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How to install the Pinta image editor on Linux

Pinta is a free, open program for photo editing and drawing. It is cross-platform and works on Windows, Mac, BSD, and Linux. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get the latest version of Pinta up and running on Linux.

Ubuntu installation instructions

Ubuntu Linux users have it the easiest when it comes to installing the latest release of the Pinta image editor. There’s no need to compile software or anything like that. Instead, they can install the package currently in the repos, or enable the official Pinta PPA for the newest possible packages. Here’s how to do both on Ubuntu.

If you’re using Ubuntu Linux and you want Pinta and don’t care about the absolute latest release, you can simply open up a terminal window using Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, run the apt install command below to get Pinta working.

sudo apt install pinta

However, if you require the latest features which aren’t yet in any release of Ubuntu, you can also install the app using the developer’s PPAs. They have two PPAs, stable and development. To get Pinta via the stable repo, do the following.

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

Run the update command to refresh Ubuntu’s software sources.

sudo apt update

Then, install Pinta from the Stable repo on Ubuntu.

sudo apt install pinta

Or, if you want the latest development release of Pinta, enable the PPA with the following command.

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

Update with the update command.

sudo apt update

And install the latest Pinta from the development PPA using the apt install command.

sudo apt install pinta

Debian installation instructions

On Debian, getting Pinta working isn’t as easy as on Ubuntu Linux, despite the fact that they share similar package types and architecture. Pinta is available (version 1.6) for Debian 9, but that release is no longer current. So, if you’re running Debian 10 (the latest stable) and want to run Pinta, you will need to build the software manually.

To build Pinta, you must start by installing the following dependencies. These dependencies are necessary for the code to compile correctly. Using the apt-get install command below, get the dependencies working.

Note: if you are using Debian Linux and you do not want to compile Pinta from the source code, feel free to follow the Flatpak or Snap package instructions instead.

sudo apt-get install make automake autoconf mono-devel gtk-sharp2 intltool git

After installing the dependencies, use the git clone command to download the latest Pinta source code from the internet.

git clone https://github.com/PintaProject/Pinta.git

Move into the “Pinta” folder using the CD command.

cd Pinta

Now you must run the autogen.sh script. This script will automatically generate a make file, check if the code is ready to compile, etc.

./autogen.sh

With the autogen.sh script successfully run, it is time to build the program. Using the make command, start the build tool for the source code.

make

Finally, install the Pinta application on your Debian PC using the sudo make install command.

sudo make install

Arch Linux installation instructions

On Arch Linux, the Pinta application is only available in the Arch Linux AUR. To install it, start out by installing the Trizen AUR helper tool. Trizen will make installing Pinta automatic, rather than a complicated, tedious process.

To install Trizen, enter the commands below in succession.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

cd trizen 
makepkg -sri

With the Trizen application installed onto your Linux PC, you’ll be able to install the Pinta application with the Trizen -S command below.

trizen -S pinta

Fedora installation instructions

The Pinta application is available for all Fedora Linux users in the primary software repositories. There’s no third-party software repository to deal with. If you’d like to install the latest release of Pinta on your Fedora PC, open up a terminal window and enter the following dnf install command.

sudo dnf install pinta

OpenSUSE installation instructions

OpenSUSE users have access to a relatively recent version of Pinta available for installation in the Oss software repository. If you’re using OpenSUSE Linux and want to install the Pinta application, open up a terminal window and use the zypper command below.,

sudo zypper install pinta

Flatpak installation instructions

Pinta is available as a Flatpak on Flathub. To get it working, start out by installing the Flatpak runtime on your computer. To do that, install the “flatpak” package. If you need help setting up Flatpak, follow this guide here.

Once the Flatpak runtime is set up on your PC, enter the two commands below to get the app working.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak run com.github.PintaProject.Pinta

Snap package installation instructions

You can get the Pinta application as a Snap. If you love Snap packages, do the following. First, follow our guide to install the Snapd runtime. Setting up the Snapd runtime is critical, as Snap packages will not work without it.

After you’ve set up the Snapd runtime on your computer, enter the following snap install command below to get Pinta working on your Linux PC.

sudo snap install pinta-james-carroll

Is Pinta not working for you? Try these other image editors available for Linux;

1 Comment

  1. The instructions fail after downloading Pinta and running autogen.sh
    checking for dotnet… no
    configure: error: No dotnet runtime found

    Turns out this ISN’T the guide to get Pinta installed on Debian. :/

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