Krita 6 Beta: How the New Text Engine, Wayland Color Management, and Vector Knife Change Your Workflow
The first betas of Krita 6 and Krita 5.3 are now downloadable, and they actually adds a few features that matter instead of just inflating the options list. This guide shows which additions are useful right away, where the still‑missing pieces bite, and how to start using them today.
Text object rebuilt from the ground up
The legacy text object was notorious for its quirks: wrapping inside shapes never behaved, scripts sometimes vanished, and editing required switching to a separate text layer before rasterizing. The rewrite lets you type straight onto the canvas, wrap text inside any vector shape, and place it on a path. Comic artists have already reported using it to make dialogue follow curved panels without extra layers—saving both time and file size.
Why this is useful: the engine now fully respects OpenType features and Unicode scripts, so diacritics in Arabic or Hindi no longer disappear. The new blog series (Fonts, Open Type, Font Metrics) explains the technical side, but most users will just notice “type what you need, where you need it” without extra hassle.
Wayland color management lands (Krita 6‑only)
Linux users finally get proper color handling when running Krita in native Wayland mode. The feature is limited to Qt6 builds and only officially supported on KWin; other compositors may still exhibit glitches. Users who have struggled with mismatched colors between GIMP and Photoshop will see a more consistent preview, which matters for HDR work where every stop counts.
If you run into an issue on a non‑KWin compositor, the first troubleshooting step is to test under KWin. Most bugs turn out to be compositor‑specific rather than a Krita regression.
New knife tool for vector objects
A brand‑new “knife” appears in the vector toolbox. It can split and merge vector shapes with a single click—perfect for comic page layouts where panels need clean cuts. After cutting a speech‑bubble shape, the resulting pieces stay fully editable, so you don’t have to rebuild the path from scratch. Compared to the old manual‑node editing, this tool slashes the time spent on panel composition.
Assistants get a usability boost
Configuring perspective assistants used to feel like setting up a tiny CAD program. The UI now groups related options and introduces a curve‑linear perspective assistant that follows curved streets in background art. This makes it easier to keep buildings aligned without fiddling with dozens of sliders.
Filters, dockers, and brush tweaks you’ll actually notice
- Propagate colors and color overlay mask filters work correctly in HDR modes—no more surprise color shifts when switching blending modes.
- The recorder docker can now capture strokes in real time, which is handy for making quick tutorials.
- Freehand drawing gets a pixel‑art stabilizer; the liquefy transform runs noticeably faster on large canvases.
File format updates you shouldn’t ignore
Radiance RGB (.hdr) support arrives, and JPEG‑XL handling has been overhauled—useful if you’ve been experimenting with next‑gen web assets. Photoshop PSD files now import text objects as live text (and can export limited text back), a small but welcome step toward smoother cross‑app workflows.
Python API extension
The plugin API now exposes methods for generating brush strokes and adds new UI widgets. If you write custom brushes or automation scripts, the extra hooks cut down on boilerplate code dramatically.
Give the betas a spin, focus on the text object, Wayland color management, and that vector knife—those are the bits that actually change day‑to‑day work.
