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Pinta 2.1 open-source, free, cross-platform, and simple image editing and paint program written in GTK# for GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms is now available for download as a major update that brings a year’s worth of new features and improvements.
That’s right, it’s been a year since Pinta 2.0 was released and now Pinta 2.1 is here to introduce exciting changes like support for the WebP modern image format (though Linux users will have to install the webp-pixbuf-loader package first), a new “Transparency Mode” to the Gradient tool, the ability to open files from virtual filesystems, as well as support for the standard GTK about dialog.
Many improvements are present in this major update to fix taking screenshots under Wayland, speed up canvas rendering, load image or palette files with an unknown extension but with valid contents, as well as to make Pinta more usable when using dark themes and HiDPI screens.
Pinta 2.1 also improves the selection move handles and shape control point handles to make it easier for users to use them when working on zoomed-in or small images. Moreover, support for the .ora file format has been improved to also include a flattened image in the archive when saving and to correctly round-trip hidden layers.
On top of that, the file dialog was updated to use MIME types on Linux and macOS systems, allowing valid image files that have unknown extensions to be included in the image file filter. Also updated is the Line / Curve tool, which now no longer forces you to press Ctrl to start drawing a shape when the mouse cursor is outside the canvas.
Under the hood, Pinta 2.1 is powered by the .NET 7 framework, but the developers note the fact that building the application against the long-term supported .NET 6 framework is still supported. When building the app from the source tarball, .NET 6 will be used if .NET 7 is not present on your system.
As expected, many bugs and issues were addressed in this update to make Pinta more stable and reliable. Specifically for Linux users, Pinta now works better under KDE Plasma Wayland sessions. For more details, check out the full release notes on the project’s GitHub page, from where you can also download the new release.
Pinta is also available for installation as a Flatpak app from Flathub.
Last updated 1 year ago
