Krita Monthly Update - Edition 33
Welcome to the November 2025 development and community update.
Development Report
5.2.14 Released
One last bugfix release in the 5.2 series, 5.2.14 is out. This version once again features many fixes for Android and touch input, but that's not all! The Color Sampler's preview has a new round default look, and macOS users can now view .kra thumbnails in Finder again. Read more in the dedicated blogpost and stay up up-to-date.
Text Rework Progress
Development of 5.3.0 is now in feature freeze, meaning no more features will be added before release. This includes the Text Tool, marking the end of a long phase of development for Wolthera, code reviewer Dmitry, and everyone else who contributed.
Texts can now be created to fit within a shape or along a path, just by clicking the vector with the Text Tool. (MR!2432)
Text properties have been split into into Paragraph and Character tabs, making it clearer which level the properties are taking effect at. (MR!2470)
Carsten has also made sure the Text Tool works properly with touch input. (MR!2563)
But this journey's not over; if you use 5.3 pre-release builds, make sure to report bugs and leave feedback in the Text Tool Thread!
New Comic Panel Editing Tool
There's a new tool in the Toolbox: the Comic Panel Editing Tool. Agata designed this for creating comic panel gutters by cutting gaps in vector shapes. (MR!2331)
It can be set to cut different gap widths depending on whether the cut is horizontal, vertical, or diagonal past a certain angle. A second mode in Tool Options removes the gaps for easy re-adjustment.
Liquify Transform Speedup
The Transform Tool's Liquify mode has had some optimizations done by Agata. It's especially faster on large canvases, because it now avoids calculating outside the affected area. (MR!4261)
Before:
After:
Python Updated to 3.13
Krita's unstable builds have been updated from Python 3.10 to Python 3.13 (MR!2466). This has the potential to break plugins and scripts, so users of Krita Next should report any such issues to the developers of those plugins before 5.3.0's release.
If you're a plugin developer, check out the release notes for Python 3.11, Python 3.12, and Python 3.13 for information on the changes.
Community Report
Plans for 5.3.0's Upcoming Release
Krita's developers have put out a call for banner and icon artwork to promote the upcoming 5.3 release. This artwork must fit certain sizes and be licensed appropriately, so please read the rules before contributing!
November 2025 Monthly Art Challenge Results
17 forum members took on the challenge of the "Civilization Engulfed by Nature" theme. And the winner is… @Elixiah's two entries:
The December Art Challenge is Open Now
For this month's theme, winner @Elixiah has chosen Chiaroscuro, the strong contrast of light and dark, with runner-up @edgarej adding the optional challenge of a Christmas/holiday theme. Check out the topic for more details, and make some art that stands out like holiday lights on a dark night!
Featured Artwork
Best of Krita-Artists - October/November 2025
This month's Best of Krita-Artists Nominations thread received 17 nominations of forum members' artwork. When the poll closed, these five wonderful works made their way onto the Krita-Artists featured artwork banner:
Melon Soda city by @800000000W
Winter in the village by @Yarikart
Female head study by @netizenses
Best of Krita-Artists - November/December 2025
Take a look at the nominations for next month.
Ways to Help Krita
Krita is Free and Open Source Software developed by an international team of sponsored developers and volunteer contributors. That means anyone can help make Krita better!
Support Krita financially by making a one-time or monthly monetary donation. Or donate your time and Get Involved with testing, development, translation, documentation, and more. Last but not least, you can spread the word! Share your Krita artworks, resources, and tips with others, and show the world what Krita can do.
Other Notable Changes
Other notable changes in Krita's development builds from November 11, 2025 - December 14, 2025.
Stable branch (5.2.14):
- Canvas Input: Add a One Finger Hold gesture and set it by default to Sample Foreground Color From Merged Image. (Change, by Carsten Hartenfels)
- Color Sampler: The Color Sampler preview now defaults to a circle to be more visible when using touch input. The size of the circle can be adjusted under Settings->General->Cursor, or changed back to rectangles. (bug report) (Change, by Carsten Hartenfels)
- Layers Docker: Dragging-and-dropping a layer onto its own canvas now pastes a copy only if Ctrl is held, to prevent duplicating it by accident. Dropping a layer onto a different canvas still copy-pastes it as before, without holding Ctrl. (bug report Change, by Carsten Hartenfels)
- Filter Layers: Fix empty histogram when adding a new Levels, Threshold, Color Adjustment, or Cross-channel Filter Layer. (bug report) (Change, by Stuffins)
- Scripting: Fix Node.setChildNodes function to remove existing child nodes. (Change, by Stuffins)
- Android: Lessen the chance for saving corrupt files, by using a temporary file. (bug report Change, by Carsten Hartenfels)
- Android: Fix modifier keys getting stuck when inputting new custom shortcuts with a hardware keyboard. (bug report Change, by Carsten Hartenfels)
- macOS: Add support for QuickLook and Preview thumbnails for .kra, .krz, and .ora files on macOS Sequoia and later. (bug report (Change, by Ivan Yossi)
- macOS: Update app icon to support macOS Tahoe appearance settings. (Change, by Ivan Yossi)
Unstable branch (5.3.0-prealpha):
- Export: Don't show an error when cancelling an export. (bug report) Change, by Joshua Goins)
Nightly Builds
Pre-release versions of Krita are built every day for testing new changes.
Get the latest bugfixes in Stable "Krita Plus" (5.2.15-prealpha): Linux - Windows - macOS (unsigned) - Android arm64-v8a - Android arm32-v7a - Android x86_64
Or test out the latest Experimental features in "Krita Next" (5.3.0-prealpha). Feedback and bug reports are appreciated!: Linux - Windows - macOS - Android arm64-v8a - Android arm32-v7a - Android x86_64