Announcing PyDPainter 2.2.1 with new gradients
January 26, 2026
PyDPainter version 2.2.1 is now out! This update adds new gradient options along with some other improvements.
Download now!
Key Features
1. Fill & Dithering
- Circular & Linear Fills: We have added support for a Circular Fill with an adjustable center, along with an enhanced Linear Fill that now supports interactive direction dragging.
- Advanced Dithering: Pixel art is nothing without texture. We have introduced built-in dither modes (including Halftone and horizontal and vertical bars) and support for different ordered dither matrices.
2. Smarter Brushes & Tools
- Shear Y: The Brush menu now includes a Shear Y transformation to match the existing Shear X, allowing for easier distortion of your brushes.
- Enhanced Color Picker: The dropper tool now displays RGB values directly. You can also hold
CTRL to pick colors, and we've added the ability to paste RGB values directly from the clipboard into the palette.
3. UI Changes
- Better GUI Font Rendering: We have added many international characters to the user interface font and also fixed the rendering on some of the letters.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: Several shortcut improvements, including support for the US backtick key on international keyboards. The foundation was also laid to add custom keyboard remapping.
4. Window Resizing and Scaling fixes
- Fixed HiDPI Window Sizing: The PyDPainter window had problems scaling properly on a 5K display. Now it scales to 5K in all its pixellated glory.
- Portait Displays and Multi-Monitor Setups: In the previous release, Full-screen on some non-conventional display setups did not work properly. That bug has been squashed, and PyDPainter should be at home on any weird display combination you can dream up.
Detailed Changelog
New Features & Improvements
- Fill Tools:
- Added Circular Fill style with crosshair gradient indicators.
- Added arbitrary rotation for linear fill as well as handy rotation buttons (45-degree increments) for linear fills.
- Implemented arbitrary Dither Matrix support with many presets.
- Palette & Colors:
- Added RGB values to the dropper tool tooltip.
- Added ability to paste clipboard RGB data into the Palette.
- New shortcut:
CTRL key to pick colors.
- Windowing/UI:
- Improved mouse scaling behavior in Fullscreen mode.
- Fixed window sizing issues.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed some GIF saving errors and import issues.
- Fixed IFF writer to output correct screen resolutions.
- Fixed clipboard behavior under PyGame.
Documentation
- Extensive updates to the Palette and Toolbox documentation.
- Updated Animpainting tutorial with clearer shortcuts and snapshots.
A huge thank you to our contributors for this release: Stephane Anquetil, Jim Higson, and Caleb Riale.
Recent Blog Posts
PyDPainter