: general stability improvements and small visual polish.

A reworked Classic Matte with display fidelity everywhere, and a warmer starting point for Desk Lamp.

• Reworked Classic Matte: rebuilt to solve grain scaling across different setups, with sharp, even grain on standard, high-DPI, ultrawide, curved and vertical displays.
• Resolution & DPI Calibration: no more moiré patterns, stretched pixels or blurred patches of grain as the screen changes.
• macOSLiquid Glass Synergy: blends smoothly with Liquid Glass for a crisp but soft finish, and stays light on resources so your Mac keeps up.
• PreviewQuiet Aurora by Default: Desk Lamp now starts on Quiet Aurora, a softer and cooler light than the old neutral default. If you have already tuned your own settings, nothing changes.
• Polish: general stability improvements and small visual polish.

Introducing Desk Lamp presets, a shortcut to switch the light on and off, and fixes for sleep and startup.

• PreviewDesk Lamp Ambiance: six ready-made lighting moods — Soft Candlelight, Midnight Oil, Nook Lantern, Gallery Spot, Golden Hour and Quiet Aurora. Pick the one that suits the room.
• PreviewMake It Your Own: every preset is a starting point. Tune warmth, height and spread, and edge dimming from the Adjustments section.
• Desk Lamp Shortcut: turn Desk Lamp on and off without opening Paperman (⌥⌘O by default, customizable in Settings).
• Polish: small visual refinements across Settings.

Paperman now stays with you through sleep and wake, and starts up where you expect it to.

• macOSSurvives Sleep: Paperman no longer quits when your Mac goes to sleep. Leave your machine idle as long as you like - it is still there, still running, when you come back.
• macOSReliable Wake: after waking, your paper texture is restored across your full display automatically, with no need to toggle it off and on.
• Steadier Displays: unplugging and reconnecting monitors is handled more gracefully, so your texture returns to the right place on the right screens.
• macOSOpen at Login: if you have Paperman set to start automatically, it now appears properly under System Settings → Login Items & Extensions → Open at Login, alongside your other apps.

License details for every way you bought Paperman, and a smoother update experience.

• macOSFriendlier Updates: if Paperman is running from the disk image rather than your Applications folder, it now tells you exactly what to move and where, instead of failing part way through an update.
• License Details: your license view now recognizes Mac App Store purchases and Setapp memberships, showing your membership details and the date you started rather than asking for a license key.
• Polish: general stability improvements and small visual polish throughout.

Notch-aware overlays for MacBook displays.

• macOSNotch-Safe Overlay: the paper surface now adjusts around the camera notch as you move between windowed and full-screen apps, so your menu bar stays clean.
• macOSFull-Screen Detection: more reliable detection of full-screen apps on notched MacBooks, so the effect settles in the right place every time.
• Stability: under-the-hood reliability improvements.

Introducing Desk Lamp Mode. Bring the warm, cozy glow of physical desk lighting to your paper surface.

• PreviewDesk Lamp Mode: a brand new ambient lighting mode designed to give your screen the warm, cozy feel of sitting beside a physical desk lamp.
• Customizable Lighting: tune warmth, position, and intensity to make the lighting and ambience entirely your own.

Help & Support updates, refined license details, and overall stability improvements.

• Support > FAQ: added new answers and helpful tips in FAQ for smoother setup and everyday use.
• License Details: refined license and membership details view.
• Polish: general stability improvements and small visual polish.

Hot fix for enabling textures.

Single-instance app focus and menu bar update checks across macOS and Windows.

• Single-Instance Focus: launching Paperman while it is already running now brings your existing window to the front instead of opening duplicate processes.
• Tray & Menu Bar Update Checks: added a "Check for Updates" option to the system tray and menu bar that opens settings and checks for new versions.
• Window Reliability: improved window focusing and foreground recovery across both macOS and Windows.

Background update checks and reliability improvements.

• Updater: improved background update checks and silenced redundant notifications.
• Polish: minor UI improvements across settings.

Notch-safe overlay alignment for MacBook displays.

• macOSMacBook Notch Support: improved overlay geometry calculation to safely adjust window frames below the camera notch on modern MacBooks.
• Reliability: improved multi-monitor overlay positioning during display hot-plugging.

Automatic appearance synchronization.

• macOSAutomatic Theme Sync: Paperman now automatically switches between Daytime and Nighttime textures to match your macOS system appearance (Light / Dark mode).

Redesigned Refer tab and community sharing.

• Refer & Community: refreshed sharing tab with simplified links to share Paperman with friends and colleagues.
• UI Polish: visual updates to tabs and modal overlays.

Faster and smarter App Exceptions.

• App Exceptions Autocomplete: improved search matching, proper app casing, and full keyboard navigation (arrows and Enter) when adding apps to your exception list.

Launch on startup.

• macOSAuto Launch: easily set Paperman to start automatically when logging into your Mac.

In-app Help, FAQ, and Support.

• Help & FAQ: dedicated FAQ section in Settings answering common questions about display behavior, multi-monitor setups, and full-screen apps.
• Support: quick links to contact support or share feedback.

Collectible supporter card and license management.

• Supporter Card: collectible personalized license card with custom member titles and exportable card image.

Full-screen mode support, Setapp compatibility, and other stability fixes.

• macOSFull-Screen Mode: improved behavior and overlay compatibility when working across macOS full-screen apps and Spaces.
• macOSSetapp Compatibility: customized UI behaviors built specifically to support Setapp users seamlessly.
• macOSNative Frosted Glass UI: refreshed settings panel adopting native macOS frosted glass backdrops.
• Stability & Fixes: under-the-hood performance improvements and overall reliability polish.

Performance improvements for screenshot monitor to keep Paperman even more lightweight.

Hide Paperman from screenshots, with faster app exceptions.

• Hide from Screenshots: a new toggle keeps the Paperman Effect out of your screenshots and screen recordings.
• Faster App Exceptions: Paperman now applies or lifts much faster when switching to or from an app on your exceptions list.
• UI Polish: design polish for App Exceptions settings.

Mulberry Veil joins the Paperman texture collection, with smarter hotkey controls, and a refined intensity slider.

• New Texture: Mulberry Veil – a delicate surface with a deep plum undertone.
• Improved Hotkeys: improved keyboard shortcuts with individual enable/disable and rapid multi-hotkey toggling.
• Intensity Slider: redesigned for clarity with a beige fill indicator showing current level and a hidden handle on hover.

Introducing Vellum Mist, a soft new paper texture for a more refined reading experience.

• New Texture: Vellum Mist – a soft, semi-translucent haze that diffuses light like frosted vellum.

Introducing Painter's Press and pinned textures for faster switching.

• New Texture: Painter's Press – a textured cold-press surface with subtle tooth and depth.
• Pinned Textures: pin up to 4 favorites to the control center and switch between them in a tap.
• Texture Management: browse and manage the full collection from Settings → Textures.
• Hotkeys Toggle: a switch to enable or disable Paperman's keyboard shortcuts.
• Battery Behavior: a clearer "Turn off Paperman on battery" control.
• Intensity Feedback: a subtle indicator shows the texture and level as you adjust intensity.

Introducing our new texture 'Saddle Linen', along with better keyboard control, and the usual round of small improvements.

• New Texture: Saddle Linen – a coarse, natural linen weave with warm earthy tones.
• Shortcuts: new shortcut to cycle through textures (⌥⌘T on macOS, customizable in Settings).
• Accessibility: improved keyboard navigation and focus rings across all controls.

Introducing our brand new texture 'Sunbaked Parchment', smarter intensity memory, and a redesigned texture picker.

• New Texture: Sunbaked Parchment – a warm, aged paper texture with subtle grain in light mode and deeper warmth in dark mode.
• Texture Picker: redesigned as icon cards in both the control center and Settings → Texture, making it easier to browse and switch.
• Per-Texture Intensity: each texture now remembers its own intensity separately for light and dark mode.
• Intensity Step Buttons: click the sun icons beside the slider in the control center to nudge intensity up or down by 1%.
• Theme Indicator: a "Now" indicator shows which theme (Daytime or Nighttime) is currently active.

Snooze, faster shortcuts, and a friendlier home for feedback.

• Snooze: tap the bell badge in the control center for a 1, 5, 10, or 15 minute break (also in Settings → Protection).
• Snooze Shortcut: new global shortcut to toggle Snooze with configurable duration (⌥⌘\ on macOS).
• Hotkeys Tab: all keyboard shortcuts now live in their own settings tab for easier customization.
• Support: a settings tab to share feedback or leave an App Store review in one tap.
• Reliability: external displays now re-apply Paperman automatically after unplug and replug.
• Edge Polish: removed a faint hairline at the screen edge that could appear at higher intensities.

Intel Mac Support: Paperman now runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

• macOSIntel Mac Support: full native support for both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Mac systems.
• Bug Fixes: fixed a crash that occurred when downloading the license card.
• macOSMenu bar icon is now properly sized for the macOS status bar.
• Design Polish: layout and design improvements in About and Sidebar sections.

Portrait Display Fix: fixed an issue where the paper texture only covered a part of the screen when the main display was rotated to portrait.

• Added a small tip in the monitor picker explaining what to do if the texture misbehaves after changing display arrangement.
• Settings Panel Polish: cleaner icons across Protection and Circadian Rhythm.
• More consistent card layouts between tabs.
• Overall design improvements.

App Exceptions — Allowlist Mode: you can now switch App Exceptions to an allowlist. Paperman only activates in the apps you choose, instead of staying active everywhere except your exceptions.

• Battery Behavior: new battery settings let you control how Paperman behaves when you're unplugged. Choose to pause automatically below a set battery percentage.
• Texture Intensity Slider: fine-tune how strong your paper texture appears with a new intensity slider in the Texture settings tab.
• Improved Shortcut Reliability: keyboard shortcuts now use system-wide global shortcut handling, making them more stable and consistent across different apps and workflows.

Multi-monitor support improvements.

• Improved overlay covering the full screen at launch on external displays when using mixed-DPI setups.
• macOSImproved display arrangement in Settings matching macOS display layout.

Multi-monitor reliability fixes.

• macOSOverlay windows now recover correctly after sleep, wake, Space transitions, and display reconnects.
• Monitor selections are remembered by screen geometry, so your setup survives display reorders and resolution changes.

Early Supporter Badge: new License Card design that proudly displays your early supporter status.

• Performance & UI: extensive refinements to the interface and core performance for a smoother experience.
• Stability: fixed minor issues with theme scheduling.

Paperman brings more customization to your reading experience with a new texture: "Whisper Weave."

• New Texture: Whisper Weave – an ultra-fine texture designed for maximum comfort during long reading sessions.
• Per-Theme Textures: choose different textures for Light and Dark modes.
• Multi-Monitor & Panels: enhanced multi-monitor support and draggable control panel.
• Scheduling: refined theme scheduling and "Auto" mode improvements.

Full Multi-Monitor Support: select and manage specific external monitors for your overlay displays.

• Customizable Workspaces: your controls and settings panels are now fully draggable and position-persistent.
• Refreshed Interface: enhanced layout in the About section with updated design attribution.
• Display Engine: refactored display logic to make handling primary displays and unconfigured monitors smoother.

Paperman's controls and settings have been refreshed for a cleaner, calmer experience.

• Refreshed Controls: new Dark Green UI with improved pause/resume behavior, better app-specific disabling, and cleaner settings layout.
• Protection Schedule: toggle directly turns the Paperman effect on or off.
• Polish: shortcut improvements, paper sound preference, and general refinements throughout the control panel.