Krita announced the new major 5.2.0 release few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 via PPA.

Krita 5.2.0 introduced some exciting new features, such as synchronized audio playback, FFmpeg bundle, new text layout engine, new Wide Gamut Color Selector, new actions, CMYK for JEPG-XL, and various tool updates. See the official release note for details.

Krita provides official Linux package through AppImage, which is available to download at the link below:

Once you got the package, just right-click on it and go file ‘Properties’, then enable “Allow executing file as program” under Permissions tab. Finally, right-click and select “Run” to launch the painter.

Krita is also available as Snap and Flatpak packages, though they are both NOT updated to v5.2.0 at the moment of writing.

How to Install Krita 5.2.0 via PPA

For users hate running apps in sandbox, I’ve uploaded the package into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 (arm64 also supported), Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

NOTE 1: This is an unofficial package built against Debian upstream rules. It seems working good, but without well testing!
NOTE 2: For Ubuntu 22.04, the PPA also contains a few updated version of dependency libraries, that MIGHT cause conflict to other packages in your system!

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/krita

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then, either launch Software Updater and upgrade the graphics editor from an old version:

or run the command below in terminal to install/upgrade it:

sudo apt install krita

NOTE: Linux Mint may have to run sudo apt update first.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA as well as downgrade the Krita package to stock version, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/krita

Or, open Software & Updates and remove the repository source line under “Other Software” tab (Linux Mint users go to Software Sources -> PPA).

And, remove Krita graphics editor via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove krita krita-data

That’s all. Enjoy!

GIMP image editor released a new update for the 2.10 series few days ago! Here are what’s new and how to install guide for Ubuntu Linux users.

GIMP 2.10.34 is a new stable release features a lot of bug-fixes and a few enhancements. The official announcement is NOT ready somehow at the moment, though it’s released in gitlab project age. And, the source code is available to download at FTP web page.

For macOS, the DBus is now fully disabled as it in some cases could even cause app freeze. Open With feature still work fine, but other features using dbus (such as opening files or running batch commands from a separate GIMP process) won’t work. As well, check for updates function in macOS now works again.

The release also has some backports from the 2.99.x development releases. The “Canvas Size” dialog has been redesigned to use more horizontal space. And, it has new Template selector in resize dialog.

For PDF with transparent area, there’s new “Fill transparent areas with white” option which enabled by default on file import. And export dialog has “Fill transparent areas with background color” option to decide whether use transparent background.

Other changes in GIMP 2.10.34 include:

• Symmetry dockable contents is now shown, yet deactivated, when no images are opened
• Color scale preferences are now remembered across sessions.
• Import JPEG-XL metadata support.
• Export JPEG-XL support, always in 8bit lossless.
• New header with “visible” and “link” icons in item dockables
• Clipping layers better supported when importing PSD files
• Paths are now exported to PSD
• New option “Show reduced images” when loading TIFF images
• 16-bit per channel export for raw image data

How to Install GIMP 2.10.34 in Ubuntu Linux

Option 1: Flatpak

GIMP provides official Linux packages through universal Flatpak package, though it runs in sandbox environment.

Ubuntu user can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the following 2 commands one by one to install it:

1. Make sure the flatpak daemon installed by running command:

   sudo apt install flatpak

   

2. Then, install GIMP as Flatpak via command:

   flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref

   

Once installed, start it either from app launcher or run flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP in terminal.

Option 2: Ubuntu PPA

For those prefer the classic .deb package format. I’ve uploaded the package into the unofficial PPA, with support for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add PPA:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp

2. Then either upgrade GIMP using Software Updater, or run command in terminal to install it:

   sudo apt install gimp libgegl-0.4-0 libbabl-0.1-0

   For Linux mint, you may need to run sudo apt update to update package index first.

Uninstall GIMP:

For GIMP package installed as Flatpak, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to remove it:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.gimp.GIMP

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clean useless runtime.

For .deb package from PPA, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp

The command above will remove PPA and downgrade the GIMP package into stock version in system repository.

For choice, you may remove the PPA instead by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp

And remove the GIMP image editor via:

sudo apt remove --autoremove gimp libgegl-0.4-0

Krita graphics editor 5.1.5 released few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04 and/or Ubuntu 22.10 via PPA repository.

Krita 5.1 was released months ago with improved Webp, photoshop files support, extended fill tools, and configurable touch controls. The 5.1.5 is a new point release with following bug-fixes:

• Fixed issue with banding when using the gradient map filter as a filter layer.
• Only center paste into active layer if contents are outside image bounds.
• EXR: Fixed opening EXR files that have only a luma channel.
• Fixed an issue building with XSIMD 10.0 and up.
• Properly use the resolution of a .KRA file when that file is used as a file layer.
• Fixed a regression in loading PSD files.
• Android: Fixed loading and creating images on Android and ChromeOS.
• Android: Fixed an issue with loading translations.

How to Install Krita 5.1.5 in Ubuntu:

Krita now provides official Linux package as universal AppImage available to download in its website. It’s a non-install package that can run directly (after adding executable permission) to launch the editor.

For those prefer the native .deb package, either keep an eye on Krita Community PPA (NOT updated for stable build at the moment of writing), maintained by the guy behind the old official Krita Lime PPA.

Or, use my personal PPA that contains amd64 (64-bit) and arm64/hf packages for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10. Ubuntu 20.04 is NOT supported since Krita 5.1.x switched to XSIMD which is not available in old Ubuntu repositories.

JPEG-XL is NOT supported in this PPA, since the library is not available in Ubuntu repository so far. And, building it also needs to update highway and libavif libraries that may cause potential risk factors of conflict to other packages.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/krita

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then, either launch Software Updater and upgrade the graphics editor from an old version:

or run the command below in terminal to install/upgrade it:

sudo apt install krita

NOTE: Linux Mint may have to run sudo apt update first.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA as well as downgrade the Krita package to stock version, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/krita

Or, open Software & Updates and remove the repository source line under “Other Software” tab (Linux Mint users go to Software Sources -> PPA).

And, remove Krita graphics editor via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove krita krita-data

That’s all. Enjoy!

For Pinta users who do NOT like the Snap and Flatpak packages that run in sandbox. Here’s how to build the 2.1 release from source tarball in Ubuntu 22.04 & 22.10.

Pinta has switch to .NET 6.0 framework since version 2.0. Which however needs internet connection to fetch something for the first time during the build time. And, most Linux so far still has Pinta v1.x in their system repositories.

Thankfully, building Pinta 2.1 from source is not hard. And, here’s the step by step guide show you how!

1. Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install .NET 6 as well as dev libraries for building the package.

sudo apt install dotnet-sdk-6.0 debhelper autotools-dev autoconf-archive gettext intltool libgtk-3-dev

NOTE: If you’ve already installed dotnet 7.0 from Microsoft repository, skip dotnet-sdk-6.0 in command.

2. Next, download the source tarball from github release page (under ‘Assets’ section):

3. Then, extract the tarball in file manager. Right-click on source folder and select “Open in Terminal”.

4. The last step will open a terminal window and automatically navigate to the Pinta source folder as working directory.

In the terminal window, run command to configure the source:

./configure

And, finally compile and install it via:

sudo make install

NOTE: This step needs internet connection if you’re first time using dotnet to build a package. And, it may fail if you’ve ever installed .NET 7.0 but removed (not completely) and use .NET 6.0 now.

If everything’s done without any error, you should now be able to search for and launch Pinta from system start menu (‘Activities’ overview).

Uninstall:

Until you remove the source folder, you can run sudo make uninstall at any time from in that folder to uninstall Pinta package.

If you’ve removed the source folder, re-do the previous steps and replace the last command with sudo make uninstall.