diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 8113ae7b..8a7e19d7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -11,14 +11,23 @@
 ---
 ## (current master)
 
-## 0.12.2
+## 0.12.3
+
+- new grid line style defaults
+- `grid` is now an axis attribute and a magic argument: it is now possible to modify the grid line style, alpha and line width
+- Enforce plot order in user recipes
+- import `plot!` from RecipesBase
+- GR no longer automatically handles _ and ^ in texts
+- fix GR colorbar for scatter plots
+
+#### 0.12.2
 
 - fix an issue with Juno/PlotlyJS compatibility on new installations
 - fix markers not showing up in seriesrecipes using :scatter
 - don't use pywrap in the pyplot backend
 - improve the bottom margin for the gr backend
 
-## 0.12.1
+#### 0.12.1
 
 - fix deprecation warnings
 - switch from FixedSizeArrays to StaticArrays.FixedSizeArrays
diff --git a/src/Plots.jl b/src/Plots.jl
index bca0d9c9..0b67cd6d 100644
--- a/src/Plots.jl
+++ b/src/Plots.jl
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-__precompile__(true)
+__precompile__(false)
 
 module Plots
 
diff --git a/test/imgcomp.jl b/test/imgcomp.jl
index 7d6ae303..f3c0ee22 100644
--- a/test/imgcomp.jl
+++ b/test/imgcomp.jl
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ default(size=(500,300))
 # TODO: use julia's Condition type and the wait() and notify() functions to initialize a Window, then wait() on a condition that
 #       is referenced in a button press callback (the button clicked callback will call notify() on that condition)
 
-const _current_plots_version = v"0.12.1"
+const _current_plots_version = v"0.12.3"
 
 
 function image_comparison_tests(pkg::Symbol, idx::Int; debug = false, popup = isinteractive(), sigma = [1,1], eps = 1e-2)