diff --git a/.release-please-manifest.json b/.release-please-manifest.json
index 2ec73c03e..e18a3dd8d 100644
--- a/.release-please-manifest.json
+++ b/.release-please-manifest.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "core": "0.0.0",
-  "bindings/c": "0.0.0",
+  "bindings/c": "1.0.0",
   "packages/js": "0.0.0",
   "packages/py": "0.0.0"
 }
diff --git a/bindings/c/CHANGELOG.md b/bindings/c/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d2ba2f54d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindings/c/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# Changelog
+
+## 1.0.0 (2026-05-28)
+
+
+### ⚠ BREAKING CHANGES
+
+* **core:** img2num::labels_to_svg now returns std::string instead of char*. Callers using the C++ API must update their code to capture the return value as std::string and remove any associated std::free / delete[] calls. Callers using the C binding (cimg2num) are unaffected at the ABI level but should use img2num_free_svg to deallocate the returned buffer.
+* **api:** remove draw_contour_borders from labels_to_svg ([#283](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/issues/283))
+
+### ✨ Features
+
+* **library, bindings, examples:** C bindings, C & C++ shared libs, C & C++ example apps ([#263](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/issues/263)) ([bb2403e](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/commit/bb2403ee1a9a81f39d2b5a1746c404c3c526a2f3))
+* unified image_to_svg function as complete pipeline ([#335](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/issues/335)) ([bdba68c](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/commit/bdba68c8adbbf79a163aba9df25849c5ff36a6b9))
+
+
+### ♻️ Refactoring
+
+* **api:** remove draw_contour_borders from labels_to_svg ([#283](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/issues/283)) ([eee9b31](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/commit/eee9b3135b5b651a20cc8ffab74bcef073b74b6a))
+* **core:** update labels_to_svg to return std::string ([#333](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/issues/333)) ([a71e3b1](https://github.com/Ryan-Millard/Img2Num/commit/a71e3b17505306b96ebe56439b1f78215e53e56d))
diff --git a/bindings/c/CMakeLists.txt b/bindings/c/CMakeLists.txt
index e045048fb..6391cbe9f 100644
--- a/bindings/c/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/bindings/c/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
 project(CImg2Num
   LANGUAGES CXX
   # Don't change the inline comment below - release-please needs it
-  VERSION 0.0.0 # x-release-please-version
+  VERSION 1.0.0 # x-release-please-version
 )
 
 include(CMakePackageConfigHelpers)