On the way to 5.0, the existing code has undergone some significant restructuring and profiling. Instead of keeping all of these performance improvements and bug fixes for v5.0, another minor release, v4.9.2, provides access to many of these changes already now.
There have been a couple smaller additions to PhotoQt and a whole range of smaller improvements and changes; some of the highlights include:
Window buttons: The window buttons can now follow the accent color. By default they keep their light or dark color, but this can be changed in the settings manager (Interface > Window Buttons).
Scrolling: The scroll speed with a physical mouse can, in certain circumstances, feel a little sluggish. This release offers a new setting (on by default) to better manage the scrolling. In the settings manager (Keyboard & Mouse > Behavior) the default scaling factor of 1 can be increased to further speed up scrolling. Note that this has no effect on the speed of zooming, that is still the same separate setting as before.
Archives and Documents: In addition to the archives PhotoQt was already able to open, various compressed TAR archives have been added to the list of known formats. In addition, there are is a new (optional) features to automatically enter an archive, comic book, or document whenever it is loaded. In combination with two new shortcuts to directly jump to the next/previous archive/comic book/document it is possible to jump from inside one archive directly to inside another archive. All of this can be set up in the settings manager (File types > Behavior).
Performance: Many of the elements of the main interface are loaded with a delay. This allows PhotoQt to focus on showing the window and displaying any image that is requested before taking care of everything else. When PhotoQt is started with no image passed on, then PhotoQt switches to focusing more on loading the full interface as fast as possible. To further improve the performance, various classes have been turned in proper QML singletons allowing the compiler to better optimize the code.
Some of the other smaller bug fixes include:
- don't load image twice at startup
- remember window geometry
- don't load any folder content during startup when image passed on
- Ken Burns slideshow effect works reliably again
- localize all parts of the interface
- fix occasionally janky scrolling in thumbnail bar
These are just some of the highlights of this release, you can find a more complete list in the Changelog.
Looking ahead to v5.0
As talked about in past anouncements already, the next major release of PhotoQt, v5.0, will offer two sets of interfaces, the usual interface (likely to be called "modern") and an interface that will integrate better into any given desktop environment (likely to be called "integrated"). There are also other exciting changes that are planned for v5.0 and beyond that are sure to further turn PhotoQt into a perfect image viewer for any use case. Stay tuned for more on this.
Get involved
I love to hear from people using PhotoQt. In order to get in touch with me for feedback/support/etc., the best way to do so is by opening an issue over in the GitLab repository: https://gitlab.com/lspies/photoqt
If this is not an option for you, then you can also always send me an email: Lukas@photoqt.org
If you want to help PhotoQt, there are a few ways you can get involved:
- Join the translation team over on Crowdin. If your language is missing you can simply request it directly on Crowdin or send me an email and I can add it to the project.
- Give feedback of what you like/don't like, or what you think is missing from PhotoQt. To give feedback, send me an email or open an issue on GitLab.
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. The war there is still going on, and your help is needed now more than ever.
Enjoy PhotoQt,
Lukas