Krita’s developers have published their 2026 roadmap, detailing priorities following the upcoming releases of Krita 5.3 and 6.0. Interestingly, both versions will be functionally identical, differing only in their use of Qt 5 or Qt 6. The release is scheduled for next month.
After this release, the team will focus on user interface enhancements, file handling, color management, performance optimization, and build infrastructure.
A key initiative is a new mobile-oriented user interface. Developers also plan to replace the current tool option dockers with QML-based components, enabling consistent interface elements across desktop and mobile platforms. At the same time, they are enhancing the current interface for better tablet usability.
On the file handling side, the team is considering a major redesign of Krita’s .kra file format, which, while comprehensive, is currently slow. One proposal is to adopt a SQLite-based format, which could improve saving efficiency and enable continuous background saving without disrupting the user’s workflow.
The team also plans to enhance the autosave dialog and enable users to share settings and resources across devices and platforms.
Regarding color management, although Krita supports HDR displays, interface issues persist in these environments. With Qt 6’s expanded color management, including improved CMYK and high bit-depth image support, the team plans to extend these capabilities to vector layers.
Performance-wise, developers are implementing region-based updates to speed up editing of large images by updating only changed areas. They are also exploring vectorization techniques in filters, which may reduce reliance on the LittleCMS color transformation library.
For more information, see the official announcement.
