Qt Design Studio 4.8 Is Here!
Today, we are proud to announce the release of Qt Design Studio 4.8, the latest version of the Qt Design Studio 4. This release is focused on stability and performance, delivering numerous important fixes to ensure you have a smooth and reliable QML UI creation experience for years to come.
Our goal has been to make QML UI creation as seamless as possible. With Qt Design Studio 4.8, we're doubling down on that commitment.
In addition, this release is marked as LTS as we have agreed to deliver Long Term Support releases every two years and the previous version was 4.1 which was released in Q2/2023.
Now let’s look at what the Qt Design Studio 4.8 will bring you and why you should put it into use.
A Foundational Overhaul: The New QML Code Model
Qt Design Studio 4.8 introduces a significant engineering milestone under the hood. The primary focus has been the deployment of a completely new internal code model for QML which replaces the older code model that was done to support a code-first approach used by development IDEs and was never optimized for WYSIWYG GUI creation. At its core, the code model tracks all type information for Qt's built-in types and a project's custom QML components.
With this release, we are introducing a visual GUI creation optimized backend, engineered specifically for the performance and tooling requirements of Qt Design Studio, which we call Project Storage. This foundational change was a substantial undertaking that required a comprehensive refactoring of nearly every view and component within the application. Investing in our core architecture creates a more robust and performant tool, setting the stage for future development. Let’s see what benefits it brings to your day-to-day work:
Quantifiable Performance Gains
The direct result of this architectural overhaul is substantial, measurable performance improvements in key workflows. Our benchmarks demonstrate: https://wiki.qt.io/QtDesignStudio/QDS48_benchmarks
- Faster Navigation: The time required to switch between files and components has been reduced by approximately 50%, enabling a more fluid and responsive design experience.
- Accelerated Bridge Imports: The Bridge import mechanism is now, on average, 5 times faster.
Qt Design Viewer Login Improvement
Remember the Qt Design Viewer where you can share your applications in most widely-used web browsers, such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox, on the desktop and on mobile devices (https://designviewer.qt.io/)? Now it has a streamlined login process in Qt Design Studio 4.8 to create a smoother user experience. Instead of using an embedded login window, authentication is now managed through your system's default web browser. This change allows you to utilize existing browser sessions and take advantage of password managers for quicker and more convenient access. By adopting this modern authentication method, we are improving security and eliminating a point of friction, enabling you to connect to your designs faster than ever.
Qt Design Studio Bridges
We are currently exploring options to open-source the existing bridge components. Although nothing is finalized, if we find a suitable solution, the ongoing development of these legacy bridge elements could be managed by the community. Please share your thoughts in the comments if you would like to see this happen!
Long Term Support Strategy
Here at Qt Company, we have defined a Long Term Support (LTS) procedure where we commit to deliver a LTS release every two years per sellable product, see more here: https://www.qt.io/product/qt6/qt-long-term-support.
Qt Design Studio 4.8 is be released as LTS version making sure the features and workflows will be supported up to five (5) years.
The initial release, version 4.8.0 includes several noteworthy features. During the five years we will also make regular updates and patches, so your work won’t be discontinued.
One More Thing
We will use the Qt Design Studio 4 family as a test platform for our upcoming new features. This means you'll get a sneak preview of the features we are researching, which will be marked with a [beta] tag in future updates. If you would like to participate in testing these features, please ensure that you have enabled the experimental features in your settings. We would greatly appreciate your feedback on this!
Please see the attached picture which shows you how to enable the experimental features. The main dialog is found under Qt Design Studio settings.
No Need To Be Connected
Starting from Qt Design Studio 4.7, we incorporated the add-on libraries you have previously been downloading when you compile the exported project in IDE like Qt Creator. Not anymore. Now, Qt Design Studio adds the needed libs by default, so the whole transfer from Qt Design Studio to developer IDE can be done without a network connection.
Summary Of Improvements
- Bug Fixes: Our change log contains more detailed information on the update, including small improvements and bug fixes.
Getting Started
Qt Design Studio is everything you need for quicker and smarter UI development. Meet our product and try out the free evaluation.
Do you want to learn more about Qt Design Studio? Do not worry.
- Dive into our online documentation to learn about Qt Design Studio.
- Kickstart your journey with Qt Design Studio through our learning portal.
If you encounter any bugs or usability issues, please report them in the issue tracker . We always look forward to improving your experience with Qt Design Studio.
