KDE Plasma 6.3 Released with Panel Clone, Pixel Perfect KWin Zoom

KDE Plasma announced new major 6.3 release today. See what’s new in the release of this popular Linux Desktop Environment.

First, the new Plasma 6.3 introduced “Clone Panel” option in panel configuration dialog, allowing to quickly make a copy of current panel with same settings and applets, and place in one of other 3 screen edges.

Plasma 6.3 Clone Panel

The new desktop release also revamped the Drawing Tablet page in System Settings. The settings are now split into multiple tabs with new options, including:

Map an area of a drawing tablet’s surface to the entire screen area.
More accurate tablet calibrations.
Stylus testing that shows information about tilt and pressure.
Customize the pressure curve and range of a stylus to chop off the high and/or low parts.
Re-map or swap the functions of the stylus’s buttons.

In Plasma 6.3 KWin Zoom effect now switches to a sharp pixel-perfect representation and overlays a grid on top of the screen, which is very useful for artists and designers. Screen colors are more accurate when using Night Light both with and without ICC profiles. And, KWin now offers the option to choose screen color accuracy.

Other changes include more accurate CPU usage monitoring, support collecting GPU statistics System Monitor when running on FreeBSD, as well as:

Desktop widgets are now slightly translucent, just like panel pop-ups.
Info Center now shows data about all GPUs and batteries’ cycle counts.
Show printer’s print queue in the widget, and a little spinner on which currently is printing.
New background service detects terminated app that ran out of memory and shows a notification about it.
New KRunner shortcuts to jump between categories.
Discover now highlights permission changes when updating sandboxed apps, and see whether app packages are verified.
Weather widget now supports forecasts provided by Deutcher Wetterdienst.
Ability to automatically switch off built-in touchpad when using mouse.
Add “Show Target” context menu option for symbolic links on desktop.
Add ‘Help’category in Start Menu, and merge “Settings” category into “System”.
Show number of missed notifications during “Do Not Distrub”, rather than send them all afterward.
Change the symbolic icons in Kickoff’s category sidebar with Menu Editor app.
Supports scripting to change panels’ opacity levels and choose which screen to display them.
Widget Explorer can now remove widgets that got lost or only visible on unplugged screens.