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Published: 5th of October, 2023
PhotoQt 3.4 will be the last version of PhotoQt built on Qt5. Nevertheless, it still brings a bunch of improvements and also some new features. The next release of PhotoQt will be v4.0 based on Qt 6.2+.
This new release will be the last planned release based on Qt5. However, it nonetheless is packed with new features and improvements, including:
Better SVG support: Qt's built-in support for SVG images is somewhat lacking. Thus, PhotoQt now supports resvg to render and show SVG images, providing proper support for the full complement of SVG features.
Updated imgur.com integration: It has been possible to upload images to imgur.com from within PhotoQt for quite some time. As part of the port to Qt6 several improvements have been done for a more reliable and efficient experience. These changes have been ported back to this Qt5 version. In addition, it is now again possible to connect PhotoQt with imgur.com user account from within the settings manager.
Updated image export: Saving images in new files has been working quite well for a long time, but the user experience was lacking a bit. The user interface was completely reworked for Qt6 with a better selection of formats and proper feedback regarding the progress of converting an image. These changes have been ported back to this Qt5 version.
Opening PhotoQt on Windows resulted in the window "flashing" all-white before being rendered fully. This is unfortunately a characteristic of OpenGL, discussions around which can be found online going back more than a decade. To work around this visual bug, PhotoQt on Windows will fade in the window with a very short delay.
These are just some of the highlights, there have been a lot more things that made it into this new release, including quite a few bug fixes. You can find a more complete list in the Changelog.
Note: If you have installed PhotoQt on Windows using the provided Windows installer, please consider updating as soon as possible as the updated installer includes fixed image libraries mitigating the recent critical WebP vulnerability.
Some major changes are coming up over the next few weeks for PhotoQt:
The port/partial rewrite of PhotoQt based on the next major version of Qt is coming along quite nicely, and v4.0 based on Qt 6.2+ is scheduled to be released later this month. I took this opportunity to restructure the source code of PhotoQt significantly for a cleaner and easier to maintain codebase. The engine loading and presenting the images has been reworked to be not only faster but also less demanding on the computer's resources. All elements were carefully analyzed and changes were implemented - some small, some large - to improve the user experience. Some of these changes have even been ported back to the Qt5 version, so you can enjoy some of the results already now with v3.4.
A new logo is coming! Thanks to Volo a.k.a @hadoukez for designing it. Stay tuned over the next week or two to find out what it is.
In addition to a new logo, a new website is also coming. The new website will sport a cleaner and more modern interface (don't worry, it will still be light). The colors of the new website are designed around the colors of the new logo resulting in a unified user experience.
These changes are all very exciting and will allow PhotoQt to continue to make great strides going forward with new features, fewer bugs, and better performance.
I love to hear from people using PhotoQt. In order to get in touch with me for feedback/support/etc., there are a few different ways you can do so:
If you want to help PhotoQt, there are a few ways you can get involved:
If you are considering supporting PhotoQt by donation, please consider donating to the humanitarian relief in Ukraine instead, for example to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
Enjoy PhotoQt,
Lukas