Qt version history

Pre-releases and Qt 1

Date	Version	New features
20 May 1995	0.90[1][2]	First public pre-release version
May 1996	0.97[3]
24 September 1996	1.0[3]	First stable release
Late 1996	1.1[3]
April 1997	1.2[3]
September 1997	1.3[3]
September 1998	1.40[3]
2 October 1998	1.41
19 December 1998	1.42
13 March 1999	1.44
1999	1.45	Last stable release^a

Qt 2

Date	Version	New features
26 June 1999	2.0	Qt/X11 open source under QPL (Q Public License)[3][4]
13 April 2000	2.1
7 December 2000	2.2	GNU General Public License 2[3][4]
8 March 2001	2.3

Qt 3

Date	Version	New features
16 October 2001	3.0
14 November 2001	3.1
24 July 2003	3.2
5 February 2004	3.3

Qt 4

Version	Release date	New features
4.0	28 June 2005[3][4]	Tulip: A set of template container classes. Interview: A model–view–controller architecture for item views. Arthur 2D painting framework. Scribe Unicode text renderer with a public API for performing low-level text layout. MainWindow: A modern action-based main window, toolbar, menu, and docking architecture.
4.1	20 December 2005[5]	Introduced integrated SVG Tiny support, a PDF backend to Qt's printing system, and a few other features.
4.2	4 October 2006[6]	Introduced Windows Vista support, introduced native CSS support for widget styling, as well as the QGraphicsView framework for efficient rendering of thousands of 2D objects onscreen, to replace Qt 3.x's QCanvas class.
4.3	30 May 2007[7]	Improved Windows Vista support, improved OpenGL engine, SVG file generation, added QtScript (ECMAScript scripting engine based on QSA).[8]
4.4	6 May 2008[9]	Features included are improved multimedia support using Phonon, enhanced XML support, a concurrency framework to ease developing multi-threaded applications, an IPC framework with a focus on shared memory, and WebKit integration.
4.5	3 March 2009[10]	Major included features are QtCreator, improved graphical engine, improved integration with WebKit, OpenDocument Format write support and new licensing options, as well as OS X Cocoa framework support.
4.6	1 December 2009[11]	New APIs are Framework Animation, Gestures, Multi-touch. Now supports (as Tier 1) Symbian and (as Tier 2) Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6, support extended for some Unix systems. Improvements have also been made to overall performance.
4.7	21 September 2010[12]	QML and Qt Quick.
4.8	15 December 2011[13]	Qt Platform Abstraction, Threaded OpenGL support, Multithreaded HTTP, and optimized file system access.

Qt 5

Qt 5 was officially released on 19 December 2012. This new version marked a major change in the platform, with hardware-accelerated graphics, QML and JavaScript playing a major role. The traditional C++-only QWidgets continued to be supported, but did not benefit from the performance improvements available through the new architecture.^[14] Qt 5 brings significant improvements to the speed and ease of developing user interfaces.^[15]

Framework development of Qt 5 moved to open governance, taking place at qt-project.org. It is now possible for developers outside Digia to submit patches and have them reviewed.^[16]

Version	Release date	New features
Old version, no longer supported: 5.0	19 December 2012[17]	Major overhaul of the Qt 4.x series. Complete Wayland support, including the client-side decorations.
Old version, no longer supported: 5.1	3 July 2013	New modules and experimental Android and iOS support as technology preview.[18]
Old version, no longer supported: 5.2	12 December 2013	First release with official support of Android and iOS. Some code from KDE Platform 4 moved into Qt instead of KDE Frameworks 5.
Old version, no longer supported: 5.3	20 May 2014	Focus on stability and usability[19]
Old version, no longer supported: 5.4	10 December 2014	Full WinRT and Windows Phone support Introduction of Qt WebEngine based on Chromium internal components that will eventually replace QtWebKit in future versions. Dynamic GL switching between graphic backends on Windows (ANGLE or OpenGL) Native "look and feel" for Qt Quick Controls backends on Android platforms[20] Introduction of Qt WebChannels providing a QObject bridge over WebSockets. Initially only integrated with Qt WebKit, but with Qt WebEngine integration under way for 5.5
Old version, no longer supported: 5.5	1 July 2015	Features available in Qt 5.5 according to official Qt.io website:[21] New modules: Qt 3D, Qt Canvas 3D, Qt Location Deprecated modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative (Qt Quick 1), Qt Script Bluetooth Low Energy API final release On Windows, there will be no more OpenGL-only or ANGLE-only builds and Qt will manage this dynamically GStreamer 1.0 support New video filtering framework Camera and QML MediaPlayer improvement on iOS Qt NFC for Linux SSL/TLS improvements for Qt Network
Older version, yet still supported: 5.6 LTS	16 March 2016	Notable improvements:[22] Deprecated Modules: Qt Script, Qt Enginio Removed Modules: Qt WebKit, Qt Declarative (Qt Quick 1) Qt Core: Several performance improvements, including reduction of memory usage in dynamic properties, and performance optimisations in QString Qt Network: Support HTTP redirection Qt Gui: Improved cross-platform OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1 Qt Multimedia: Adding playlist QML type Qt WebEngine: Based on Chromium 45, with support for pepper plugins including Flash, API for custom URL schemes, intercepting and blocking network requests and also tracking or blocking cookies Qt QML: Reduced memory consumption Embedded platforms: support for Intel Atom-based NUCs This release is the first Qt5 release to be Long Term Supported with three years standard support.[23]
Current stable version: 5.7	16 June 2016	Notable improvements:[24] New modules: Qt 3D[25] and Qt Quick Controls 2, a set of embedded and mobile oriented controls Open-sourced modules (previously commercial-only): Qt Charts, Qt Data Visualization, Qt Virtual Keyboard, Qt Purchasing, and Qt Quick 2D Renderer

Notes

^a On 14 October 2016, KDE’s 20th anniversary, a KDE developer re-released a variant of Qt 1.45 that he made work with modern Linux systems.^[26]

References

1. "Happy 20th Anniversary Qt!". Qt Blog.
2. "Qt framework celebrates its 20th anniversary". SD Times.
3. "History of Cute Qt".
4. "Qt History". Qt Wiki.
5. Trolltech Releases Qt 4.1, qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
6. Qt 4.2.0 released by Harald Fernengel, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
7. Qt 4.3.0 released by Girish Ramakrishnan, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
8. Trolltech: What’s New in Qt 4.3 Archived April 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
9. Qt 4.4.0 fully released by Thiago Macieira, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
10. Qt 4.5 hits the (virtual) shelves by Jason McDonald, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
11. Qt 4.6.0 Released Early due to Good Behaviour by Jason McDonald, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
12. Qt 4.7.0 now available by Jason McDonald, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
13. Qt 4.8.0 Released by Sinan Tanilkan, labs.qt.nokia.com. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
14. "Concern about removal of QWidget classes". Qt5-feedback (Mailing list). 7 October 2011.
15. Knoll, Lars (9 May 2011). "Thoughts about Qt 5". Digia. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
16. Lars Knoll (21 October 2011). "The Qt Project is live!". Nokia. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
17. Qt Blog. "Introducing Qt 5.0 | Qt Blog". Digia. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
18. "New Features in Qt 5.1". Digia. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
19. Knoll, Lars (20 May 2014). "Qt 5.3 Released". blog.qt.io. Retrieved 2015-02-26.
20. "Qt 5.4 Alpha Available". Digia. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
21. Jani Heikkinen (17 March 2015). "New Features in Qt 5.5". Qt Project. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
22. Qt Project contributors (25 March 2015). "New Features in Qt 5.6". Qt Project. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
23. Tuukka Turunen (18 December 2015). "Introducing Long Term Support". Qt Project. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
24. "New Features in Qt 5.7". Qt Wiki.
25. "Qt 3D Overview".
26. "KDE Project releases KDE 1 !". 14 October 2016.