RAD Studio 13.1 Florence Update 1: A Revolutionary Leap Forward in Development Technology

Embarcadero has just dropped the most exciting update to RAD Studio since its inception, and developers everywhere are buzzing with anticipation! RAD Studio 13.1 Florence Update 1, along with Delphi 13 Update 1 and C++Builder 13 Update 1, is officially available to customers starting today, and it’s packed with game-changing features that will transform your development workflow.

This isn’t just another incremental update—RAD Studio 13.1 Florence delivers a comprehensive overhaul that combines cutting-edge platform capabilities with relentless focus on quality and developer productivity. Whether you’re building desktop applications, mobile apps, or enterprise solutions, this release has something spectacular for everyone.

Delphi Arm64EC Native Compiler Toolchain: The Future of Windows Development

Target the next generation of Windows on Arm devices with your existing codebase

The crown jewel of RAD Studio 13.1 is undoubtedly the new Delphi Windows on Arm native compiler. This revolutionary feature allows developers to target the next generation of Windows on Arm devices with unprecedented ease and performance. Gone are the days of relying on Intel emulation—Delphi can now generate native Arm binaries that run directly on Windows Arm devices, including Windows on Arm virtual machines on Arm-based Macs.

What makes this truly mind-blowing is that existing Delphi applications can generally be recompiled for the new platform with minimal changes. The IDE’s Platform Manager now includes Windows on Arm as a target, allowing developers to build applications for Win32, Win64 (Intel), and Win64 (Arm) from the same codebase. This means you can reach a broader audience without rewriting your applications!

Technically speaking, Delphi generates Arm64EC binaries using Microsoft’s Arm64EC (Emulation Compatible) ABI. This innovative approach enables native Arm64 code to interoperate seamlessly with emulated x64 code, allowing you to mix Intel libraries with Arm-based executables. The best part? It supports incremental migration by preserving x64 calling conventions and register usage.

The toolchain is built on LLVM 20, leveraging LLVM’s linker infrastructure and selected RTL services while relying on Microsoft’s UCRT for core runtime functionality. Applications compiled with Delphi for Windows on Arm interact directly with the native Windows 64-bit Arm API, delivering native performance that will leave your users amazed.

Android API Level 36 and iOS 26 Support: Stay Ahead of the Curve

Compliance for the latest mobile OS and app store requirements

In today’s fast-paced mobile development landscape, staying current with platform requirements is crucial. RAD Studio 13.1 adds support for Android API level 36, which becomes mandatory for publishing apps on the Google Play Store starting in August 2026. This forward-thinking update ensures your applications remain compliant with the latest platform requirements.

The release also updates the build system and platform JAR files accordingly, and we’ve refreshed the Application Uses Permissions page to include permissions required by the new API level. Additionally, the Jetpack Core library used by the FireMonkey framework on Android has been upgraded, ensuring your applications leverage the latest Android capabilities.

On the Apple side, RAD Studio 13.1 adds official support for iOS 26 and raises the default minimum supported iOS version to ensure continued compliance with App Store requirements. This comprehensive mobile platform support means you can confidently target the latest devices and operating systems without worrying about compatibility issues.

Bookmarks Addon Integrated in the IDE: Supercharge Your Navigation

Expanded built-in source bookmark capabilities

One of the most practical enhancements in RAD Studio 13.1 is the full integration of the Bookmarks add-on directly into the IDE. Originally developed by Parnassus and previously available via GetIt, this implementation replaces the IDE’s built-in bookmark system with a more capable and extensible solution that will dramatically improve your productivity.

The enhanced Bookmarks feature introduces automatic numbering, fast keyboard-driven navigation, and a structured view of active bookmarks with precise code line references and nice preview capabilities. You can now drop a bookmark and press Escape to return to it instantly—these bookmarks behave as a stack, following a last-in, first-out model, with each bookmark removed as you return to it.

This seemingly simple enhancement can save hours of development time when working with large codebases. The ability to quickly navigate to relevant sections of your source code and return to your previous location with a single keystroke is a game-changer for developers who work with complex projects.

Windows 11 Specific VCL Styles: Modernize Your Applications Instantly

Easily modernize the look and feel of your Windows applications

Continuing the UI modernization efforts that have characterized recent releases, RAD Studio 13.1 Florence introduces six stunning new Windows 11–specific VCL styles. These include Windows Modern, Windows Modern Dark, Windows Modern Slate Gray, Windows Modern Green, Windows Modern Blue, and Windows Modern Purple, giving you unprecedented flexibility in customizing your application’s appearance.

The corresponding update to IDE styles further aligns the RAD Studio IDE with the Windows 11 look and feel. The IDE automatically selects an appropriate style based on the operating system—using a Windows 10 style when running on Windows 10 and switching to a Windows 11 style on Windows 11. This intelligent theming ensures your development environment always looks native and professional.

Additional IDE UI improvements include support for rounded window corners, improvements to the IDE search control, and updates to the navigation toolbar. These subtle enhancements create a more polished and modern development experience that will make you excited to open your IDE every day.

FireMonkey Style Designer: Revolutionize Your UI Development

Faster, more flexible and modern UI styling

RAD Studio 13.1 includes the initial release of a groundbreaking new FireMonkey Style Designer that represents a complete reimagining of how developers create and manage FMX styles. Unlike the existing Bitmap Style Designer, this new tool is built specifically for FireMonkey and based on more modern design principles.

The Style Designer is a standalone application that takes a design-centric approach to styling, focusing on high-level concepts such as colors, backgrounds, typography, and interaction states rather than requiring detailed knowledge of style object hierarchies and component internals. The tool then handles the translation into the underlying FireMonkey style format automatically.

What’s truly impressive is that the Style Designer itself was built with FireMonkey, showcasing the framework’s ability to support professional desktop tooling. While primarily intended for developers, it’s also designed to be used by UI/UX designers working alongside the development team, enabling closer collaboration on the user experience of FireMonkey applications.

This new tool significantly improves the workflow for creating FireMonkey styles and enables teams to iterate on designs much faster than ever before. We’ll be sharing more detailed documentation and a dedicated webinar soon, but early adopters are already calling this one of the most exciting features in the release.

DelphiLSP LSIF: Lightning-Fast Navigation and Code Insight

Faster navigation in library source code

RAD Studio 13.1 introduces an extended architecture for the DelphiLSP code completion and navigation engine that will dramatically improve your development experience. The Delphi Language Server Protocol (LSP) engine now includes support for the Language Server Index Format (LSIF), representing a fundamental architectural change that reduces dependence on the compiler.

The LSIF system introduces a new approach for DelphiLSP to provide navigation and Code Insight features by using pre-generated index files rather than relying on the compiler. When LSIF data is available, the language server can offer faster, more stable operations such as Go To Definition and Hover information. The product already includes pre-generated LSIF files for the core libraries, and you can generate matching LSIF files for the symbols defined in your own packages using a new compiler option.

The primary goal of this change is to deliver faster performance for common navigation requests without invoking the compiler. LSIF support increases responsiveness, reduces pauses previously caused by repeated background compilation, and improves DelphiLSP stability by lowering the number of requests sent to the compiler. This means you’ll spend less time waiting and more time coding—a win for every developer!

C++Builder / Modern Win64 Quality: Rock-Solid Performance

Following the upgrade to Clang 20 and C++23 in 13.0, RAD Studio 13.1 focuses primarily on improving quality across the C++Builder 64-bit Modern compiler toolchain. Notably, this release introduces the clang-scan-deps utility for faster dependency analysis and improves Unicode path handling during linker invocation.

For the Windows SDK, the import process has been made more robust when multiple SDK versions are installed, and support has been added for the latest Windows SDK. Several issues affecting the use of the Delphi runtime from C++ have also been addressed, ensuring seamless interoperability between the two languages.

These quality improvements mean you can trust your C++Builder projects to build reliably and perform exceptionally, even in the most demanding scenarios. The focus on stability and compatibility demonstrates Embarcadero’s commitment to providing enterprise-grade tools that developers can rely on for mission-critical applications.

IDE and Debugger Quality: Polished to Perfection

For the RAD Studio IDE, beyond the headline features, this release delivers a significant improvement to the High DPI design experience. You can now choose to save forms at 96 DPI, regardless of the design-time DPI. This is particularly useful for teams working on the same project across different screen resolutions and High DPI IDE configurations, eliminating the frustration of inconsistent form layouts.

The release also introduces a new mechanism that allows simple calculations in selected numeric fields of the Object Inspector (specifically the Left, Top, Height, and Width properties of VCL TControl and derived classes). This small but mighty feature means you can type expressions like “100+20” directly into property fields and have them evaluated automatically—saving countless clicks and improving your workflow.

Embarcadero’s product registration experience has also been modernized, with significant updates to both the License Manager application and the Product Registration dialog. These VCL applications now offer High DPI support using the Per Monitor v2 configuration, along with updated fonts and an overall UI refresh that brings them in line with modern Windows applications.

For the debugger, the “Attach to Process” dialog now displays process icons, making it easier to identify target processes at a glance. This seemingly minor enhancement can save valuable time when debugging complex applications with multiple running processes.

Quality and Small Enhancements for VCL and FireMonkey: The Devil is in the Details

In RAD Studio 13.1, Embarcadero has delivered a broad set of quality improvements across both UI libraries, VCL and FireMonkey. For FireMonkey, we added support for Tinted Glyph, enabling icon recoloring within an ImageList—bringing this capability in line with what’s already available for the TSpeedButton control. This feature is also used by the new FireMonkey Style Designer, creating a cohesive styling experience.

Additional FireMonkey enhancements include support for Linux styles and views in the IDE designer, added support for DirectX texture filtering, and improved handling of TFrame alignment and margin management when embedded in FireMonkey forms. These incremental improvements demonstrate Embarcadero’s attention to detail and commitment to providing a comprehensive development platform.

FireDAC and Database Improvements: Connect to Everything

Database access remains a core strength of RAD Studio. The FireDAC library continues to be updated to support the latest database versions. In this release, we’ve added support for SAP ASE Server 16.1, IBM DB2 12.1, and MariaDB Server 12.1 (with some FireDAC database drivers available in the Enterprise edition only). Legacy SQLite encryption is now available for 64-bit Windows applications, ensuring you can secure your data regardless of your deployment target.

These database enhancements mean you can connect to virtually any data source with confidence, knowing that your FireDAC components will handle the complexities of database connectivity, providing a consistent and reliable data access layer for your applications.

Web Tooling Enhancements: Build Modern Connected Applications

RAD Studio 13.1 introduces support for the HTTP Server-Sent Events (SSE) model for both Web servers and Web clients, with new classes such as TWebResponseStream, THTTPEvent, and THTTPEventSource. This enables the development of applications based on SSE, including support for protocols such as MCP (Model Context Protocol), opening up new possibilities for real-time web applications.

In addition, WebBroker adds Apache configuration support for C++Builder, and RAD Server Lite now includes integrated support for TLS 1.3. These web enhancements ensure your applications can take advantage of modern web standards and security protocols, providing both cutting-edge functionality and robust protection for your users’ data.

Ready to Go: Transform Your Development Today

Product trials for RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder 13.1 Florence are now available, and the updated product builds are live in the online store. Customers on Update Subscription can download and install RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder 13.1 today using their existing license and will receive an email announcing the new release availability. Downloads are available in the customers portal at https://my.embarcadero.com.

For more information, you can check the following links:

A Strong Release: The Future is Here

RAD Studio 13.1 Florence represents a strong step forward, with meaningful new features and a continued focus on quality. We’re confident you’ll find this release valuable in your day-to-day development with RAD Studio, C++Builder, and Delphi.

Elevate your development experience with RAD Studio 13 Florence Update 1.

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Tags: RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder, Windows on Arm, Arm64EC, FireMonkey, VCL, IDE, development tools, software development, mobile development, desktop applications, database connectivity, web development, SSE, LSIF, bookmarks, UI styling, modern development

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Viral Sentences: “RAD Studio 13.1 Florence Update 1 is officially available to customers starting today, and it’s packed with game-changing features that will transform your development workflow.” “This isn’t just another incremental update—RAD Studio 13.1 Florence delivers a comprehensive overhaul that combines cutting-edge platform capabilities with relentless focus on quality and developer productivity.” “The crown jewel of RAD Studio 13.1 is undoubtedly the new Delphi Windows on Arm native compiler.” “What makes this truly mind-blowing is that existing Delphi applications can generally be recompiled for the new platform with minimal changes.” “One of the most practical enhancements in RAD Studio 13.1 is the full integration of the Bookmarks add-on directly into the IDE.” “Continuing the UI modernization efforts that have characterized recent releases, RAD Studio 13.1 Florence introduces six stunning new Windows 11–specific VCL styles.” “RAD Studio 13.1 includes the initial release of a groundbreaking new FireMonkey Style Designer that represents a complete reimagining of how developers create and manage FMX styles.” “The LSIF system introduces a new approach for DelphiLSP to provide navigation and Code Insight features by using pre-generated index files rather than relying on the compiler.” “These quality improvements mean you can trust your C++Builder projects to build reliably and perform exceptionally, even in the most demanding scenarios.” “RAD Studio 13.1 Florence represents a strong step forward, with meaningful new features and a continued focus on quality.”

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