Krita 5.2 - Text, Animation and Workflow Upgrades

en / graphics / krita — 2023-10-11 00:00:00

After the big resource overhaul in Krita 5.0 and the general polish in 5.1, the developers decided that Krita 5.2 should attack some of the most annoying pain points in daily use. The result is a release packed with deep technical work and very visible quality-of-life improvements.

Below is my personal overview of what matters most if you use Krita for illustration, comics, concept art or animation.

Animation: audio finally in sync, video export simplified

Two long-standing issues for animators were tackled head-on: keeping audio in sync during playback, and making video export less fragile. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

  • Krita’s animation playback now uses the MLT framework, the same engine used by video editors like Kdenlive. That means frame-accurate syncing between your drawings and sound, which is crucial for lip-sync, timing gags or music-driven animation.
  • Krita now ships with a built-in FFmpeg build, so you no longer have to hunt for an external executable just to export a movie, import a video as frames or record a painting session. Advanced users can still point Krita to a custom FFmpeg if they need exotic codecs. On Android some FFmpeg-based export features are still limited by the platform, but on desktop this alone makes 5.2 worth a look.

Text: a brand-new layout engine

Krita 5.2 introduces a completely rewritten text layout engine. The old system made it hard to add advanced typography; the new one is much more flexible and future-proof.

Highlights:

  • Support for text in shapes and text on paths (great for logos, banners and comic balloons).
  • Vertical text and improved wrapping, which is important for CJK scripts and manga layouts.
  • Access to OpenType features and color fonts, including emoji.
  • Proper rendering of modern font technologies like COLRv0.

In Krita 5.2 you still need the SVG code editor to reach many of these options, but the foundation is now in place. The plan for Krita 5.3 is to bring these capabilities directly into an on-canvas text tool with UI controls and presets.

Tools: smarter fill, selections and shortcuts

Several painting tools received targeted upgrades that sound small, but feel big when you actually work with them.

  • Cumulative undo was overhauled, making it easier to merge multiple strokes into a single undo step—great for sketching and inking.
  • The Sketch Brush Engine can now be anti-aliased, which gives cleaner lines.
  • You can transform multiple selected layers at once with the transform tool—super handy for complex scenes.
  • The Fill Tool gained a new mode for “fill areas of similar color” and extra options like stopping at darkest/most opaque pixels or filling until a specific boundary color. There’s also an option to use either the brush blending mode or a dedicated one for fills.
  • The Contiguous Selection Tool shares the same “extend selection” logic and can now adjust the opacity of selection decoration; the decoration is also DPI-aware, so it looks right on high-DPI screens.

Shortcut lovers also get a bunch of goodies:

  • New actions such as Toggle Eraser Preset, Sample Screen Color (pick any color from any monitor) and a Select Layers from menu option on canvas.
  • A Clip Studio Paint compatible shortcut scheme for people migrating from CSP.
  • Krita can now detect conflicting canvas input shortcuts and warn you, which saves a lot of “why doesn’t this work?” moments.

Dockers and UI: wide-gamut color selector & layer tweaks

On the UI side, Krita 5.2 puts a lot of love into dockers.

  • A new Wide Gamut Color Selector can pick colors in wide-gamut spaces instead of being limited to sRGB. Over time this is expected to replace the older Advanced Color Selector.
  • The Layers docker gains:
  • Extra layer selection checkboxes on Android, making multi-selection easier on touch devices.
  • More detailed opacity and blending-mode info in the layer list.
  • Optional automatic layer suffixes.
  • Control over the scaling filter used for file layers.
  • The Brush Preset docker looks better in horizontal mode, and Brush Preset History is now configurable.
  • The Palette docker gets undo/redo and more editing comfort. All these tweaks add up to a smoother experience, especially on tablets and small displays.

File formats: CMYK, JPEG-XL, WebP and more

Krita 5.2 also invests in better interoperability with other tools and formats.

  • CMYK blending modes were adjusted (with a config switch) to align more closely with Photoshop, making it easier to exchange CMYK PSD files with print-focused clients.
  • JPEG-XL support was significantly improved: CMYK handling, better compression via more accurate color-space info, improved metadata, and the ability to save/load individual raster layers in JXL.
  • WebP export receives better compression and metadata handling, including animation support.
  • Multi-layer EXR handling is improved.
  • The RAW importer got a nicer UI and better performance thanks to a tiled processing approach.

If you regularly hop between Krita, Photoshop, Blender, game engines or video tools, these changes make life easier.

Under the hood: brushes, wrap-around and Android

Some changes are mostly “under the hood” but still very relevant for artists. - Brush settings were refactored to use the Lager library, cleaning up a lot of old, tangled code. This prepares a future redesign of the brush settings UI. - Wrap-around mode can now be limited to vertical or horizontal directions only, which is perfect for looping backgrounds and scrolling textures. - The tablet tester can now read tilt data. - Recent documents can be removed individually. - Android users get easier resource-location selection and various UI clean-ups, making Krita more usable on tablets. - There’s even a new Lambert shading blending mode for more physically inspired shading tricks.

Conclusion: a “quality of life” release that matters

Krita 5.2 might not scream “flashy new feature” at first glance, but once you look closer, it’s clearly a release aimed at serious everyday use:

  • Animators get reliable audio sync and simpler video export.
  • Artists get a modern text engine with a future.
  • Painters get smarter tools, better dockers and improved file handling.

If you already live in Krita all day, 5.2 is absolutely worth upgrading to.
If you’ve been waiting for Krita to feel more polished and less “fiddly” in certain areas, this might be the version that convinces you.