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Archives For November 30, 1999

Photoflare – Simple Powerful Image Editor Inspired by PhotoFiltre

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Photoflare is an open-source simple and powerful image editing software inspired by PhotoFiltre.

Photoflare is written in C++ with Qt5 framework. It works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS, and features basic image editing capabilities, paint brushes, image filters, colour adjustments and more advanced features such as Batch image processing.

Besides the community version, the software also offers studio edition requires to pay for packages.

Features of Photoflare include:

  • Simple but powerful, and very fast to do everything.
  • Works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.
  • Basic image editing capabilities
  • Paint brushes
  • Image filters
  • Color adjustments
  • And more advanced features such as Batch image processing.

How to Install Photoflare in Ubuntu:

Option 1: Ubuntu PPA

The software has a stable PPA which so far contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

1.) To add the PPA, open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens,  run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:photoflare/photoflare-stable

2.) After adding PPA, update system package cache and install the image editor via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install photoflare

Option 2: Flatpak package

For choice, user can install the software as Flatpak runs in sandbox environment. Meaning even the old Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 can install the latest version of this image editing app.

1. (Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 only) First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, run command to add the Flatpak PPA for old Ubuntu that don’t have the package in system repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flatpak/stable

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue. Next, run sudo apt update to refresh system package cache.

2. Then, run command to enable Flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

3. Finally, install the app as Flatpak package by running the command below in terminal:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.photoflare.photoflare.flatpakref

Once installed, search for and launch the app either from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment. If app icon not visible, try log out and back in to apply path environment changes.

And for future versions, use the command to check updates:

flatpak update io.photoflare.photoflare

Uninstall Photoflare:

To remove Photoflare image editor, either use your system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove photoflare

And remove the PPA either via Software & Updates under Other Software tab, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:photoflare/photoflare-stable

To uninstall the Flatpak package, use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.photoflare.photoflare

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless run-time libraries.

In App Review
 

GIMP 2.10.6 Released with Vertical Text, New Filters

Last updated: August 20, 2018

GIMP, the popular cross-platform image editor, reached 2.10.6 release a day ago with new features, optimizations, and bug-fixes.

GIMP 2.10.6 release highlights:

  • Add support for vertical text (top-to-bottom writing)
  • New filter: Little Planet to create “little planets” from 360×180° equirectangular panorama images.
  • New filter: Long Shadow simplifies creating long shadows in several visual styles.
  • Add vertical straightening support in the Measure tool
  • Rendering most drawable previews asynchronously.
  • Option to disable rendering layer group previews completely (Preferences > Interface > respective checkbox).
  • For more details, see the release note.

How to Install GIMP 2.10.6 in Ubuntu:

The otto06217’s PPA contains the most recent packages for Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, as usual GIMP 2.10.6 will be available a few days later.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts, or by searching for ‘Terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

Type your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. After added the PPA, you can upgrade to GIMP 2.10.6 once it’s published via Software Updater (Update Manager):

Or run following commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade GIMP image editor:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

How to Restore:

For any reason, you can downgrade to the stock version of GIMP by running following command in terminal to purge the PPA:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

Install GIMP 2.10.6 flatpak in Ubuntu 16.04 & Higher

For Ubuntu 16.04 and higher, the latest GIMP is also available as flatpak (runs in sandbox) package.

1. Run commands to install Flatpak framework in Ubuntu 16.04 via PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexlarsson/flatpak

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install flatpak

Ubuntu 18.04 and higher can skip the first 2 commands since flatpak is available in the universe repository.

2. Install GIMP flatpak application via command:

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

Once installed, it will be made available exactly the same way as other applications.

3. (optional) To remove the GIMP flatpak, run command:

flatpak uninstall org.gimp.GIMP
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GIMP 2.10.2 Released with HEIF Support (How to Upgrade)

Last updated: May 22, 2018

GIMP 2.10.2, the first bug-fix release for the GIMP 2.10 series, was released 2 days ago. And now you can easily install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and derivatives.

GIMP 2.10.2 release highlights:

  • Add HEIF image format support both for loading and export
  • Spherize filter to wrap an image around a spherical cap
  • Recursive Transform filter to create a Droste effect
  • Single-window screenshots improvement for Windows.
  • Histogram computation improvement which eliminates some UI freezes
  • Document update and a total of 44 bug-fixes.

How to Install GIMP 2.10.2 via PPA in Ubuntu:

The new release has been made into PPA repository for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

Ubuntu 16.04 is not supported at the moment due to inextricably Glib dependencies.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts, or by searching for ‘Terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

Type your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. After added the PPA, you can upgrade to GIMP 2.10.2 from an existing release using Software Updater (Update Manager):

or run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade GIMP:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

Tip: apt update command is not required for Ubuntu 18.04 since it automatically refresh repository caches after adding PPA.

How to Restore:

For any reason, you can restore to the old GIMP 2.8.22 by running following command in terminal to purge the PPA:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
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How to Install GIMP 2.10 in Ubuntu 18.04, 17.10 via PPA

Last updated: April 29, 2018

GIMP 2.10, a new major release of the most popular Linux image editing software, was announced a day ago with huge list of changes.

The most notable changes in GIMP 2.10 include:

  • Nearly fully ported to GEGL, allowing high bit depth processing, multi-threaded and hardware accelerated pixel processing, and more.
  • Color management is a core feature now, most widgets and preview areas are color-managed.
  • Many improved tools, and several new and exciting tools, such as the Warp transform, the Unified transform and the Handle transform tools.
  • On-canvas preview for all filters ported to GEGL.
  • Improved digital painting with canvas rotation and flipping, symmetry MyPaint brush support…
  • Support for several new image formats added (OpenEXR, RGBE, WebP, HGT), as well as improved support for many existing formats (in particular more robust PSD importing).
  • Metadata viewing and editing for Exif, XMP, IPTC, and DICOM.
  • Basic HiDPI support: automatic or user-selected icon size.
  • New themes for GIMP (Light, Gray, Dark, and System) and new symbolic icons meant to somewhat dim the environment and shift the focus towards content.
  • And more, better, more, and even more awesome! See the release note.

How to Install GIMP 2.10 via PPA in Ubuntu:

The new release has been made into PPA repository for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

Ubuntu 16.04 is not supported at the moment due to inextricably Glib dependencies.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts, or by searching for ‘Terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

Type your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. After added the PPA, you can upgrade to GIMP 2.10 from an existing release using Software Updater (Update Manager):

or run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade GIMP:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

Tip: apt update command is not required for Ubuntu 18.04 since it automatically refresh repository caches after adding PPA.

How to Restore:

For any reason, you can restore to the old GIMP 2.8.22 by running following command in terminal to purge the PPA:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
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GIMP 2.8.20 Available in PPA for Ubuntu 16.10, 16.04, 14.04, 12.04

Last updated: February 8, 2017

GIMP image editor 2.8.20 stable was released one week ago. Now it’s finally available in PPA repository for Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives.

GIMP 2.8.20 fixed the weird initial user interface language selection on mac OS. For Windows, an annoying oscillating switching between different input devices has been fixed.

  • Avoid D-Bus error message when built without D-Bus support
  • fix OS X min required conditional in gimpimagewindow.c
  • Saving to existing .xcf.bz and .xcf.gz files didn’t truncate them and could lead to unnecessarily large files
  • Text layer created by gimp-text-fontname doesn’t respect border when resized
  • Flow on Paint Dynamics editor dialog: the ‘y’ axis is indicating ‘Rate’ instead ‘Flow’
  • Vertical ruler shows artifacts if the status bar isn’t showing
  • Tablet stylus misbehaves when crossing the edge of a dock in multi-window-mode
  • Disable the new “automatic window tabbing” feature introduced on mac OS Sierra
  • Improve the visiblity of slider handles with dark themes
  • Make it harder to switch to renaming if selecting already selected items in resource lists
  • make toggling to color picker mode of paint tools more robust
  • call gimp_file_entry_set_filename() with filename encoding

How to Install GIMP 2.8.20 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

The new release has been made into the PPA repository, available for all current Ubuntu releases and derivatives.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

2. You can then upgrade the editor from a previous release via Software Updater utility:

Or install GIMP either via Synaptic Package Manager or command:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

Uninstall:

To restore GIMP to the stock versions available in Ubuntu main repositories, open terminal and purge the PPA via ppa-purge tool:

sudo apt-get ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
In Howtos ,
 

GIMP 2.8.18 Released with Security Fix to XCF

Last updated: July 14, 2016

GIMP image editor 2.8.18, a new point release in the stable branch, has been released to fix a vulnerability in the XCF loading code. With special XCF files, GIMP can be caused to crash, and possibly be made to execute arbitrary code provided by the attacker.

Besides this security fix, GIMP 2.8.18 also brings following changes:

  • Fix “GIMP is not responding” on initial startup on Windows and OS X.
  • Fix GUI crashed on OS X
  • Fix gamut warning color for lcms display filter
  • Fix unbolding of bold font on edit
  • Decrease installer size by changing compression settings
  • Many other fixes, translation and documentation updates.

How to Install GIMP 2.8.18 in Ubuntu:

GIMP does not provide official Linux binary package. But Otto Meier is maintaining a PPA with most recent packages. So far, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives are supported.

1. Add the PPA.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

2. Upgrade GIMP using Software Updater.

Or run the command below one by one:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gimp

3. (Optional) For any reason, you want to downgrade to stock version of GIMP in your Ubuntu. Install ppa-purge and purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
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Upgrade to Latest gThumb 3.3.3 in Linux Mint 17.1

Last updated: February 12, 2015

Quick tutorial shows how to upgrade to the latest gThumb image viewer and organizer in Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon.

gThumb is a free and open-source image viewer, browser, and editor for Gnome Desktop. While Linux Mint 17.1 still provides gThumb 3.27, the latest version has reached the 3.3.3 release with new image tools, bug fixes and translations updates.

New features and user visible changes:

  • Allow to apply the embedded color profile for jpeg images.
  • New image tools: special effects; curves.
  • Unified ‘equalize histogram’ and ‘adjust contrast’: show a preview of the various contrast filters.
  • Grayscale tool: show a preview of the different filters.
  • Fixed the interface style when used with gtk+ 3.14
  • File propery view: use a switcher; added a details page that show all the metadata, show only the important exif fields in the properties page.
  • UI changes to the preferences dialog: use a sidebar instead of a notebook to avoid a large dialog with some translations; better spacing; removed the Ok button.
  • Video player: save the screenshot without showing the dialog. Allow to set the screenshots location in the extension preferences dialog. Show a message in the statusbar after saving.
  • Gear menu: use the new icon if using gtk+ 3.13 or newer

Bugs fixed:

  • video player: do not hide the mediabar when using the volume control
  • Forbidden when trying to upload to Flickr (#732557)
  • Build against either webkit2gtk-3.0 or webkit2gtk-4.0 (Dominique Leuenberger)

How to install / upgrade gThumb in Mint Cinnamon:

1. Open terminal and run below command to add the Webupd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/gthumb

2. Open Update Manager from menu, click “Refresh” button and then you should see the gThumb 3.3.3 available for upgrade (make sure you have upgrade to mintupdate 4.8.1).

Select it and click Install Updates.

In Howtos, Linux Mint ,
 

Drawing/Editing App Pinta 1.5 Released with Add-in Support

Last updated: May 29, 2014

Pinta, an open-source, bitmap image drawing and editing program inspired by Paint.NET, has reached release 1.5 with many new features, improvements. Add-in support is one of the great new features.

As you may know, Pinta is a bitmap image editor with many features typical of image editing software including drawing tools, image filters and color adjustment tools. It features unlimited undo history, unlimited Layers, and multiple language support.

Th latest Pinta 1.5 was released on May 24 which brings following new features and improvements:

  • Re-editable text
  • Mouse cursors now resize based on the active brush size.
  • The Move Selection and Move Selected tools can now rotate the selection using the right mouse button.
  • Added an Invert Selection command.
  • New or redesigned mouse cursors for every tool.
  • Improved OSX integration (file associations and improved dock integration)
  • Redesigned Windows installer, which automatically downloads and installs the correct version of GTK# and the .NET Framework if necessary
  • Improved JPEG Compression Dialog (remembers previous settings and has the OK button as the default control)
  • The Open File dialog now shows image previews for ORA files, as well as any file formats provided by add-ins.

User can now use the Add-in Manager (under the Add-ins menu) to browse and install add-ins.The developers are in the process of setting up a community add-in repository which will be included by default in future Pinta releases.

Also, there are a lot of bug-fixes. See the release note for details.

Install Pinta 1.5 in Ubuntu:

The latest release has been made into the official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy and Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal.

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pinta

(Optional) To remove this app as well as the PPA repository, run:

sudo apt-get remove pinta

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable

sudo apt-get update
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