An updated version of open source graphics app Pinta is available to download.

Pinta 2.1 arrives roughly one year after the last update, which saw the debut of the Pinta 2.0 series using GTK3 and a modern version of .NET. Did you know that the Pinta is directly inspired by the Windows programme Paint.NET? Yup, so if you were a fan of that in your Windows days do check Pinta out!

So what’s new in Pinta 2.1?

The big one? WebP support. This efficient image format is finally gaining a lot of traction (quite deservedly) and with Ubuntu recently added support for viewing WebP images, Pinta following suit is good news.

The catch with this is, for now, WebP support is NOT included in the Flatpak and Snap builds regardless of whether the underlying library is installed on your OS or not.

Pinta 2.1 also includes full support for dark mode, with all icons, toolbars, dialogs adapting, and a swathe of icons are now high-res friendly SVGs.

Pinta devs also made selection move handles and shape control point handles easier to use when working on zoomed in or really small images. As Pinta is a layer-based editor, being able to effectively manipulate layers and shapes on-canvas when you’re zoomed in is a big quality of life improvement.

Elsewhere, the performance of canvas rendering is said to be improved, and Pinta uses the XDG screenshot portal (where used) when the File > New Screenshot shortcut is triggered. This means Pinta can —hurrah— take screenshots under Wayland now — which is a real time saver.

An updated Pinta icon is included with this release. It’s not a massive revamp, more of a subtle enhancement:

Other changes:

  • ‘Transparency Mode’ in Gradient tool
  • Open images/files from virtual filesystems
  • Improved support for .ora files
  • File dialog now uses MIME types on Linux and macOS
  • Line / Curve tool no longer requires pressing ctrl

In all, a nice collection of updates — but the improvements don’t end there.

Pinta 2.1 fixes a bus-load of bugs, including fixes for the History panel being hard to read in dark mode; rulers not drawing a market for current mouse position; and the text tool no longer crashes if pressing ctrl + x with nothing selected.

Work on the “next” version of Pinta is underway and will see the app migrate to GTK4.

Download Pinta 2.1

Pinta 2.1 is free, open source software available for Windows, macOS, and Linux desktops. Ubuntu users can install the latest release from the Snap store, from Flathub, or grab the source code on GitHub.

Just a word of caution if you plan to install Pinta on Ubuntu: don’t install the version in the Ubuntu repos. It is stuck on version 1.6 which is 8 years old at this point, relies on GTK2, and comes with a ton of bugs that were fixed in subsequent releases. A request to update the version Ubuntu pulls in to the 2.x series is pending.