SkiaSharp 4.0 Preview 1

What is SkiaSharp?

SkiaSharp is a cross-platform 2D graphics API for .NET built on top of Google's open-source Skia graphics engine — the same library that powers Chrome, Android, and Flutter. Created ten years ago, it has become the de facto standard for pixel-perfect 2D rendering across mobile, desktop, server, and web in the .NET ecosystem.

SkiaSharp lets you draw text, vector paths, images, and complex effects with a consistent, high-quality output regardless of which platform your app runs on. It's fundamental infrastructure for .NET MAUI, WinUI 3, and Uno Platform, among others.

Supported Platforms

What Can You Build With It?

Hello Canvas in a Few Lines

The API is idiomatic C# — create a canvas, choose a paint, start drawing.

Install via NuGet: dotnet add package SkiaSharp

What's New in SkiaSharp 4.0 Preview 1

The 4.0 release is a major upgrade. Under the hood, the Skia graphics engine has been updated to milestone 147 — two and a half years and 28 milestones of upstream rendering, quality, and security improvements that benefit every SkiaSharp app automatically, without code changes.

A Better Engine

• Sharper downscaled images — mipmap sharpening is now on by default.
• Automatic photo orientation — image codecs now respect Exif rotation metadata.
• Improved large image handling — oversized bitmaps automatically tile to fit GPU texture limits.
• More accurate colours — transfer functions for Rec.709, HLG, and PQ corrected to match industry standards.
• Incremental performance gains — modest improvements across rendering operations, with specific gains for noise shaders and canvas operations.
• Security hardened — modern compiler mitigations enabled across all platforms and all bundled native dependencies updated with security fixes.

New Capabilities

• Variable fonts — full OpenType variable font axis control across SkiaSharp and HarfBuzz. Query axes, set positions, and create typeface variants for weight, width, slant, or custom axes.
• Color font palettes — switch between OpenType CPAL palettes for emoji and icon fonts, or override individual glyph colors.
• SKPathBuilder — the modern way to construct paths. SKPath is now immutable under the hood, with SKPathBuilder providing the familiar MoveTo / LineTo / CubicTo API plus shape factories. Existing SKPath methods remain available for backward compatibility.
• Linux Bionic and Tizen 64-bit — new native build targets for Android-based Linux systems and Samsung Tizen x64/arm64 devices.

Uno Platform Joins as Co-Maintainer

One of the most significant announcements alongside the preview is that Uno Platform is stepping up as a co-maintainer of SkiaSharp alongside the .NET team at Microsoft.

This isn't a surprise move — Uno Platform has built its entire cross-platform rendering pipeline on SkiaSharp, making them one of the most active and invested stakeholders in the library's health. Formalizing that as co-maintainership means the project has multi-organisational momentum that matches its importance to the .NET ecosystem.

Uno Platform's Contributions to 4.0

Uno Platform engineers have already made significant contributions to Preview 1:

• Skia engine bumps — major engine upgrades bringing SkiaSharp to the latest Skia milestone.
• Variable font support — full variable font API for SkiaSharp and HarfBuzzSharp.
• Android typeface crash fix — the critical Android API 36 startup fix.
• Cross-platform generator tooling — the binding generator now works on Linux, enabling broader contributor access.
• Uno Platform WebAssembly gallery — an interactive gallery showcasing SkiaSharp via Uno Platform's WebAssembly renderer.

What This Means for .NET Developers

Interactive Gallery & SkiaFiddle

Alongside the preview, a new website and interactive gallery is in the works — built as a Blazor WebAssembly app with live, interactive demos spanning shader playgrounds, path effects, variable fonts, and image filters.

There's also a live SkiaSharp playground, SkiaFiddle powered by Uno Platform, that lets you write and run SkiaSharp code directly in the browser — no install required.

Try SkiaFiddle

The fiddle environment lets you experiment with the API in real time. Below is an embedded view — or open it directly for the full experience.

Focus On SkiaSharp 4 — Live Event

To mark the release, Uno Platform is hosting a free online event entirely dedicated to SkiaSharp 4.0, with the .NET team at Microsoft. Three hours of focused sessions from the engineers and community leaders who built SkiaSharp 4.0 — from deep technical dives to practical integration demos.

Event Agenda

Speakers