Krita
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Developer(s) | Krita Foundation,KDE |
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Initial release | 21 June 2005 |
Stable release | 5.2.3[1] ![]() |
Repository | |
Written in | C++,Qt |
Operating system | Windows,macOS,Linux,[2]Android,ChromeOS,[3][4]Haiku |
Platform | IA-32andx64 |
Size | 111–201MiB(varies by operating system) |
Type | Raster graphics editor |
Licence | GPL-3.0-only[5] |
Website | krita |
Krita(/ˈkriːtə/KREE-tə)[6]is afree and open-sourceraster graphics editordesigned primarily fordigital artand2D animation.Originally created forLinux,the software also runs onWindows,macOS,Haiku,Android,andChromeOS,and features anOpenGL-accelerated canvas,colour managementsupport, an advanced brush engine, non-destructivelayersand masks, group-based layer management,vector artworksupport, and switchable customisation profiles.
Name
[edit]The project's name "Krita" is primarily inspired by theSwedishwordskrita,meaning "crayon"(orchalk), andritawhich means "to draw".
History
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Krita_team_Steven%2C_Stuart%2C_Lukas%2C_Wolthera%2C_Timothee%2C_Boud%2C_Sven%2C_Leinir_and_Dmitry.png/350px-Krita_team_Steven%2C_Stuart%2C_Lukas%2C_Wolthera%2C_Timothee%2C_Boud%2C_Sven%2C_Leinir_and_Dmitry.png)
Early development of the project can be tracked back to 1998 whenMatthias Ettrich,founder ofKDE,showcased aQtGUIhackforGIMPatLinux Kongress.The idea of building a Qt-based image editor was later passed to KImage, maintained by Michael Koch, as a part ofKOffice suite.In 1999, Matthias Elter proposed the idea of building the software usingCORBAaroundImageMagick.To avoid existing trademarks on the market, the project underwent numerous name changes: KImageShop, Krayon, until it was finally settled with "Krita" in 2002. The first public version of Krita was released with KOffice 1.4 in 2004.[7]In years between 2004 and 2009, Krita was developed as a generic image manipulation software likePhotoshopand GIMP.[8]
A change of direction happened to the project in 2009, with a new goal of becoming digital painting software likeCorel PainterandSAI.Also from that point, the project began to experiment with various ways of funding its development, includingGoogle Summer of Codeand funded jobs for students. As a result, the development gained speed and resulted in better performance and stability.[9]
TheKrita Foundationwas created in 2013 to provide support for Krita's development. It collaborated withIntelto create Krita Sketch as a marketing campaign and Krita Studio withKO GmbHas a commercially supported version for movie and VFX studios.Kickstartercampaigns have been used to crowdfund Krita's development since 2014.[citation needed]
Time | Version | Raised | Kickstarter Campaign | Stable release |
---|---|---|---|---|
July 2014 | 2.9.x | €19,955 | Faster Development,better PSD support, layers, masks, brush, resource manager, display, etc. | February 2015 |
May 2015 | 3.0.x | €30,520 | Better performance, animation support,layer, workflow, transform, filter, brush, etc. | May 2016 |
May 2016 | 4.0.x | €38,579 | Better text tools and vector art capability,Python scripting support, etc. | March 2018[10] |
5.0.X | Brushes, Gradients and Pallets get revamped,animation system improvements, screen recorder.[11] | December 2021 |
On May 23, 2020, the beta version of Krita was released forAndroidandChromeOS.[12][13][14]
Design and features
[edit]This sectionneeds additional citations forverification.(January 2020) |
The current version of Krita is developed with Qt 5 andKDE Frameworks 5.It is designed primarily forconcept artists,illustrators, matte and texture artists, and the VFX industry. It has the following key features:[15]
User experience design
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Krita_5.0_right-click_hud_popup-palette.png/220px-Krita_5.0_right-click_hud_popup-palette.png)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Digital_drawing_with_Krita_The_pencil_brushes_used_to_complete_the_work.jpg/220px-Digital_drawing_with_Krita_The_pencil_brushes_used_to_complete_the_work.jpg)
Krita'sUXwas designed withgraphics tabletusers in mind. It uses a combination of pen buttons, keyboard modifiers and an icon-basedHUDto ensure frequently-used functions can be accessed by fewer clicks, without the need to search through text-based menus.
Most-used drawing commandscan be accessed via touch by combining keyboard modifiers with pen/mouse buttons and gestures:
Command | Input |
---|---|
Brush size +/- | Shift + Pen drag |
Pick colour | Ctrl + Pen tap |
Pan | Pen button + Pen move |
Zoom | Ctrl + Pen button + Pen move |
Rotate | Shift + Pen button + Pen move |
Pop-up Paletteis Krita's right click HUD. It enables instant access to the following functions:
Brush | Colour | View |
---|---|---|
10 loaded brush presets | Colour ring selector | Zoom |
Load other preset groups | FG/BG colour display | Rotate |
Brush size, opacity, flow, spacing, angle | Recent colour | Mirror |
Canvas-only | ||
Reset view |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Krita_4.0_pixel_brush_engine_screenshot.png/220px-Krita_4.0_pixel_brush_engine_screenshot.png)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Krita_4.0_stock_brush_presets.png/220px-Krita_4.0_stock_brush_presets.png)
Painting tools
[edit]Krita's core digital painting tools include:
Brushes | Drawing assistants | Selection tools | Transformation tools |
---|---|---|---|
Graphics tablet support | Adjustable interference intensity | Rectangle | Free position |
9 different brush engines | Infinite and parallel straight rulers | Ellipse | Rotate |
Modelled after real tools | Splines (curves) | Freehand (lasso) | Scale |
Highly adjustable | Ellipses | Polygon | Shear |
Remembers settings for each physical pen | Perspective | Outline | Perspective |
Pen stabilizer | Vanishing point | Fill | Warp |
Multibrush painting support | Fish-eye point | Color | Cage |
Opacity | Liquify |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Krita_4.0_animation_interface.png/220px-Krita_4.0_animation_interface.png)
Animation tools
[edit]Krita's animation tools are designed for frame-by-frame raster animation. They have the following features:
Interface | Import | Export |
---|---|---|
Similar interface toAdobe Animate | Batch import of frames | Render withFFmpeg |
Timeline controls | Output to individual frames | |
Real-time animation playback controls | Output to GIF, AVI, MP4, etc. | |
Onion-skindisplay |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Krita_vector_tool.png/220px-Krita_vector_tool.png)
Vector tools
[edit]Krita uses vector tools for non-destructive editing of the following objects:
- Path
- Selection
- Text (artistic, multiline, calligraphy)
- Vector art
- Fill and gradient
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Krita_layer_and_mask_control.png/220px-Krita_layer_and_mask_control.png)
Layers and masks
[edit]Krita's layer and mask features include:
Layer management | Mask applies to | Non-destructive layers | Non-destructive masks |
---|---|---|---|
Multiple-level layer groups | Raster layers | Clone layers | Transparency masks |
Select multiple layers | Vector layers | Filter layers | Filter masks |
Drag-and-drop layers | Layer groups | Fill layers | Colourise masks |
Layer highlighting | Non-destructive layers | File layers | Transform masks |
Local selection masks |
Customisation
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/Krita_resource_manager.png/220px-Krita_resource_manager.png)
Krita's resource managerallows each brush or texture preset to be tagged by a user and quickly searched, filtered and loaded as a group. A collection of user-made presets can be packaged as "bundles"and loaded as a whole. Krita provides many such brush set and texture bundles on its official website.
Customisable tool panelsare known asDockersin Krita. Actions include:
- 2 customisable toolbars
- Toggle display of each docker
- Attach any docker to any sides of main window, or detach to float free
- Buttons to collapse/expand each docker panel
- Group dockers by tabs
Workspacesallow UI customizations for different workflows to be saved and loaded on demand.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Krita%27s_OpenGL_canvas_drawing_quality.png/220px-Krita%27s_OpenGL_canvas_drawing_quality.png)
Display
[edit]OpenGL accelerated canvasis used to speed up Krita's performance. It provides the following benefits:
- Better framerate and response time: pen actions can be reflected without delay
- Better-quality, fast and continuous zooming, panning, rotation, wrap-around and mirroring
- Requires a GPU with OpenGL 3.0 support for optimal experience. In the case of Intel HD Graphics, that meansIvy Bridgeand above.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Krita_color_space_loader.png/220px-Krita_color_space_loader.png)
Full colour managementis supported in Krita with the following capabilities:
- Assign and convert between colour spaces
- Realtime colour proofing, including colour-blind mode
- Colour model supported: RGBA, Grey, CMYKA, Law, YCbCr, XYZ
- Colour depth supported: 8-bit integer, 16-bit integer, 16-bit floating point, 32-bit floating point
Filters
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Krita_gmic_control.png/220px-Krita_gmic_control.png)
Krita has a collection of built-in filters and supportsG'MICfilters. It has real-time filter preview support.
Filters included in a default installation: levels, colour adjustment curves, brightness/contrast curve, desaturate, invert, auto contrast, HSV adjustment, pixelise, raindrops, oil paint, gaussian blur, motion blur, blur, lens blur, colour to Alpha, colour transfer, minimise channel, maximise channel, top/left/bottom/right edge detection, sobel, sharpen, mean removal, unsharp mask, gaussian noise removal, wavelet noise reducer, em Boss horizontal only/in all directions/(laplacian)/vertical only/with variable depth/horizontal and vertical, small tiles, round corners, phong bumpmap.
File formats supported
[edit]Krita's native document format is Krita Document (.kra). It can also save to many other file formats including PSD.
File formats | |
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Save to | Krita Document,OpenRaster document,PSD image,PPM,PGM,PBM,PNG,GIF,JPEG,JPEG XL,WindowsBMP,XBM,XPM,TIFF,EXR,Gimp image,WebP,SCML,ICO,TGA,CSV,QML |
Import only | ODGdraw, Krita Flipbook,Adobe DNG,Camera RAW,JPEG-2000,PDF,SVG,XML,XCF |
Export only | [none] |
Sprint events
[edit]Krita sprints are events during which Krita developers and artists get together for a few days, exchange ideas and do programming face-to-face, in order to speedup development and improve relationships between members.
Year | Date | Place |
---|---|---|
2005[16] | / | Deventer,Netherlands |
2010[17] | 26 February to 7 March | Deventer, Netherlands |
2011[18] | 20 to 22 May | Amsterdam,Netherlands |
2014[19] | 16 to 18 May | Deventer, Netherlands |
2016[20] | 23 to 24 January | Deventer, Netherlands |
2016[21] | 26 to 28 August | Deventer, Netherlands |
2018[22] | 17 to 21 May | Deventer, Netherlands |
2019[23] | 5 to 9 August | Deventer, Netherlands |
Variations
[edit]- Krita Gemini:optimised for tablets and touch interaction.[24]
- Krita Studio:commercially supported version for movie and VFX studios.[25]
See also
[edit]- Comparison of raster graphics editors
- List of 2D graphics software
- List of free and open-source software packages
- List of computing mascots
- Similar programs
References
[edit]- ^Krita Foundation (24 June 2024)."Krita 5.2.3 Released!".Retrieved14 July2024.
- ^"Krita Desktop".Krita Foundation.Retrieved30 May2016.
- ^Foundation, Krita (23 May 2020)."First Krita Beta for Android and ChromeOS in Play Store".Krita.Retrieved17 September2020.
- ^"Krita - Apps on Google Play".play.google.Retrieved17 September2020.
- ^"Update the licensing info: Krita is effectively GPLv3-only".GitHub.
- ^"r/krita - How do you pronounce" Krita "?".reddit.8 December 2018.Retrieved13 November2020.
- ^Foundation, Krita."History | Krita".Krita.Retrieved22 July2017.
- ^Foundation, Krita (16 July 2014)."History | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved15 June2023.
- ^Foundation, Krita."History | Krita".Krita.Retrieved22 July2017.
- ^"Krita 4.0 Now Available for Open-Source Digital Painting - Phoronix".
- ^Foundation, Krita (23 December 2021)."Krita 5.0 released!".Krita.Retrieved28 December2021.
- ^"Krita, a FOSS digital drawing app, is now available for Android tablets and Chromebooks".xda-developers.25 May 2020.Retrieved17 September2020.
- ^Foundation, Krita (23 May 2020)."First Krita Beta for Android and ChromeOS in Play Store".Krita.Retrieved17 September2020.
- ^"Krita - Apps on Google Play".play.google.Retrieved17 September2020.
- ^Foundation, Krita."Highlights | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved22 July2017.
- ^Boudewijn Rempt (30 July 2005)."And on the fifth day..."valdyas. valdyas.org. Archived fromthe originalon 25 July 2011.Retrieved20 June2011.
- ^Boudewijn Rempt (15 March 2010)."Second Krita Sprint Ends With Tea".KDE. KDE.NEWS.
- ^Boudewijn Rempt (2 June 2011)."What happens When Artists and Developers Come Together: The 2011 Krita Sprint".KDE. KDE.NEWS.
- ^"2014 Krita Sprint in Deventer, Netherlands".KDE.news.4 June 2014.Retrieved16 July2016.
- ^Foundation, Krita (25 January 2016)."Kicking off 2016 — the first Krita Sprint | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved23 July2017.
- ^Foundation, Krita (26 August 2016)."2016 Krita Sprint: Day 1 | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved23 July2017.
- ^Foundation, Krita."2018 Krita 2018 Sprint Report | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved23 July2017.
- ^Foundation, Krita (12 August 2019)."2019 Krita 2019 Sprint | Krita".krita.org.Retrieved12 August2019.
- ^Foundation, Krita."Krita Gemini | Krita".krita.org.Archived fromthe originalon 9 August 2017.Retrieved23 July2017.
- ^Foundation, Krita."Krita Studio | Krita".krita.org(in French).Retrieved23 July2017.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- 2005 software
- Android (operating system) software
- Cross-platform free software
- Free 2D animation software
- Free and open-source software
- Free raster graphics editors
- Graphics software
- Graphics software that uses Qt
- KDE Applications
- Kickstarter-funded software
- Macintosh graphics software
- MacOS graphics software
- Portable software
- Raster graphics editors for Linux
- Software that uses Qt
- Windows graphics-related software