I had already made a media browser once before for Krita 5, not that long ago, but I’ve already had to abandon it and rebuild it from scratch for Krita 6. Along with the version number, Krita jumped from pyqt5 script support to pyqt6. There’s not even much point figuring out what changed and why, the previous stuff just doesn’t work any more. Already.

To build it, I still leaned heavily on Grok for help (also consulting Gemini and Leo) but not as much as I did previously. I’m starting to learn how it works, so I’m able to finagle some of it myself.

The media browser is not a plugin, but a separate floating window. There’s no reason for it to take up real estate while doing art. It’s for background file tasks.

Pictured above, an open directory littered with art files. The selected art is automatically shown in the preview pane. Double-clicked to open in Krita.

Workflow posting

There is no shortcut in Krita to juggle files once created. Create a new file to post online, you will have to go manually open and navigate a file directory, or use a select file dialogue, something like that.

This browser has a “current file” button. Whatever file you have open, the browser opens the directory and selects the file. They you can drag it anywhere. I’m dragging these screenshots to my blog editor. Drag it to something like the Dolphin file manager, and it asks you if you want the file moved, copied or linked. Drag it to the current Krita image to add as a new layer. Drag and drop semi-directly from Krita!

File management

Right-click menu for some basic functions. Self-explanatory, I think.

The buttons on top, in order of function: go up one folder level, select the folder you want to view (system dialogue), send the current folder to the default file manager, go to the file currently open in Krita, cycle back and forth in sibling directories.

This is different from prev/next in most file managers, which backtracks your viewing history. I’m interested in quickly cycling through folders for visual search. Grok urged me a few times to add filename search. That’s one thing I’d rather leave out.

Quick viewing

Emphasis on quick viewing. Click on the preview pane and the image goes to full screen mode. Use the arrows to cycle through all the image files without leaving full screen mode; even move to the next directory and cycle. If you look sharp, you can hold the arrow down and fly through the images to find what you’re looking for.

Leave it out

Although I hate it when apps get stripped down too much, there is wisdom in choosing what to leave out. Grok prompted me a couple of times to add filename search. I don’t need to replicate everything a file manager does.

From my previous version, I left out bookmarks, which took up an entire extra pane. So I would bookmark tons of stuff like a moron, and pretty soon there were so many bookmarks that they’re useless. Besides, it occurred to me that all I really need to do is make a folder called bookmarks, and add symlinks.

Oh, yeah…

I was trying to think of a better label for the button labeled “open folder”, and I think maybe it should be “file mgr”. Make sense?

The dropdown on top on the right, I didn’t mention. It doesn’t change the view size of the preview, but rather the thumbnails. It started out as a scrollbar, but the thumbnails trying to resize as the scrollbar moves caused everything to choke, and trying to make a big jump quickly made Krita crash entirely a few times.

The drop down forces it to make only one size change at a time. But it occurs to me that while it’s changing, it can still take a moment (especially for big directories), so I should invoke the “waiting” cursor.

I’ve done this for most of the navigation functions, because you tend to get itchy if you click something like “next” and nothing seems to be happening. So you hit it a few more times and now the app is speeding past where you wanted to go.

Here’s the code in pyqt6, just for giggles:

# if [condition met]
QApplication.setOverrideCursor(Qt.CursorShape.WaitCursor)
# [process]
QApplication.restoreOverrideCursor()

This’ll get you a clock icon or something, depending on your system settings.

The text for the thumbnail dropdown should be “icon size” maybe, or just “icon”. I hate the word thumbnail and the shortened thumb, I don’t know why.

Similar but different

This is my personal app, and I don’t know if I’ll post it for others to use. But there are some similar plugins for Krita.

The following is the Krita File Browser on Github. It’s a file tree, as you can see. This looks like it would be excellent for a game developer, but not for me. It’s a docked panel, and it takes up a tremendous amount of real estate. The other drawback, without a dedicated preview panel, you have to open the full file to view it.

It’s the one to get if you want a search box, and you get all the file management tools you need.

Another one I actually have installed and used is the Imagine Board, another docker. It’s not for quick searches, though. You choose a directory and it displays images in various arrangements (your choice). If there are many files, you page through. It does many wonderful things, and I do recommend it. As of this writing, it was updated within the last two weeks, so it’s still actively maintained.

Name

“Independent Media Browser” stinks. I had to name it differently from my pyqt5 version though, as they live in the same folder with the same file extension.

Ya always want an acronym for such things… Krita Image Management maybe? KIM!