Krita

Krita Community Wiki

This Community Wiki is intended for those who are making and improving Krita, such as programmers and designers. Users of Krita can check out getting started guides on krita.org, the Userbase wiki, and the manual. If you have questions, you can ask on the Krita Forums, or hop on #krita IRC!

Repository Information

There are two versions of Krita in development: 2.9, which is the stable branch and based on Qt4 and merged with Calligra, and 3.0 pre-alpha, which is based on Qt5.

• 2.9: https://phabricator.kde.org/diffusion/CALLIGRA/
• 3.0: https://phabricator.kde.org/diffusion/KRITA/

Dependencies

Details are listed in the Linux build instructions.

Build Instructions

The full set of Krita 3.0 master dependencies:

Dependencies

The full set of dependencies for Krita 3.0 pre-alpha:

• Qt 5, at least 5.3 is required, but the newer the better. You need the following components:
  • Core
  • Gui
  • Widgets
  • Xml
  • Network
  • PrintSupport
  • Svg
  • Test
  • Concurrent
  • OpenGL (optional, but really, really recommended)
  • Quick (optional, for sketch/Gemini)
  • DBus (optional)
  • X11Extras (only on Linux)

• The following KDE Frameworks:
  • extra-cmake-modules
  • Archive
  • Config
  • WidgetAddons
  • Completion
  • CoreAddons
  • GuiAddons
  • I18n
  • ItemModels
  • ItemViews
  • WindowSystem
  • KIO (optional, only on linux)

• The following required packages
  • Eigen3
  • Exiv2
  • lcms2
  • GSL
  • Boost (headers and the boost system library)
  • zlib
  • libtiff
  • libpng
  • libjpeg
  • perl (need to check if this is really true, I doubt it)

• The following optional packages
  • SharedMimeInfo
  • Poppler
  • OpenEXR
  • pthreads (for G'Mic)
  • openmp (for G'Mic)
  • curl (for G'mic)
  • libraw
  • fftw3 (for G'mic and performance improvements)
  • Vc 0.7
  • OpenColorIO

Krita can be built successfully omitting several optional packages. KIO is for optional thumbnail integration with Dolphin. QtDeclarative is for Krita Sketch. Poppler is for PDF import. GSL is for the transform tool and eventually the magnetic lasso tool. Vc is for faster SIMD accelerated painting, and is necessary for a usable painting experience on anything but the smallest canvases. SharedMimeInfo is for determining file types. If you want to build Krita without these features, you can omit the package.

Linux

For 2.9, David Revoy's guide is the best available: Building Krita for Cats

• Build Krita 3.0 on your favorite Linux distribution

Windows

• Build Krita 2.9.x on Windows
• Build Krita 3.0.x on Windows
• Build Krita 3.x with Emerge
• Packaging Krita

OSX

• Build Krita on OSX

Developer guides

• Intro to Hacking on Krita
• C++11 usage guidelines for the Krita codebase
• Interesting tasks to get started on
• Optimization tips and tools for Krita

Planning

These are goals for Krita we are working toward.

• Krita Animation Project
• Krita Summer of Code
• Krita Wishlist
• Project ideas for student thesis
• Dmitry's sponsored work TODO list
• Krita Lime repository Roadmap
• Icons Refactoring Roadmap
• Ideas and use-cases for Krita scripting support

• Krita 3.0 and 3.1 release notes preparation.

Design documents and discussions

These are technical notes on the insides of Krita.

Design Notes

• QAction / KisAction Guidelines
• How Plugin Loading Works
• How to write brush engines
• Brushes
• High dynamic range imaging
• Redisplay
• KisPainter and KisPaintEngine design
• Metadata framework
• Brush Color Transformation
• Brush Engines (aka paintops)
• Filter API Discussion Notes
• KisCanvas2 Update Split Reasoning
• Transactions Design
• Tile Data Format
• KisSelection Issues
• Krita Shape Layers Design
• Grayscale Selections Discussion Notes
• Strokes Framework
• NonTool Actions Implementation
• Recording System
• Undo adapter vs. Undo store
• KisNode (Selections, masks, layers)
• Generator Layers
• Color management
• Concept Naming Guidelines
• Website Maintenance/Updates

Guidelines

• Use Cases
• Artists Requirements
• Usability discussion notes
• Quick-sketch Preference Palette
• Community Mockups and Wishlist

Troubleshooting

• Known problems with Krita in distributions
• Hardware support

Other

• Inspiration
• Importing of Photoshop Brushes

Sponsored Work

This is an index of work sponsored by the Krita community and the Krita Foundation. Note that the Krita Foundation (Stichting Krita) has been instrumental in fundraiser efforts around Krita. The first program, executed during the 2009-2010 timeframe, allowed Lukáš Tvrdý to work full-time on Krita for 24 weeks. This made a massive difference for Krita, solving hundreds of bugs and improving performance and usability of the canvas and many brushes to the level where Krita first became ready for (semi) professional use. Find more details here.

Subsequent fundraisers supported Dmitry Kazakov who brought openGL support to a new level and introduced advanced canvas operations like panning, mirroring and rotation and independent artist Timothee Giet who developed the "Comics with Krita" training DVD as well as a host of other video tutorials on Youtube.

• Lukas Tvrdy
• Timothee Giet
• Dmitry Kazakov
• Ramon Miranda

Meetings

• Krita/Sprint2014
• Krita/Sprint2011
• Meetings/February 2010 Krita meeting
• Meetings/Mid_2009_meeting/Krita_Notes
• Krita/Akademy_2007_Meeting

Hardware

The Krita team has two Wacom intuos tablets, two stylusses and two art pens. They are currently with:

• Lukas Tvrdy: one tablet
• Sven Langkamp: one tablet
• Cyrille Berger: stylus art pen

Wiki Archive

Contributors should feel free to post whatever they like here. However, documents show their age after a few years. Please keep the main page clean by copying old links into this archive section.

• Archive