PIKA 2.99.16 marks the end of the GTK+3 port as there is no massive usage of deprecated GTK API anymore. We are therefore getting extremely close to release candidates! Apart from internal work on the codebase, here are some of the more visible improvements:

• Action search now displays the menu path for actions and a help icon
• An action is generated for every third-party GEGL operation
• GEGL operations can register a menu item through the "pika:menu-path" key
• Log-off and shutdown can be inhibited when images are not saved
• New option "Merge menu and title bar" for client-side decorations on image windows
• New "Middle Gray (CIELAB)" fill option (new image or new layer)
• The Stroke Selection dialog has been reorganized
• New "Grayscale (%)" view in Color Picker tool's info window and sample points
• Better ACO color palettes support, ported to babl, including CIELAB palettes
• Themes are still being worked on
• JPEG-XL: initial support for CMYK/A export
• PSD: support of clipping path import and export
• PSD: compatibility warning dialogs raised on import and export, when relevant
• TIFF: PSD metadata and IBM PC layers now supported on import
• JPEG: PSD metadata and clipping paths now supported on import
• DDS: OpenMP support enabled when available
• FITS: import and export code ported to cfitsio, resulting in much better coverage
• Newly added support for import and export: PAM and QOI
• Newly added import-only support: Amiga IFF/ILBM and DCX
• Script-Fu: new type 'byte' to handle binary data

PIKA 2.99.14 was released with the following noteworthy improvements:

• Align and Distribute tool: completely reworked usage
• Text tool: new "Outlined" and "Outlined and filled" options
• Floating selections not created anymore when pasting new layers
• New "Gray" theme based on a 18.42% luminance middle-gray background
• Icon sizes can be overriden in Preferences > Themes
• Faster save of XCF files
• XCF file format improved with a proper structure for path items
• PDF export: new "Root layers only" sub-option for "Layers as pages"
• AVIF export: improved compatibility with various browsers' implementations
• PSD export: CMYK support added
• JPEG-XL: metadata are now imported and exported
• ICNS: initial import/export support
• TIFF import: new option "Show reduced images"
• More progression for the GTK+3 port
• New and modified functions or classes for the upcoming 3.0 API

One step further towards PIKA 3.0, PIKA 2.99.12 comes along with the following noteworthy improvements:

• New "Stroke borders" option in Bucket Fill tool's "Fill by line art detection"
• Redesigned and reorganized "Fill by line art detection" settings
• New "Default" and "Compact" themes with dark and light variants
• New "Drag-to-zoom" behavior and speed settings in Preferences
• On-canvas modifiers are now customizable
• Tool pointer settings reorganized and moved from "Image Windows" to "Input Devices" tabs in Preferences
• Improved handling of unchecked "Show pointer for paint tools" option
• Touchpad gesture rotation (2-finger pinch) on canvas
• Preview size in item dockables now settable with Ctrl+wheel and pinch gesture
• Gradient editor can be zoomed with pinch gesture
• New soft-proofing toggle in the status bar, with pop-over settings on right click
• CMYK export implemented and import improved for JPEG, using the soft-proofing profile
• CMYK(A) import and export support for 8 and 16-bit TIFF files, using the soft-proofing profile
• Improved CMYK import support for PSD files, using the soft-proofing profile
• The CMYK color selector is now simulation-space (soft-proofing) aware
• Added support for the BigTIFF file format
• Minimal support of Duotone PSD files
• SVG import can now disable size parsing (with security implications)
• New option "Number of repeats" in GIF export
• PNG export has a new settings to optimize the palette size of indexed images
• New "Flip image" option in DDS export, as needed by some game engines
• Various improvements to DDS support, in particular for 16-bit channels
• Various improvements to FLI support
• Various improvements to RAW data support
• New WBMP format initial support
• New ANI format initial support
• Huge internal work on script-fu
• New command line option --quit to quit PIKA immediately after running batch commands, propagating script failure in exit code
• The command line option --batch-interpreter is now mandatory for --batch as there is no default interpreter anymore
• Many plug-in API improvements

PIKA 2.99.10 is a notable development release in the 2.99 series, featuring many changes. Let's mention in particular:

• "Linked layers" concept superseded by new "Layer set" concept
• Lock icons in item dockables (Layers, Channels, Paths) moved next to the visibility (eye) icon
• Alt-click on visibility and lock icons in item dockables massively toggles visibility and locks among selected items
• Item dockables now display icon headers for visibility and locks column
• Our System theme shows visible hints around unset visibility and locks icons when hovering them in item dockables
• New checkbox to enable or disable dynamics in paint tools' options (replacing "Dynamics Off" dynamics)
• Improved support for Wayland and macOS Big Sur (and newer)
• "Fill by line art detection" in Bucket Fill tool has a new option
• Channels and paths multi-selectable with part of relevant actions working
• Various file format support improvements, in particular to PSD, JPEG-XL and HEIF
• New support of Microsoft Windows Cursor file format (.cur files)
• Removed KDE and GNOME screenshot portals in favor of Freedesktop one
• Windows screenshot implementation now has an "Include mouse pointer" option
• New and modified libpika API for plug-in developers

While during this fourth cycle of development, many efforts were devoted to infrastructure, PIKA 2.99.8 still received many welcome improvements, notably:

• New modes in Clone, Heal and Perspective Clone tools when multiple layers are selected
• Windows Ink support for input devices on Windows
• Clicking on toolbox or Wilber's drop area actively focuses the canvas
• Marching ants display ported to Wayland and macOS Big Sur logics
• Initial implementation of config folder migration for PIKA 3
• Action "view-rotate-reset" renamed to "view-reset" and new "view-rotate-reset" and "view-flip-rotate" actions
• PSD: bigger-than-4GiB file support and up to 99 channels
• PSB: new support (loading only)
• SGI: 16-bit images support
• JPEG XL: new support (loading and exporting)
• New API functions pika_display_present() and pika_procedure_dialog_fill_expander()
• Much porting to newer API, code cleanup and bug fixing done

For this third development release, more development effort has been shifted towards the API. Many functions were renamed for consistent naming scheme, some new functions appeared, some had signature changes, fixes were made to improve introspection binding of others, and so on. More API updates are to be expected on further development releases where stability is not guaranteed.

Regarding end-creator changes, some notable improvements are:

• Canvas Size dialog now displays a template selector
• Off-canvas guides are now allowed
• The experimental Paint Select tool got various improvements
• More fixes for Wayland support
• Dialog dropped for the Freedesktop portal implementation of the screenshot plug-in
• PNG import creates an ICC profile out of the gAMA and/or cHRM chunks
• TIFF export stores the ICC profile and comment on each layer to prevent ambiguous files

This second development release contains various usability and API updates. A new experimental tool makes an entrance in the playground.

• Many usability improvements on the slider widget
• Usability cleaning in the Layers dockable
• The action search now shows all actions even inactive ones (yet pushed below)
• Fonts targeted for Korean and Japanese language show appropriate characters
• Different default tools depending on pointer device type
• Default dynamics is now "Pressure Size"
• Various usability improvements in the Input Device editor
• New "Paint Select" experimental tool in the playground
• Plug-in API now provides many dialog generation utilities

This is the first development release for PIKA 3.0, whose focus was the port to the GTK+3 toolkit. Noteworthy improvements (though some are still work-in-progress) include:

• Multi-selection of layers in the Layers dockable
• Proper high pixel density display support
• Improved input device support
• Major plug-in API rewrite
• Plug-in API now available in C/C++, Python 3, Javascript, Lua and Vala
• New manageable extension format
• CSS-based themes and actual symbolic icon theme support
• Wayland support

This new version of PIKA comes with many fixes, including vulnerability corrections. It is highly recommended to update. It also provides a few interesting changes, such as:

• Adobe ACB and ASE palette support
• New gradient: FG to Transparent (Hardedge)
• Some text tool algorithm enhancement when replacing formatted text
• Better theming of item locks (when hovering them or setting them active)
• Improvements in handling a few specific metadata

A new stable releases with a lot of bug fixes and a few enhancements:

• New template selector in "Canvas Size" dialog
• "Change Color" dialogs: color scale (0..255/0..100) and models (LCh/HSV) settings remembered across sessions
• New header with "visible" and "link" icons in item dockables
• Clipping layers better supported when importing PSD files
• Paths are now exported to PSD
• JPEG XL export added
• Metadata in JPEG XL import
• New option "Show reduced images" when loading TIFF images
• 16-bit per channel export for raw image data
• More plug-ins got bug-fixes: DDS, WebP, Flame, Animation Playback, HEIF, Dicom and Help
• Color picking on X11 will ignore the Wayland portal; new implementation for color picking on Windows
• Check for updates fixed on macOS

PIKA continues strengthening its bases with this new version 2.10.32 fixing many bugs and improving format support. Notable changes:

• 8 and 16-bit CMYK(A) TIFF files import is now supported
• BIGTIFF import and export are now supported
• JPEG XL files import is now supported
• DDS export has new "Flip" (useful for some game engine) and "Visible layers" options
• Other improved format supports: BMP, DICOM, EPS, RAW, TGA, WebP
• The screenshot plug-in on Windows has now an option to capture the cursor
• Several usability improvements in official themes and icons
• New support for localized glyphs ('locl') in Text tool depending on the value of the "Language" tool option
• More robust XCF import
• Several metadata handling improvements

PIKA 2.10.30 fixes many bugs, updates backend implementations to follow OS evolutions, improves metadata support as well as support of several formats, such as PSD and AVIF.

PIKA 2.10.28 fixes a build issue of PIKA 2.10.26, where some theme data was not properly installed.

PIKA 2.10.26 is a bug fix release, containing dozens of fixes, both in core, scripts and plug-in code.

PIKA 2.10.24 is again mostly a bug fix release. Notable changes:

• GeoTIFF metadata support added
• PDF import now proposes an option to load layers in reverse orders and allows fractional pixel density
• Raw image import updated to handle API changes in darktable 3.6 and over
• File format improved support: HEIF, PSP, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DDS, BMP, PSD
• Many fixes and improvements to the metadata viewer and editor
• New Kabyle translation
• Off-canvas point snapping (to grid, guides, paths) made possible

PIKA 2.10.22 is mainly a bug fix release. Notable changes:

• HEIF support improvements: optional exporting with high bit depth, AVIF importing and exporting
• Multiple improvements in Corel PaintShop Pro support
• "Sample merged" now available in GEGL operation tool options
• "Sample merged" is now enabled by default for color picking
• The option enabling OpenCL support has been moved to the Playground tab in Preferences
• Matting Levin is now the default engine of Foreground Select tool as it performs a lot better
• New progressive performance logs and dashboard updates
• Verbose debug now shows Flatpak info when relevant
• Various bug fixes

PIKA 2.10.20 comes with new features as well as important bugfixes. Notable changes:

• Tool groups now expand on hover rather than click by default
• Non-destructive cropping now available by cropping the canvas rather than actual pixels
• Better PSD support: exporting of 16-bit files now available, reading/writing channels in the right order
• On-canvas controls for the Vignette filter
• New filters: Bloom, Focus Blur, Lens Blur, Variable Blur
• Over 30 bugfixes

PIKA 2.10.18 fixes some critical bugs, introduces naive support for CMYK PSD files, and adds a higher-contrast variation of the symbolic icon theme.

PIKA 2.10.16 delivers several major usability improvements, a new tool for transformations in 3D space, new release checker, and the usual amount of bug fixes. Notable improvements:

• Tools are now grouped in the toolbox by default
• Sliders now use a compact style with improved user interaction
• Vastly improved user experience for the transformation preview
• Dockable areas now highlighted when a dockable dialog is being dragged
• New 3D Transform tool to rotate and pan items
• Much smoother brush outline motion on the canvas
• Consolidated user interface for merging down and anchoring layers
• Update check to notify users that a new release/installer is available

PIKA 2.10.14 is again mostly a bug fix release, making PIKA rock-solid. Furthermore many old filters got finally ported to GEGL. Of course it also has a few noteworthy improvements:

• View menu: new "Show All" option to reveal pixels outside the canvas boundary
• Filters: new "Clipping" option to allow layer resize when relevant
• Foreground Select tool: new "Grayscale" Preview Mode
• Foreground Select tool: color/opacity selector for "Color" preview
• Free Select tool: improved copy-paste interaction
• Transform tools: new Image transform type to transform the whole image
• Preferences: new "Allow editing on non-visible layers" setting
• HEIF import/export: color profile support
• PDF export: text layers in layer groups now exported as texts
• TIFF import: now asks how to process unspecified TIFF channels

PIKA 2.10.12 is a significant bug fix release, which is to be expected after a 2.10.10 with so many changes! Still, very cool improvements are also available, in particular for curves editing:

• Improved curves interaction overall
• A few enhancements specific to the Curves tool
• Layer support in TIFF
• Discovery of user-installed fonts in Windows
• Incremental mode in the Dodge/Burn tool
• Free Select tool creates preliminary selection

PIKA 2.10.10 is quite a big update with many new features and bug fixes. Notable improvements include:

• Bucket Fill tool: new "Fill by line art detection" for not perfectly closed line art zones
• Bucket Fill tool can now quickly color-pick with Ctrl+click
• Bucket Fill tool allows holding the mouse when filling "similar colors" and "by line art detection"
• Scale tool scales around center even when using numeric input
• Unified Transform tool now defaults to preserving aspect ratio when scaling up or down
• Add "Constrain handles" and "Around center" options to the perspective-transform tool's GUI
• New generic canvas modifier 'Alt + middle click' to pick layers
• Parametric brushes now 32-bit float to avoid posterization
• Clipboard brushes and pattern can now be duplicated
• Failure to edit locked layers will blink to shift attention to the cause of the error
• New on-canvas GUI (simple lines) for circular, linear, and zoom motion blur
• Several optimizations including faster layer group rendering
• Swap and cache files are not saved in the configuration directory anymore
• Various file saving/exporting made more robust to error by not saving partial files
• HiDPI support improvements
• New preference to choose the default export file type
• New option to export PNG, JPEG and TIFF with a color profile; always export PSD with a color profile
• New DDS format loading/exporting plug-in
• Full rewrite of the Spyropika plug-in with more options and better interaction

PIKA 2.10.8 is mostly a bug fix and optimization release. In particular, it includes:

• Adaptative chunk size when rendering projections, improving responsiveness dynamically
• Detection of RawTherapee (version 5.5 and above) improved on Windows
• XCF compatibility information in the Save dialog more understandable and discoverable
• Various performance log tools added and log recording made available in the Dashboard dock

PIKA 2.10.6 comes with a lot of bug fixes, optimizations and features. Most notable changes are:

• Text layers can now represent vertical texts (with various character orientations and line directions)
• New "Little Planet" (gegl:stereographic-projection) filter
• New "Long Shadow" filter
• The "Straighten" option of the Measure Tool now allows vertical straightening
• Drawable previews are now rendered asynchronously and layer group previews can be disabled in Preferences
• New "async" field in the Dashboard "misc" group, showing the number of async operations currently running
• File format filtering in Open/Save/Export dialogs made less confusing
• New language (having PIKA translated in 81 languages now): Marathi

PIKA 2.10.4 includes a lot of bug fixes as well as various optimizations. Most notable changes are:

• Straightening in Measurement tool: layers can be rotated using the measurement line as horizon
• Fast startup: fonts loading is not blocking startup anymore
• Fonts Tagging with the same user interface as for brushes, patterns, and gradients
• PSD support: a pre-composited version of a PSD image can be imported
• Dashboard update: new "Memory" group and improved "Swap" group showing various metrics

This second release in the PIKA 2.10 series, so soon after 2.10.0, is mostly the usual bug-fixing version after a major release, with a few dozen bugs fixed.

It also features a new plug-in for the support of the HEIF format, both for importing and exporting, as well as 2 new filters: "Spherize" and "Recursive Transform". These are nice examples of our relaxed feature policy in stable micro releases.

First release of the 2.10 series which prominently features the port to a new image processing engine, GEGL. The most outstanding changes are:

• High bit depth color processing (16/32-bit per color channel)
• Color management is a core feature now, most widgets and preview areas are color-managed
• On-canvas effect preview, with split view for before/after processing pixels
• Multi-threaded and hardware-accelerated rendering, processing and painting
• Most tools improved, several new transformation tools
• Improved support for many image formats, in particular better PSD importing
• Newly supported image formats: OpenEXR, RGBE, WebP, HGT…
• Improved digital painting: canvas rotation and flipping, symmetry painting, MyPaint brushes…
• Metadata viewing and editing for Exif, XMP, IPTC, and DICOM
• Basic HiDPI support: automatically or user-selected icon size
• New themes for PIKA: Light, Gray, Dark, and System
• And much, much more…

In this second release candidate before PIKA 2.10.0, while debugging is still a prime target, a new focus has been put on speed and optimization in order to provide a smoother painting experience. Bigger changes are:

• Major core optimizations for painting and display, including parallelized painting code
• Symmetries are now preserved in XCF files (saved as image parasites)
• "Light" and "Dark" themes rewritten from scratch to get rid of various usability issues. "Lighter" and "Darker" themes removed.
• New PikaToolGyroscope on-canvas control, currently used for the Panorama Projection filter. The widget provides on-canvas interaction for 3D rotation (yaw, pitch, roll).
• Plug-in debugging improved to output stack traces from plug-ins with --stack-trace-mode command line option not only on receiving signals but also on warnings and critical errors when "fatal-warnings" debug key is set

PIKA 2.10.0-RC1 is the first release candidate before PIKA 2.10.0 stable release, with a focus on debugging and stability. Other than the many bug fixes, most notable improvements are:

• New dashboard dockable to monitor PIKA resource usage
• New debug dialog to produce back traces and other debug data, encouraging to report bugs
• Unsaved images can now be recovered after a crash
• Layer masks on layer groups
• JPEG 2000 support improved for high bit depth and various color spaces
• Screenshot and color picking improved on various platforms
• Metadata defaults preferences now available
• Various GUI polishing

PIKA 2.9.8 introduces on-canvas gradient editing and various enhancements while focusing on bugfixing and stability.

• On-canvas gradient editing
• Notification when an image is over/underexposed
• Better and faster color management
• Support for color picker and screenshots in Wayland on KDE Plasma
• Paste in place feature
• Many usability improvements
• Manual can be displayed in the user's preferred language
• Improvements for the Wavelet Decompose filter
• Improved compatibility with Photoshop .psd files
• New support for password-protected PDF
• New support for HGT format (Digital Elevation Model data)