Why Does Krita Stutter When Using the Smudge Tool on Large Areas?

Krita’s smudge tool is one of the most powerful features for blending and creating smooth transitions in artwork.

However, some users report stuttering or lag when using the tool on large areas or high-resolution canvases.

This issue typically arises from the tool’s reliance on system resources, especially when working with large brush sizes or canvases.

First, consider reducing the size of your brush.

Smudge tool performance can be significantly impacted by the size and complexity of the brush.

Smaller brushes apply smudges more efficiently and are less taxing on your system.

Next, check the resolution of your canvas.

High-resolution canvases, particularly those with thousands of pixels, can slow down Krita’s response time.

If your canvas is exceptionally large, try reducing its resolution temporarily while you work.

Afterward, you can scale it back up if needed.

Another potential cause of stuttering is the type of brush you're using.

Some brushes, especially those with complex textures or dynamic effects like flow or opacity variations, require more computational power.

Try switching to a simpler, default brush to see if this resolves the issue.

Additionally, enable Krita’s performance settings to optimize memory usage.

Navigate to Settings > Configure Krita > Performance and increase the memory allocation for brush processing.

This change will provide Krita with more resources to handle smudge operations more smoothly.

It’s also essential to keep your graphics card drivers up-to-date.

Krita relies on GPU acceleration for smoother brush strokes, and outdated drivers can cause performance issues.

Enabling GPU acceleration within Krita can also help, so make sure it’s enabled under the Performance settings.

If the stuttering persists despite these adjustments, consider disabling some of the dockers or unnecessary tool options that might be competing for system resources.

Finally, performing a clean installation of Krita can eliminate any corrupted settings that might be causing the lag.

This involves uninstalling the software, deleting leftover configuration files, and reinstalling the latest version of Krita from the official website.