As a company rooted in the power of Open-Source software, we love showcasing the tools that help us do what we do best. Today, we're excited to shine a spotlight on one of our absolute favorites—Pinta. This lightweight, open-source image editor is getting a major upgrade with the release of version 3.0, and the changes are nothing short of impressive.
Built on the robust GTK 4 toolkit and the sleek Libadwaita, Pinta 3.0 brings a redesigned user interface that’s faster, more responsive, and more efficient than ever. Linux users will also benefit from improved system utility integration. On top of all this, new effects and the return of add-ins—previously disabled due to technical constraints—promise to bring even more creative possibilities.
Pinta has always been known for its simplicity, but version 3.0 takes this beloved tool to new heights, all while staying true to its intuitive, user-friendly design. We’re excited to see how these changes elevate the experience, and we can’t wait to explore what’s in store for Pinta’s future.
Let’s dive in!
A Modernized Interface for a Seamless Experience
Pinta 3.0 ushers in a modernized user interface that not only looks better but also enhances the overall experience. This redesign is especially welcoming for new users coming from other popular proprietary design tools. It aligns with the GNOME Project's Human Interface Guidelines (GNOME HIG), ensuring a more consistent and intuitive interface for Linux users familiar with the GNOME desktop environment.
Users on other platforms need not feel left out, since GTK 4 improves the user experience on both Mac and Windows. The updated design makes it easier to learn and navigate, delivering a polished and user-friendly interface that feels right at home for today's designers and photographers.
A Design Embracing an Ecosystem
On Linux desktops, Pinta 3.0 finally delivers client-side window decorations and the arrival of a headerbar, which consolidates window controls, menus, and toolbar functions. This design shift breaks from older traditions, with menus now grouped into three dedicated buttons located on the right side of the screen. While this might take a little getting used to for some users, it fits perfectly with modern design trends and will feel familiar to those who use applications built for the GNOME platform.
Fresh Icons, Standardized Theming
Another brush of finesse landing in this release is a sleek new icon set, replacing the old, with modern symbolic icons that enhance its visual appeal. Thanks to Libadwaita, the application now supports accent colors, a modern design trend that adds a personal touch to your experience. In addition, improved light/dark mode switching ensures that Pinta adapts to your system’s theme or allows you to set it manually from the 'View' menu for full customization.
Performance Enhancements
Beyond the visual improvements, Pinta 3.0 brings significant performance boosts. The app is now more responsive, dynamically adjusting to different screen sizes and orientations with ease. This means no matter your display setup, Pinta adapts fluidly. Gesture support has also been enhanced, including pinch-to-zoom on trackpads, ensuring smoother navigation.
Additionally, Pinta’s screenshot feature has been improved to integrate with platform-specific tools, like the XDG-Desktop Screenshot Portal on Linux systems, providing better compatibility with Wayland-based desktop environments. This functionality is not available for Windows users as yet, but will likely be rolled out in future updates.
Streamlined Workflow and Dynamic Tool Adjustments
Pinta 3.0 enhances the editing workflow with several key updates. Toolboxes on the right of the interface can now be hidden, freeing up more space for the canvas. The left hand side toolbox remains visible at all times, and dynamically adjusts to the window size, ensuring none of the standard tools are hidden when resizing the app window.
Improved Color Picker and Keyboard Shortcuts
The color picker has been redesigned to improve accessibility, now offering a collapsible mode to reduce screen clutter. It provides precise control over RGB, HSV, and alpha (transparency) values. Recent colors are now saved in the Pinta color palette.
In addition, Pinta 3.0 expands keyboard shortcuts: users can now adjust brush size and line width using the '[' and ']' keys, with continuous input for fine-tuning. The new "Offset Selection" feature in the 'Edit' menu allows easy resizing of selections using a slider control, with an option to reset changes.
Layer Handling and Critical Fixes
A significant improvement in Pinta 3.0 is the prevention of silent layer flattening when saving images in formats like PNG and WEBP. Now, if the image was opened in a format with multiple layers, users are prompted before saving in another format, avoiding unintentional data loss.
Several tools have received key updates:
- The Text Tool improves compatibility with Input Method Editors (IMEs) for languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
- The Curves Tool now accurately produces solid lines.
- The Clone Stamp Tool retains destination offset between strokes, removing the need for manual repositioning.
All told, these improvements make Pinta 3.0 way more intuitive and efficient.
New Image Effects and Enhancements
Among the hidden gems in Pinta 3.0 is an expanded range of image effects, some of these ported over from Paint.NET.
Additional effects include:
- Dithering: Reduces color depth for a vintage or stylized look.
- Voronoi Diagram: Creates geometric patterns for abstract designs or procedural textures.
- Feather Object: Softens edges for smoother blending.
- Outline Object: Adds borders around text and shapes for improved visibility.
- Align Object: Offers precise positioning controls, similar to the tools in GIMP and Inkscape.
Improvements include:
- Tile Reflection: More control over tile types and edge behavior.
- Fractal and Clouds Effects: Expanded gradient customization options.
- Noise Effects: The 'Reseed' button now decouples adjustments from random noise, allowing users to lock or regenerate noise patterns independently.
Add-ins Support Restored
Pinta 3.0 also reintroduces support for add-ins, which extend functionality with additional effects and format support. This feature was temporarily disabled in the previous 2.x series, but has been restored as of version 3.0. While only two add-ins are available at launch, more are likely to be ported to the new release and future releases. Add-ins can be installed and managed via the 'Add-in Manager' found under the 'Add-ins' menu.
A Brief History of Pinta: Simple Yet Powerful Image Editing
Pinta, meaning "Paint" in Spanish, was born out of the desire to create a user-friendly image editor that balances simplicity with powerful features. With its lightweight design, Pinta offers advanced tools like layers, image adjustments, and effects without bogging down system resources. It's designed for anyone looking for an intuitive, straightforward editing experience.
Supporting popular image formats like PNG, WEBP, and JPEG, Pinta is powered by the open-source Cairo graphics library. While it doesn't natively support vector graphics, Pinta can import and rasterize vector-based files. Additionally, its support for the OpenRaster format ensures better interoperability with other open-source editors by preserving layers and metadata.
The Origins of Pinta
Launched in 2010 by Jonathan Pobst, Pinta set out to provide a simpler alternative to Paint.NET, focusing on ease of use without the overwhelming complexity of more advanced programs. After Pobst stepped back in 2011, the community took the reins, keeping the project alive and evolving. Major updates came in 2021, including a shift to modern technologies. Now, with version 3.0, Pinta embraces even more advancements, ensuring it remains both efficient and relevant for users today.
As part of our commitment to the open-source community, we recently had the privilege of redesigning the Pinta website—a small way of giving back to the tools that empower our work. Learn more in our in depth article.
Looking Ahead
Pinta 3.0 is on the horizon, bringing a modernized interface and improved usability while staying true to its lightweight design. The move to GTK 4 and Libadwaita enhances integration with modern Linux desktops for smoother performance. The reintroduction of add-ins opens up new possibilities for expanding Pinta’s features.
How to Get the Beta
The beta of Pinta 3.0 is available for download on GitHub, where you can access both the source code and installation files. Note, you'll need .NET version 8.0 to run the app on your system.
While some Linux distributions, such as Debian and its derivatives, may not include Pinta in their default repositories yet, you can install it via Flathub and the Snap Store. Pinta is also available in the repositories of distributions like Arch and Fedora, though the beta may not yet be there.
Check out Pinta's installation instructions for guidance catered to your platform of choice.
Where can l get it?
The stable release of Pinta 3.0 is available on the Pinta Project Github page—download here. Linux users who prefer to use the Flatpak or Snap versions can grab the update from the respective app stores (Flathub, or the Snap Store).
You can also download or install Pinta (depending on your platform) directly from the new Pinta website. Simply click the download button to grab the appropriate installer for your platform. Whether you're a longtime user or discovering it for the first time, this chapter of Pinta promises to deliver a smoother, more capable experience for creators everywhere.
Check out our services and see how we can help bring your vision to life. Or, dive right in! Book your free consultation today!
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